Texas, Amarillo: Big Dead Texan Cadillacs

Amarillo, Texas, was where Kyle's friends Jeb, Caroline and Jason lived; it was also the second city we visited on our road trip across the southwest United States from the state of Arkansas, where we had based ourselves for the previous seven weeks, whilst we visited some places in the eastern half of the country. The first destination on our road trip was the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, area, where we had fun with several of Kyle's friends from his time studying at the University of Oklahoma (OU).

In the previous journal entry, we introduced the friends of Kyle who lived in Norman and Oklahoma City: Jeff, Yumi and Marcy. Jeb and Caroline were another couple of cheerleaders who were on the cheerleading squad with Kyle and also friends with the others we had just visited. Dan hadn't met either Jeb or Caroline before, but he had met Kyle's other friend, Jason, who started working in the same group with Kyle at the company he works for, when they both graduated from university. Dan had gone to Amsterdam with a friend of his for a short holiday and Jason was working there at the time, so the three of them (Dan's friend had previously met Jason through Kyle) met up during the trip.

The Big Texan, a steakhouse and bar that served a 72 ounce steak that would be free of charge if someone ate the entire thing

Thinking back on our short trip to Amarillo, we don't think we spent any money there, for food or drinks, so we wanted to devote this short paragraph to thanking Jeb, Caroline and Jason for the meals and beers whilst we were there. They were much appreciated!

The drive from Oklahoma City to Amarillo was easy and only took about four hours. It was pretty much a straight shot west on Interstate 40, so we set our rental car's cruise control and turned on some music for the journey. In a small town just outside Oklahoma City, we stopped at a Wal-Mart, that we saw off the highway, so we could have them check the tires on our car. The pressure indicator had been on since we had picked up the rental car in Fort Smith, Arkansas, so we thought it would be safer to have them inspected before making our way any further.

It turned out that the tires (aka tyres for the Brits on board with this tale of ours) were low, so the employee at Wal-Mart put some air into them for us; the light went off and we were really on our way then. We arrived in Amarillo before it turned dark and both Jeb and Caroline, who had gotten married since they graduated from OU, were waiting outside with their son, Hank, a 1-1/2 year old and very cute little boy. We took our things inside Jeb and Caroline's house and chatted with them for a while before heading out to their business, a large competitive cheerleading gym. Once we had seen the gym and Jeb had given us free t-shirts (thanks Jeb!), they took us to dinner at Tacos Garcia, a very authentic Mexican restaurant with killer salsa, but even more killer drinks.

The drinks we had were called Micheladas and were Tecate beers served with lime juice in a large schooner with a salted rim; the beers were very strong. After finishing a couple, we definitely felt a bit dizzier in the head than before we started drinking them, but they hit the spot well after a long car journey. It also helped that the drinks complemented the food quite nicely!

Just after the waitress had taken our order, Jason and his wife, Shannon, came into the restaurant with a few of their relatives. We didn't eat with them because the restaurant was busy and it would have taken awhile to get a table large enough to accommodate all of us, so we just talked to Jason after we finished our main course, which was burritos (for Dan) and a beef chimichanga (for Kyle). Hank was getting fussy towards the end of the meal and it was nearly his bedtime, so Caroline left to take him home, while we stayed at the restaurant with Jeb and Jason, to finish our Micheladas.

Jason's wife, who was pregnant with their second child, left with their relatives, so it was just the four of us who continued enjoying that evening. One of the most famous places in Amarillo was The Big Texan, a steakhouse and bar that served a 72 ounce steak that would be free of charge if someone ate the entire thing, plus all of the sides. We didn't go there to eat because we had just filled up on enormous plates of Mexican food at Tacos Garcia, but we did go there for a round of beers. We say that it was one round, which it was, but that one round of beers had each of us drinking draft beer that had been poured into an enormous two-pint-sized glass. Everything was definitely much bigger in Texas, at least it was in Amarillo!

We didn't know what to do after we had finished our beers at The Big Texan. Even though we had tossed the idea around of going to another bar and playing pool, sanity won in the end and we went back to Jeb's house so we could talk to Caroline and relax, catching up even more with everyone. Jeb and Caroline were out of beers at their house, but by the time we arrived back at their place, none of us were in the mood to drink any more, so that was alright. Caroline was in the middle of watching a reality TV programme that was a dance competition, similar to "Strictly Come Dancing" in the UK, so we couldn't interrupt her.

After the show ended, we visited a bit longer with Jason before he called it a night and went home. Then, we told Jeb and Caroline more about our trip to date and, not much longer after Jason left, they decided to call it a night, too. We were asleep shortly after that and the morning arrived very quickly.

All of the friends that we have been visiting in the US, especially the ones with children, have been awake quite early each morning that we have been with them. It was, therefore, not a problem for us to suggest having an early-ish breakfast with Jeb, Caroline and Hank before we headed out on the road to Dallas, Texas, our next destination in the 8th state that we have visited this summer in the US. Jeb had a meeting in the morning at 10:00am, so we headed to breakfast around 9:00am.

There was a Calico County restaurant in Amarillo and it was owned by the same people who owned the one in Fort Smith, where we had taken Kyle's grandma (Ruth) to lunch and breakfast a few days before. The food was good, as we knew it would be, and we really enjoyed the morning with Kyle's friends. Jeb's meeting ended up being cancelled, by him, so we didn't have to rush out of there. When we did leave, however, we got some tips on a couple of more Amarillo sights that would be good to see on our way out of town.

The first thing we did was a must-see. Cadillac Ranch was a large graveyard of old cadillacs, which had been spraypainted by many previous visitors to the area. That meant that each car was a multicoloured eyesore of sorts, but the combination of ten half-buried (nose down) cars in an empty, arid field truly gained the artistic appreciation that the artist and creator had intended. At least, we appreciated its beauty.

It was still morning, just before noon, when we left the graveyard, and the weather was really nice, sunny and 97 degrees Fahrenheit (that's around 36-37 degrees Celsius). We decided that a quick peek at Palo Duro Canyon was in order, since Jeb and Caroline had raved about it so much and since the weather was gorgeous. Disappointment was not served to us that day; we really enjoyed driving through the canyon and doing one of the short hikes, to an overlook that gave us a sweeping view out across the canyon floor.

For those of you who don't know, Palo Duro Canyon State Park was a large canyon about 30 minutes outside of Amarillo. The area was really nice and could comfortably be done in a day, but you could spend more time there, quite easily, if you decided to do some of the treks in the park, or if you wanted to ride a bicycle on some of the trails. Camping was a possibility in the park and the peaceful surroundings would make for a nice camping trip.

We were pressed on time; we had to get to Dallas that day and it was a long drive from Amarillo. We don't know how long the drive should have been, because we had heard 5 hours from someone and 7 hours from someone else. With a few breaks along the way, one of them in a rest stop so we could call Avis and make some changes to our sport-utility vehicle (SUV) rental in Dallas, we arrived in Arlington, Texas, around 9:00pm. We were really excited to have arrived, after being in a car for over 7 hours, but we enjoyed being on the road. Despite the landscape being flat and desolate, it was different to us, so we enjoyed watching it pass by. As we stared out the window of the car, we passed through some interesting small towns and, at one point, we even saw some camels off the side of the road!

Arlington was located about 30 miles outside Dallas and was actually our first stop before going into Dallas for a couple of days. Julie and Evan were two friends of Kyle's from Southwest Missouri State University, the college he attended his freshman year before transferring to OU during his second year. They graciously put us up for the night, as well as cooked us a delicious meal of steaks, shrimp and salad. Check out the next entry to find out more about our time with them, as well as other friends that we met up with in Dallas.