Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There (Amarillo, Texas)

Welcome to my Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There Blog.
Today I’m hitting the endless highways of America, and travelling along the nostalgic Route 66 to Amarillo, Texas.

Highlights:
Columbine Harvester Ranch. A knock-off of the Cadillac Ranch that Amarillo is famous for, which wasn’t quite as impressive as we’d hoped, but still fun.

VW Ranch. Ancient VW Beetles planted upside down in the dirt east of Amarillo by a smallish town called Conway.

Amarillo Route 66. Unfortunately not much remains of Route 66, but we still enjoyed cruising around the old part of the township of Amarillo.

Big Texan Steak Ranch. We were transported to this world famous steakhouse in (kitschy) style in a white limousine with longhorn cow’s horns mounted on the front by a lovely, elderly Texan gentleman, who was very entertaining to talk to. Seated in the main dining hall at the Big Texan, we were right in front of the stage where people brave enough to tackle the infamous 'Eat our 72 ounce steak and all the trimmings in 1 hour and it’s free’ challenge have to sit. When we arrived there were two men going for it on stage, both with about 40 minutes remaining in the challenge. The group of people we were seated next to were friends with one of the guys on stage, a young man called Eric who was down all the way from Wisconsin to give it a go. To give you an idea how big this steak is, have a look at the picture of me with the 8 ounce steak I ordered – I could barely finish it – and the 72 ounce steak is NINE times bigger. Crazy stuff. Both men were unable to finish their steak in that time (and the other one looked distinctly unwell afterwards) and the penalty for not finishing is that you have to pay for your meal – US$72!! 

Cadillac Ranch. Now by highlight, I mean I was really looking forward to visiting this spot after seeing it on Billy Connelly’s Route 66 tour, and on other various documentaries and tourist brochures. Below is a photo of one of the postcards we picked up before our visit. But what a disappointment. We’d expected the graffiti all over the cars (it’s part of its fame, and you are allowed, even encouraged to leave your mark) but not the broken glass, garbage and empty spray cans spread in a huge area around them. It’s a shame people treat such a quirky and cool spot with such disregard. What was even more annoying is that there is a huge dumpster right outside the gates to the 'attraction’.

The people. Best bit about Amarillo was the friendly Texans we encountered, and they more than made up for the niggling disappointments.

Driving along Route 66 is still one of my favorite memories of the U.S.A and one day, I hope my husband and I will do again – this time in a classic car (he’s hoping for a Corvette, I prefer a big-ass Caddy with horns!).

Tracey