Albuquerque, NM --> Amarillo, TX

Sabbatical Day 5 | June 1, 2011
Albuquerque, NM --> Amarillo, TX

The day that I have been waiting WEEKS for!!

So, I won't lie - last night was a little rough. We got into Albuquerque pretty late and found the KOA - after checking in, we went to our 'kabin' and my face fell - then we went inside and it fell further. Totally not what I was expecting - at all. It felt tiny - and cramped - and, life sucking. But then add in that I was tired, not feeling well and was hot - I melted. Matt was super amazingly patient and after my super meltdown, he got me to agree to try KOA one more night and then if I super hated it still, we could try to find some hotels.

We had a lighter driving day today so we were able to sleep in a little bit. After showering and packing up the car, we left in search of breakfast and found Clines Corners (http://www.clinescorners.com/) which is a truck stop-ish place just off I-40. It was originally built in 1934, at the intersection of then U.S. Highway 6 & 2 in the middle of New Mexico. However, he then had to build it again in 1937 when the highway moved slightly north and was renamed Route 66 & U.S. 285.  And it's been in the same spot ever since! It's been through a few different owners since then but they just add on to it to make it more modern. It was pretty cool!  We had breakfast and then wandered around to see all the fun nick knacks and such. I even got in a great call to my dad.

After food we then headed to see the Route 66 monument and Tucumcari. It was kind of sad to see how the change to I-40 impacted the towns that sprung up around Route 66 - there were a lot of closed down businesses and it it seemed kind of forgotten. Then we went to see the Midpoint Cafe. It's the direct center of Route 66 between Chicago and LA - and apparently the owner makes her own hours (picture coming). We were super disappointed because apparently she makes something called an 'ugly crust pie' and I totally wanted to check it out.  From there, we drove 14 miles down Route 66 (Yay! I actually got to DRIVE Route 66!) to Adrian, TX to Dot's Mini Museum to see the Cowboy Boot Tree. Ya know how a lot of times you will see people's shoes slung over a telephone line or whatever? In this case, people add their cowboy boots to this tree. It was cool!

Then we headed to Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo where they encourage you to bring your own spray paint. What I found funny is that there is a sign at the edge of the property that says that the property in front of the sign is city property and spray painting anything in front of the sign is illegal... but then you can see the Cadillacs in the background with people crawling all over them, spray painting them. LOL! They were super cool to see and tomorrow we should be seeing the Volkswagon Bug version. We took some pictures and had fun with taking Domo pictures with the different cars and then we left to check into our KOA.

I feared checking in - I won't lie. However, I was distracted by the landscaping out front and was taking pictures to share with you all while Matt did the actual checking in. Then, one of the groundskeepers told me that they were going to be doing a hay ride at 8pm - I was sold!!  We went to our cabin and then I was definitely sold! We have a porch AND a porch swing out front and the inside is a TON different than the one in Albuquerque!! It's bright and, though probably the exact same size, it seems so airy and open - and the people that work here are super fantastically nice!!  Aaaand there are bunny rabbits all over the place (wild) and jack rabbits that hang out out back. Aaaaand they just put in new bathrooms that are infinitely better than the ones last night!   So OF COURSE we went on the hay ride - and it was amazing. The tractor driver was way super nice and HE even asked ME to take his picture with Domo when we were done!!  Then we went to dinner at the Big Texan (http://www.bigtexan.com/) - which I have been waiting for FOR WEEKS!!

They came and picked us up IN A LIMO for FREE - and it totally had horns on the front by the way - and took us to the restaurant. After we ordered, I went to take pictures of the steak to share with you guys and saw that they were cooking one of the 72 ounce steaks - it was freaking HUGE! Come to find out, someone was going to take the challenge!! Basically, you pay $72 for this steak. If you eat it all (AND the two sides, AND a roll) in under an hour, they refund you for the dinner. SCORE! So I got a picture of his dinner and went back to the table. While he was working on that, ANOTHER guy decided to take the challenge!!  Totally crazy! For those that are wondering, I only had a 12oz ribeye ;0)  When the first guy had about 20 min left, I went to see how the two guys were doing - the first guy had about 12oz of steak left, the second guy had maybe 1.5 to 2 pounds left. Regrettably, when the first guy got to about 5 min remaining he .... lost some of his dinner.... and so he was disqualified. He was really disappointed.

However, that seemed to have also disenchanted the second guy and he walked away before his clock ran out too. So, no winners of free steak but my dinner was way super tasty so it was all good!!  Then, we got a ride back to the KOA in another limo (YAY!) and now it is sleeps time!

So, I am pretty sure that I love Texas and the people are way super awesome - and I will keep giving KOA a chance. For now. lol