Li Du knew about Mount Humphreys; this was a famous tourist spot in Flagstaff.
The mountain would be in full bloom of flowers in spring and a perfect place for hiking in summer. In autumn, there would be pine trees in luscious greens and golds. In winter, it would be covered in thick snow. All year round, there would be tourists flocking to visit.
Clyne was a little off in his description. Humphreys did not have such a long history. The name of the town came from the mountain itself. To exaggerate the stories for the tourists, Humphreys had forcefully tried to write their own history.
Hans was more knowledgeable about the town. Once Clyne shut up, he went a step further.
"Don't count on finding something very valuable in the storage units here. Our aim is the flora and fauna trophies, hunting guns, furniture crafted from quality wood, and musical instruments."
"Humphreys was a famous hunting site. Every year, in all seasons except winter, there would be people hunting here. Many decent animal trophies were made here. As for instruments—because the town had many lovers of music, every weekend there would be live concerts."
Li Du asked, "Such a small town near the mountains, how could it attract so many music lovers?"
To be able to support a live concert every weekend, there must be many music lovers here.
Hans said, "Humphreys is good at promoting themselves. They claim to be the birthplace of Arizona country music. This has fooled a whole lot of country music fans all over the states."
"Why didn't they claim to be the birthplace of America's country music?" Li Du asked.
Han shrugged. "Americans are stupid to some extent, but they are not complete fools. Who would believe that nonsense?"
The car sped on Highway 66 toward the mountains. The peaks looked clearer, meaning that they were close to their destination.
The storage company in Humphreys was called Folk Songs Co. Ltd. This was a new company. A lot of older storage companies had already shut down. Hans said this was due to the recent bad economy in America.
Li Du could not sense what was bad about the economy. From statistics, every year, there was an average of 1,400 storage units up for auction throughout America. This meant that there were many old goods that people had forsaken. If the economy were that bad, Americans would not have been so wasteful.
It was a Thursday when they reached the town. The auction would begin tomorrow. They would only have to wait another day to see the weekend concert of the town.
They randomly picked a restaurant for a meal and then went to Folk Songs Co. in the late afternoon.
There were not many storage units up for sale: only five. According to Li Du's experience, there would be even less available once the auction started. It would be good if there were even four left.
He let the bug out into the first unit that would be up for auction. It was medium sized. The items were haphazardly placed, with some inflatable toys near the entrance. They were those common animal-shaped inflatable toys for children.
Seeing these toys, Li Du shook his head. These things were not worth much. A new one could be easily bought with a dollar or two. Second-hand ones such as these could only be treated as trash.
The worm entered the box and found tools such as a sculpting knife and chisels. There was also a complete set of tools in a box, with all kinds of tools like a circular knife, a stone hammer and stone chisel. After some searching on the web, he found that these were all tools for sculpting.
These series of tools made Li Du curious. This was clearly a storage unit for a sculptor or someone who sculpted as a hobby. There was no sculpture, but instead a whole lot of inflatable toys?
He had an idea. He sent the bug into one of the triceratops toys. The vision of the little bug remained dark. The empty space that was supposed to be in inflatable toys was missing.
Li Du understood after seeing this. These were not the kind of inflatable toys that he thought they were. These were sculptures; the sculptor had some bad taste and made them so that they looked like inflatable toys.
Second-hand inflatable toys were worthless, but these stone sculptures that looked like toys would be valuable, especially more because these sculptures were clearly new and not second-hand.
He controlled the bug to search more thoroughly of the storage unit and found a total of 55 of the sculptures.
All the stone sculptures were colorful, and they were made in all shapes and sizes. There were all kinds of dinosaurs, birds, and animals. The skills used to make them were incredible. From their appearance, they looked nothing like sculptures; instead, they were identical to inflatable toys.
The second, third, and fourth storage unit were all common family storage units, with nothing valuable to bid for.
The fifth was also a family-sized unit, with an old TV, an old refrigerator, and other similar appliances. Li Du was about to leave in disappointment until he saw some children toys in a box.
