First thing Saturday morning we got an early start to the RV park in Amarillo, TX. As we exited I-40 for the RV park Dan noticed a large fiberglass figure dressed up as a cowboy “dude”. He immediately recognized the figure as a Muffler Man! Muffler men are more plentiful than uniroyal gals, but still rare. We had stumbled across a uniroyal gal and a muffler man in less than two days, maybe one day we will see the rarest of them all - Texaco Man? For more muffler man info:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/muffler/
After setting up camp we headed to the Texas state Tourist Center on I-40. Most states have tourist centers on key Interstates as you cross the state border, where they provide free info. But in our opinion Texas has the best tourist centers we have seen in our RV travels. They have even started placing them on the interior of the state at popular tourist destinations. Right next door was the Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant. If you have ever traveled across TX in the last 40 years, you may have seen billboards offering a free 72 ounce steak dinner if you can eat it in one hour. Well the Big Texan is the place that started this challenge. Not only to they advertise across the state via billboards, but they place brochures in every hotel, motel and RV park near Amarillo that point out that they have free limos to bring you to and back from the restaurant. The limos are older 90s Cadillacs with big longhorn horns on the front.
http://www.bigtexan.com/
Next we visited the remaining original section of Route 66 in Amarillo. There we discovered the Golden Light Café (more a tavern than cafe). The Golden Light is supposedly the oldest eatery in Amarillo & maybe longest continual food place on the original Route 66. Their menu consists mainly of burgers, hand cut fries, and Dan’s choice the Flagstaff Pie (aka frito pie).
http://www.goldenlightcafe.com/
As we returned to the RV park we stopped by one of the nationally known road side attractions of America - Cadillac Ranch. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, and it consists of junk Cadillacs, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The “ranch” site belongs to local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, the patron of the project. Mr Marsh allows you to walk on to his property and even spray paint graffiti on the cars.
Inspired by Cadillac Ranch, Dan took off the next morning to check out Slug Bug Ranch & and Tractor Ranch (aka Combine City). That’s right, other inspired by Cadillac Ranch have created their own versions. The VW version was in pretty poor condition, and the owner of the tractor version would not allow you on his property. Dan then met up with Corrie for Lunch at KN Root Beer. Tourist info on KN notes that the establishment has limited hours. Turns out they are only open eight hours a day and closed on Sunday. Oh well, maybe next time?
Then it was off to the Amarillo Museum of Art. After trying four different doors we finally figured out how to gain entrance to the museum. We were only ones there and by checking visitor log, our guess is that we were likely to be the only people to visit. Which is too bad because it has a nice collection of Native American art, “cowboy” art, and had exhibitions of depression era photos, Asian art and works by Grace Hartigan and George Rouault’s Miserere et Guerre.
http://www.amarilloart.org/
As we explored the neighborhood around the museum we noted many weird street signs. These signs were the traditional diamond shaped road warning signs sometimes painted normal yellow, but often different colors. These signs may have strange figures on them, but more often strange sayings like: "Strong drink" "What is a village without village idiots?". There are dinosaur and ostrich "x-ings"; and signs that read "Road Does Not End". There was a sketch of Mona Lisa with the words: "Men have loved her". Turns out that Stanley Marsh 3, the man responsible for Cadillac Ranch, has sponsored about 200 of these signs in the San Jacinto area of Amarillo.
Our last tourist stop was at the Helium Time Capsule created in 1968. This is a giant four “legged” structure, with each leg filled with helium gas. Each leg is to be opened in order at 25 yrs, 50 yrs, 100 yrs, and 1000.
