00:06.27
archpodnet
Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode Ninety eight tonight we will visit the thing and specifically I your host Andrew Cankella will talk about visiting. The thing. So None things none? What is the thing. The thing is a place in Arizona. It's a specific spot in the middle of nowhere. Right? off the highway right? off the 10 freeway in I believe eastern arizona now I visited this way back in 9098 and I do have to say that it was one of the weirdest oddest moments of my life. Now. How did I find myself in the middle of nowhere off the ten freeway at night. Ah basically I was on my way to Belize I mean aren't you isn't everyone in the middle of nowhere on the ten at night going to Belize this was in may I believe of None it must have been because I had just finished my first year of grad school for my master's thesis and as part of that I needed to go start my field research. So I had to get to Belize now for those of us who work in Belize. The deal is always the same your racing to make it before the rainy season gets there. Now the rainy Susan shows up around a end of June early July and it just makes things much more difficult so you want to get there as soon as possible. What that means is if you're going to school as soon as you take your finals. You basically leave the next day so my finals were over in like mid-may and I literally left I think the night ah after my last final I think it was it was right right away and the deal was I'd be driving from Southern California I lived in l a at the time. And I would drive across the desert southwest and meet up with Lisa Lucero who I was working with she at the time lived in Las Cruces New Mexico so the none leg of my journey from l a to Las Cruces New Mexico I would be doing by myself then I'd meet up with Lisa.

02:50.27
archpodnet
And we would take her car the rest the way from Las Cruce's police you know together. So this this initial drive though it was like it was like a 13 hour drive and I did it in my. Trusty old 1974 Toyota land cruiser fj 55 for you land cruiser nerds out there. This is a very old ah sort of cliche looking land cruiser. It was a Ford door. It was super Rusty I I bought it really cheap. And ah in terms of driving on the freeway. It was terrible. It had no seatbelts I remember and although it had None cylinders of power ah anything over about sixty miles an hour was a serious shaky scary fest and also older cars like that are not the greatest for desert heat which I'd learned the year before I'd done this drive the ah the late spring prior. So in my genius for this drive. I'm like okay you know what I overheated last time so I'm going to leave at night and so you think this is like a twelve thirteen hour drive right? So I believe I left it like None in the morning or something like that or 4 in the morning something I remember it like darkness I remember driving through a lot of darkness. And in my genius I'm like well you know it's a 13 hour drive it's a bit long I'll sleep in the car in the desert in late may yeah you see where this is going so I drove like all night I got very little sleep. You know by around. 10 in the morning I'm dying I'm in the mill and nowhere in the desert and I'm like oh my god I can't drive it to where to go to sleep I'm going to pull over I try and sleep in my car I just totally can't because you know it's hot in the desert. Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's it's so good that I'm here to tell you this. I try and but I try and do this for like 20 minutes like this is so stupid. What am I doing so I remember I pulled over to like a motel 6 and I made some deal with them where I was like you know what? I just need room for like like 5 hours you know it's an odd time right? You're checking you're checking in at like None you're like leaving it like 3 but I did it you know and they had Ac ah was glorious, right? So I do my like 4 hours of 5 hours sleep and then I I leave so I leave it like 4 in the afternoon or whatever so like skip the desert heat.

05:36.60
archpodnet
Ah, drive for a few more hours sun goes down. Ah, it's dark right? It's None or nine at night I remember it being pretty late. It might even have been 10 was weird I remember it being late. So. I'm driving and I see these signs I've been seeing these signs these road signs that say what is the thing the thing the mystery of the desert that kind of stuff right? You see these billboards. And every you know thirty miles forty miles you'll see one of these wood is the thing always in the same font with like this yellow background and sort of creepy creature of the black lagoon font right? What is this thing. And I'm just I'm just looking at this and they'll say like what is the thing one hundred and eighty six miles what is the thing ninety two miles and so I'm like did I got to check out the thing so I'm driving driving driving driving middle of nowhere man my to to land cruisers like. Grinding like it did you're going sixty two miles an hour in the things like Bri. So I see the off ramp and I pull off and you guys there is. Nobody there. It's one of those off ramps where all there is is like an off ramp and then an on ramp right? And that's it you just kind of you're off and then there's a little thing there and you're on and all that's there is a truck stop but there's like no trucks there. There's just me and my toy to land cruiser right? There's a gas station there. No attendant, no nothing just there right? But on the other side of the gas station. There's like this huge shed. Kind of thing like large I don't know I don't I don't want to call it a barn but it's just like a like a like a huge open singular strip mall building. It's odd, right? Just this single standalone like. Large shed thing and there's actually None or 3 sheds they're like stuck together but they're big right? There's lights inside. There's this There's the sign that says the thing but the lights are really dim and there is nobody around so I'm sitting in my I'm sitting my car I'm like.

08:18.42
archpodnet
What is this? but I'm like you know what? I've come this far I don't need gas. Thank god but I need to check out this thing I'm doing this I need to get some spine here man I'm going to go in so I walk up. To the door which is open a walk in the door. Nobody there right? There's a cash register one of those old school cash registers those like click shh you know those totally analog cash registers with the like numbers circle. But next to it I think there was a basket and it said like a entrance to the thing $1 and you had to like put your dollar in the basket and so I'm like that's cool. So I take out a dollar I put it in. And then I think I also bought um like two bumper stickers say the thing I still have the bumper sticker of the thing on my office door today right? It says the thing in Texas canyon Arizona on the I 10 right. So and I think those are ¢50 a piece or something. So I think I put $2 in right? No people but the lights are on the but they're dim and I walk in so I start to cruise in and I'm like what is this place. What's there in this big open. So the world's biggest storage shed super dusty just chock full of junk right? Really crammed with just like curios and. Oddities and weirdness. But I haven't even cruised through yet I can just sort of see it. It's like the world's saddest rendition of the huge storage room at the very end of Indiana Jones you know how when they store the arc. In that in that room. There's that huge storage room with all these like nice like these wooden boxes. It was the equivalent of that but in a really sad you hall way and there was a there was a pathway through all the like stacked up junk. Right? And the pathway was shown by huge yellow painted feet like monster feet. You know showing you which way to go so the deal was follow the feet.

11:05.70
archpodnet
And it'll lead you through this room of curiosities and weirdness on your way to ultimately seeing the thing and as I put my foot down on the None Huge monster footprint. And began my journey I'll talk about what I found after this break.