The owner of this storage unit was probably wealthy to some extent. The toys kept in the box were mostly new and unopened. One of the boxes was full of Barbie Dolls. From the looks of it, there were about twenty of them, with most of them unopened and kept in their original packaging.
He remembered the kids back at Mother Mesa's welfare home. He had promised the children that he would bring them back some Barbie Dolls back. He was thinking of buying some, but with the dolls in those boxes, he might as well bid for the unit and bring them back as a gift.
With the fifth storage unit thoroughly searched, Li Du had finished his task. Now they just had to wait and attend the auction tomorrow.
Hans led the way. They drove to a hostel that was by the road that was called Grant Family Hostel. There were kitchens, washing machines, microwaves and all sorts of household appliances. The place had a strong family atmosphere.
The group chose three bedrooms and a living room. The price was 220 dollars. Li Du said, "This place is quite expensive."
"Of course, this isn't Phoenix. There aren't any good hotels here. If we were to stay at some normal hotel, there would be issues with our meals."
Li Du raised his brows. "Sh*t, what do you mean?"
Hans pointed to the kitchen and said, "My point is, you can showcase your cooking skills all you want here. Wouldn't that be great?"
"Great your *ss. Making me cook? Dream on," Li Du laughed, and then carried Ah Meow into the first room.
It turned out that this room was a secondary bedroom. There was not much space. He then looked for the master bedroom and gave Clyne the secondary bedroom.
Hans said unhappily, "Hey, why am I in the smallest room? D*mn it—I'm the one who found and paid for this hostel."
"Because I am responsible for the next three meals, so I would like to have a more comfortable stay. Clyne is our driver; he had a rough time on the road, so he should have a good sleep."
Hearing this, Hans said helplessly, "Sh*t!"
Grant Family Hostel allowed their guests to make their own meals. Its location was good as well. Nearby was a Carrefour supermarket, and across the street was a Greyhound bus stop that provided free tours around the town.
Whether it was grocery shopping or going out, it was very convenient.
"在这里的仓库不要指望找到很值钱的东西,我们的目标要放在动植物标本,猎枪,优质木材家具还有一些音乐器具."
"汉弗莱斯山是一座很有名气的狩猎场,每年春夏秋三季都有人来捕猎,这里出产了很多不错的动物标本.至于乐器,这是因为镇子上有很多音乐爱好者,每个周末他们都会搞现场音乐演出."
李杜问道:"这种山区小镇,怎么会吸引那么多音乐爱好者?"
汉斯道:"汉弗莱斯镇很会炒作自己,它将自己称为亚利桑那州乡村音乐的诞生地,欺骗到了一些乡村音乐爱好者聚集在那里."
李杜道:"那它干嘛不将自己炒作成美国乡村音乐的诞生地?"
汉斯耸耸肩道:"美国人有点蠢,但不至于蠢成傻瓜,那种蠢话谁会信它?"
汽车在66号公路上快速奔驰,一路向着高山,等到山峰踪影变得清晰了,他们也就到达目的地了.
三人选了一个三室一厅,价格是二百二十块,李杜道:"这价格不算低啊."
汉斯说道:"当然,不过这可不是菲尼克斯,没有什么好饭店,所以如果住普通旅馆,我们吃饭问题不好解决."
李杜皱眉道:"雪特,你什么意思?"
汉斯指着厨房道:"我的意思是,你在这里可以尽情施展你的厨艺,是不是很开心?"
"开心你妹,让我做饭?做梦去吧."李杜哈哈一笑,抱起阿喵进了第一个房间.
汉斯不满的叫道:"嘿,凭什么我住最小的房间?该死的,这旅社可是我找到的,钱也是我付的."
李杜说道:"因为我要负责后面的三餐,所以我需要住的舒服一些,克雷恩是司机,他路上很累了,也需要住的舒服一些."
听他这么说,汉斯无奈道:"雪特,我竟然无言以对!"