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Writer's pictureJaela Deming

October 30 – November 2, 2023: Our First Few Experiences in the Lone Star State

Updated: Jun 25

DID YOU KNOW? At The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, TX anyone can compete in a 72oz steak eating challenge for free…if you win! If you can’t make it through the massive steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potatoe, salad, and buttered roll in an hour or less, or you get sick in the process, you lose! (And will be paying a spendy $72 for that meal.) 91,943 attempts have been made, but only 10,212 (a mere 11%) have succeeded. The record time was set by professional eater Molly Schuyler in 4 minutes and 18 seconds back in 2014.



Needless to say, none of our crew felt up to attempting this feat, but we did visit the Big Texan on our first day in Texas (October 30). It was a pretty wild place, full of western displays (such as animal heads, texas longhorns, wagon wheels, antlers, etc...) yet smothered in Christmas decorations. Apparently fall/Thanksgiving isn't a thing at this ranch. Immediately upon entrance is a candy/fudge shop, gift store, bar, and a shooting gallery. Also on display in the entrance is the challenge meal.



Anybody want a steak?


Challenge table with the countdown timer (and yes, those are barf buckets)

Surprisingly, we had a lot of issues with getting our steaks cooked correctly. Randall and Maleah's shared meal was the only one that came out right the first time. Dominic and I ordered our steak medium well, and it came medium. Mom and Dad ordered medium and it came medium well. The little boys steaks were supposed to be medium well, and they were well done (came back rare dripping blood the second time). Not sure what was going on that such a well-known steak ranch couldn't cook good steaks, but it was really disappointing. The whole experience also took 3 hours, between meals needing redone and a waitress who would disappear for 15-20 minutes at a time. The only good part was that the manager gave us free dessert and a small discount, but still...The experience gave us ample opportunity to practice a few Fruit of the Spirit. We weren't always successful. :(


The live music was cool :)

Another popular place in Amarillo, TX is Cadillac Ranch...and our time here (October 31) proved much more enjoyable than the previous night's meal experience. Founded in 1974 along what was once Route 66, Cadillac Ranch was moved two miles west of Interstate 40 in 1997 when the land it was on became increasingly valuable due to Amarillo expansion. It features 10 Cadillacs buried nose first in the ground


Cadillac Ranch at its start in 1976

Cadillac Ranch as of last week

The Ranch was built to be an interactive art experience and the cars are now buried under hundreds of spray paint layers. Originally, it was mainly just passing grafitti artists who would leave their mark, but over the years it's become a popular tourist attraction. Any design left on the cars is likely to be covered over within a day or two, (or even within minutes, on super busy days). Not surprisingly, the road, fencing, garbage cans, and road barriers in the near vicinity to Cadillac Ranch are also works of art created by tourists with left over paint. We arrived at the ranch, bundled in coats and gloves, and armed with six different colored cans of spray-paint, ready to leave our mark!


Have to admit, graffitiing is really fun :)



After using up all but a little bit of the paint, we figured we'd leave our signature on the garbage cans.


After finishing at Cadillac Ranch, we left Amarillo and headed for Lubbock, where we would spend November 1 exploring a museum on the history of ranching. It was really interesting to see where ranching began and where it is now, (and it was free, which is always nice, LOL). Our main excitement in Lubbock came from a Texas Tech University football game, when the Red Raiders faced off with Texas Christian University's Horned Frogs. A common saying is that "Everything's bigger in Texas" and this football game was no exception. There were baton twirlers, flag dancers, two school bands, a performing arts band, fireworks, a drone show,a jet flyover, pom squads, and at least thirty cheerleaders. I've never been to a football game and this was quite the introduction, but I'll be honest, the actual football action was my least favorite part of the game, LOL. Another good thing was that we got tickets incredibly cheap - $4 each. Now that's a deal!




Drone-created Red Raider mascot with his guns at the ready

I can't tell you much about the football game, since I know nothing about football, but I do know that at the beginning of the game Texas Tech had a win/loss record of 4-4 and TCU was at 5-4... so neither team has been having a great season.


Only at a Texas football game...

  • does the Mascot kickoff the game by driving onto the field at a high speed on a motorcycle (typically he gallops out on his horse, which makes sense since he's a Texan cowboy, but the horse was sick unfortunately) and fire off two rifles (one in each hand) into the sky.

  • do hundreds of fans bring bags of tortillas, rip the center out of the middle to turn them into flying discs, and fling them onto the field at the beginning of the game and at various points throughout the game...despite the act having been 'banned' by officials. As with everywhere else, Texan tradition dies hard.

One random fact we've learned the hard way about Texas is that so far, all the areas we've been in have an overabundance of grass burrs...torturing bare feet and puppy paws alike. We haven't been able to let the pups run around the past week (nor do they want to even when we take them out) because we end up pulling spikes out of their paws every few minutes. Once we make it to a bigger town with a pet store, we're going to have to look at getting our poor city-raised dogs little booties to help protect their paws from the Texan wilderness.


Anyway, thus ends the saga of our first few days in the great Lone Star State. Tomorrow, we head for Carlsbad, New Mexico. The antibiotics are working for Mom so it's time to move on. Then we'll be back to spend a month or two in Texas. We will for sure be exploring Texas until after Thanksgiving, possibly longer.


Until next time, God bless!


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