Sidetrip to the Cadillac Ranch and the Big Texan

Tuesday morning, we left the Traveling Longdogs and Angus the Therapy Dog safely behind in the RV with the A/C as we headed west then north to Amarillo.

 

 

Our first goal was a visit to the famous Cadillac Ranch. As we parked along the side of the highway access road, I think the grandkids were a bit less than enthused.

 

This is a unique roadside attraction which features 10 classice Cadillacs dating from 1948 to 1963, the Golden Age of the American automobile. They are standing upright in a row, buried nose-first in the ground. The unusual sculpture is the brainchild of Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh III.

 

Once they got close enough to see what was actually going on here, they got a lot more interested,

And once they knew it was okay to participate in the "art", they were very enthused.

They found a couple of cans of spray paint that weren't completely empty.

Someone that was leaving gave them another can of paint and then, even their Dad got involved.

Cameron put his initials which just happen to be the same as mine.

I heard that a crew comes in periodically and picks up all the empty cans. Morgan managed to leave with paint speckles on her face but every one had a good time.

Of course, DS and the grandkids were hungry by then so we headed across town to our next destination and saw the "Big Texan".  This is the famous restaurant that serves the 72 ounce steak free if you can eat it all. You have probably seen billboards advertising it.

Of course, there is a catch to that.

There is a stage front and center where the competition sits to challenge the steak. No one was partaking while we were there. This is one of the actual steaks.....looks more like a family roast. You also have to eat all the other dishes in the picture along with the steak. The kids were very impressed when they read that a tiny 110 pound grandmother actually ate two of the meals in a very short time frame.

We had a ribeye lunch special that was good and more reasonable in price than I expected. Morgan had a kids burger and Cameron had a kid's steak. They each got a cowboy hat with their meal so that was a good price too. The service was good, the food was good, and it was an interesting place to spend some time. We looked around the gift store for a bit and then checked out the front of the Big Texan Motel next store. There is also a Big Texan RV Park down the road. The restaurant will pick you up in a limo and ferry you over to eat.

Next, we were off to our final Amarillo adventure.