Well, I'm here to tell you, eastern Texas looks nothing like northwestern Texas and the panhandle. This was another case of the landscape changing so subtly that you don't realize it. Well that, and the fact that the Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex (that's what they call it) was plopped in the middle of our trip. But anyway, it was apparent as we made our way catty-corner up to I-40, that this part of the state was the part most folks talk about. Ranches and wheat fields, wheat fields and silos, silos and cows, and very very flat. (Pictures of western Texas tomorrow.)
We passed a lot of meat processing plants, complete with the meat about to be processed milling about in pens outside. We passed a lot of grain silos. We also passed an awful lot of trains hauling coal. Probably "clean coal." It looked clean from road, anyway.
The closer we got to Amarillo, the windier it got. We're both used to heavy cars, Kelly especially, since he's got one of the bigger cars BMW makes. Belinda is a 1998 Toyota Corolla, and despite all our luggage and the stuff we were bringing back with us, we were still hanging on to the steering wheel with a death grip.
We joined I-40 in Amarillo, where we promptly slowed to a crawl, slow enough to read the signs advertising The Big Texan, a well-known steakhouse. Besides the billboards, we had seen this place on various Food and Travel Channel shows. Their enticement is that they have a 72-oz steak dinner that's free. Free, that is, if you can finish the entire dinner in one hour. They also advertised a free limo ride to the restaurant, so after we checked in to our room, we called for a pick-up. "Don," our former-cowboy-turned-limo-driver ("I told mah wife, if I'da knowed how easy it was to make money in the city, I'da quit ranching a long time ago!") picked us up in a classic Caddy-lac limousine, complete with horns on the hood! Talk about driving around in style!
When we arrived at the restaurant, there was one guy who was making the free-dinner attempt. They sit the attemptees on a raised dais with a clock ticking down the time. Let me tell you, a 72-oz steak is big. Huge. Humongous. And the deal isn't that you simply finish the steak; oh, no no no, that would be too easy. No, you have to finish the steak, the salad, the baked potato, the fried shrimp appetizer and the dinner rolls, maybe even some beans and cole slaw for good measure. All in an hour. The guy who was there when we visited was a skinny dude, part of a group traveling cross-country by motorcycle, who were there cheering him on. He didn't have a chance at finishing the steak, much less the entire meal. He probably drew the short straw in the group and was 'volunteered' to be the one to do it! After his hour was up, he sat at their table, which was next to ours, and proceeded to simply stretch out and rub his tummy. He looked uncomfortable. (In the picture, he's almost at the 30-minute mark.)
The place was one big room with the wait staff in cowboy boots and gingham shirts, and traveling cowboys come to your table to sing you a song (we got "The Yellow Rose of Texas"). It was loud, it was fun, and the food was pretty good. When we made our way back to the limo pick-up area, Don was the next driver in line, so he took us back to the hotel, telling us about the people who have attempted the freebie. He told us of big linebacker-types who barely make a dent in the meat, and petite "little ladies" who finish the whole deal in 45 minutes. Joey Chestnutt, the competition eater from San Jose (he's the one who unseated the Japanese guy who used to win the Nathan's hot dog eating contests) ate the meal in just over 8 minutes. My stomach aches just thinking about eating it over the course of 8 hours; I can't imagine doing it in an hour, and 8 minutes is just painful.
Back to the hotel, then tomorrow it's on to Day 5, Wednesday, May 12, Amarillo, TX, to Gallup, NM.
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