drivetofive

Odometer (Mazda 6): 200,000

Odometer (ILX):  216,857

Trip Distance:  810 Miles

This is the world’s oldest Dairy Queen, located in Holbrook, Arizona.

We don’t actually know that.  In fact, it’s probably a flat-out lie.

But, my friend and fellow road-tripper Kevin and I have always called it that.  Which explains why, when I sent him that picture (without any caption needed) on Friday afternoon, his text reply said, “Ha!” and then my phone rang a few seconds later.  Our conversation went something like this.

• Kevin:  “Where are you going now?”
• Tyson:  “Farmington, New Mexico.”
• Kevin:  “WHY?”
• Tyson:  “Just exploring some new turf, I’ve never been anywhere in NM north of Gallup.”
• Kevin:  “But WHY?”
• Tyson:  “I’m meeting up with my friend Jason from Las Cruces.”
• Kevin:  “But Farmington?  WHY!?”
• Tyson:  “Jason’s Mazda is going to roll 200,000 miles there.  We’re going because it was purchased there new.”
• Kevin:  “Okay, now there’s a modicum of rationale.  But Farmington is the land that time forgot.”

And indeed, it was.  Farmington is a in a bit of a bubble.  After all, they have an honest-to-goodness, living, breathing K-Mart.  When was the last time you saw a K-Mart?

Luckily, we weren’t there for the night life or the attractions.  We had more important things to attend to.  More specifically, we were there to celebrate my friend Jason’s 200,000th milestone in his Pebble Ash Metallic 2004 Mazda 6.  And to add icing to the cake, the date he’d preselected for the milestone was specifically the 15-year anniversary of its original purchase date in 2004.

My trip to Farmington took me through the forested woodland of northeastern Arizona – a welcome reprieve from the Phoenix summer heat.  I opted not to eat at the DQ in Holbrook, but I did grab a quick beverage at “Gas Max” just north of Gallup after diverging from Interstate 40 to head north through the Navajo reservation.  By the time I rolled into Farmington, it was around 10:00 p.m. local.

Saturday was packed.  After a breakfast burrito including green chile (a NM tradition) at Comfort Suites, we scoped out Hi-Country Kia Mitsubishi (formerly known as Performance Mazda) and burned off about 14 miles so Jason could roll 200,000 at exactly the predetermined location.  We even staged a photo with the car in the same parking spot where it sat when it was originally sold in 2004.  The staff at the dealership were excited to have us on site and celebrating.

Interview time!

Our trip wasn’t complete without a bit of road-tripping adventure, so Jason introduced us to the “Bisti / De-Na-Zin” Wilderness as we made our respective journeys southbound.  The Wilderness is about 45,000 acres of badlands that are remote in nature, free to access, and unforgiving in lack of services or amenities.  We made sure to take bottled waters before trekking into the ash & sandstone formations too far.  We came across the wreckage of a 1950s car.  Maybe one of my readers will be able to identify it.

(More detail in the video below)

I enjoyed the trip home since it took me through Payson, Arizona, which had freshly been rained upon.  Temperatures crept from 68 degrees to 112 degrees as I crawled my way back to home.

Congrats, Jason!

No flood risk on the day we went!

Couple more shots fro the Bisti Wilderness.

This entry was posted on August 4, 2019 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Arizona, Milestones, New Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.