That evening we decided to try the beef at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Dan figured the limos were free but the driver would still expect a tip, and we might be trapped waiting for a ride back. So we drove our Toad, rather than taking the free limo. Bottom line – the meal was ok, but for the price there are probably a hundred steak houses in Amarillo as good for less. As we were waiting for our table Dan noticed a celebrity walk by. He immediately told Corrie that she had just missed one of her least favorite TV personalities - Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel’s show “No Reservations”. Turns out Anthony was filming for a new show dealing with road food in American. Dan had to hold Corrie back from telling Anthony what she thought of him. We’ll have to watch for the episode in four to six months.
http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/muffler/
After setting up camp we headed to the Texas state Tourist Center on I-40. Most states have tourist centers on key Interstates as you cross the state border, where they provide free info. But in our opinion Texas has the best tourist centers we have seen in our RV travels. They have even started placing them on the interior of the state at popular tourist destinations. Right next door was the Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant. If you have ever traveled across TX in the last 40 years, you may have seen billboards offering a free 72 ounce steak dinner if you can eat it in one hour. Well the Big Texan is the place that started this challenge. Not only to they advertise across the state via billboards, but they place brochures in every hotel, motel and RV park near Amarillo that point out that they have free limos to bring you to and back from the restaurant. The limos are older 90s Cadillacs with big longhorn horns on the front.
http://www.bigtexan.com/
Next we visited the remaining original section of Route 66 in Amarillo. There we discovered the Golden Light Café (more a tavern than cafe). The Golden Light is supposedly the oldest eatery in Amarillo & maybe longest continual food place on the original Route 66. Their menu consists mainly of burgers, hand cut fries, and Dan’s choice the Flagstaff Pie (aka frito pie).
http://www.goldenlightcafe.com/
As we returned to the RV park we stopped by one of the nationally known road side attractions of America - Cadillac Ranch. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, and it consists of junk Cadillacs, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The “ranch” site belongs to local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, the patron of the project. Mr Marsh allows you to walk on to his property and even spray paint graffiti on the cars.
Inspired by Cadillac Ranch, Dan took off the next morning to check out Slug Bug Ranch & and Tractor Ranch (aka Combine City). That’s right, other inspired by Cadillac Ranch have created their own versions. The VW version was in pretty poor condition, and the owner of the tractor version would not allow you on his property. Dan then met up with Corrie for Lunch at KN Root Beer. Tourist info on KN notes that the establishment has limited hours. Turns out they are only open eight hours a day and closed on Sunday. Oh well, maybe next time?
Then it was off to the Amarillo Museum of Art. After trying four different doors we finally figured out how to gain entrance to the museum. We were only ones there and by checking visitor log, our guess is that we were likely to be the only people to visit. Which is too bad because it has a nice collection of Native American art, “cowboy” art, and had exhibitions of depression era photos, Asian art and works by Grace Hartigan and George Rouault’s Miserere et Guerre.
http://www.amarilloart.org/
As we explored the neighborhood around the museum we noted many weird street signs. These signs were the traditional diamond shaped road warning signs sometimes painted normal yellow, but often different colors. These signs may have strange figures on them, but more often strange sayings like: "Strong drink" "What is a village without village idiots?". There are dinosaur and ostrich "x-ings"; and signs that read "Road Does Not End". There was a sketch of Mona Lisa with the words: "Men have loved her". Turns out that Stanley Marsh 3, the man responsible for Cadillac Ranch, has sponsored about 200 of these signs in the San Jacinto area of Amarillo.
Our last tourist stop was at the Helium Time Capsule created in 1968. This is a giant four “legged” structure, with each leg filled with helium gas. Each leg is to be opened in order at 25 yrs, 50 yrs, 100 yrs, and 1000.
That evening we decided to try the beef at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Dan figured the limos were free but the driver would still expect a tip, and we might be trapped waiting for a ride back. So we drove our Toad, rather than taking the free limo. Bottom line – the meal was ok, but for the price there are probably a hundred steak houses in Amarillo as good for less. As we were waiting for our table Dan noticed a celebrity walk by. He immediately told Corrie that she had just missed one of her least favorite TV personalities - Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel’s show “No Reservations”. Turns out Anthony was filming for a new show dealing with road food in American. Dan had to hold Corrie back from telling Anthony what she thought of him. We’ll have to watch for the episode in four to six months.
http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain
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