Everything's Bigger in Texas

 For our first loooong day of travel, our final destination was Albuquerque, NM.  We knew there was no way this crew of ours would appreciate a straight drive from Oklahoma City, so we had a planned Pit Stop about midway through in Amarillo, TX.  Thanks to Pinterest and other Google searching, I had discovered a couple of attractions that I thought would captivate everyone's interest, and (because we HAVE learned some lessons) our first order of business upon arriving in Amarillo was to get ourselves some food.

Hahahahahahaha.  That "cheese" face, though.

The Big Texan Steak Ranch was where it was at.  The best way to describe this establishment is as the "Wall Drug" of the Southwest, if you catch the reference.  If you don't, just picture lots of advertising for it, lots of kitschy accoutrements, and lots of opportunities for the place to make money off of you.  In addition to being a restaurant (with a famous 72 oz steak challenge), it also contained an Old Western arcade of sorts and an extensive gift shop that was probably the biggest draw to the kids.  {Fun fact -- the only way I could get Alex to chillax while eating was to promise him a souvenir from the shop with MY money, since he had already spent all of HIS money from our summer reading challenge (that was supposed to be for souvenirs on the road trip) before we had even left home.  And in case you were wondering, the bulk of that money went to buying Grace's old iPod and 10 whole dollars of it went to a change machine at the bowling alley where he traded it out for quarters to use in the arcade next to our lane.  I had no idea he had brought his money with him.}

 All of the kids meals were served in those cowboy hats.  :)

The ambience of the Steak Ranch was certainly a mood and I'm pretty sure everyone (even Alex -- by the end) enjoyed our experience while we were there, but the BIG hit of our Amarillo adventure was finding the Cadillac Ranch and adding our own touch to the interactive art exhibit.  {If you decide to visit this kooky tourist trap, make sure you bring your own spray paint.  There may be half-used, discarded cans laying on the ground around the cars, but you don't want to take that chance!  Hahaha.  Of course, buying some spray paint was the only thing we forgot to do before leaving on our road trip, but the good news is that you can find a Home Depot in just about every major city in the country.  Amarillo included.  Hahaha.}

 "The Babe" -- aka Isaac.

I don't know how long we ended up staying, but it was long enough to make a lasting impression and fun memories for years to come.  We took lots and lots of pictures, let the kids run around and climb on the cars, and, of course, graffitied with the best of them.  There were plenty other people around doing the same thing, but it never felt over-crowded or overrun.  And aside from time spent with family while on our trip, going to the Cadillac Ranch was easily one of the kids' favorite things that we did.  :)

 "EPIC"

 Unrelated to the picture, but my biggest annoyance of this whole road trip was that no one ever consulted the itinerary that I had printed out for EVERYONE to put in their road trip binders!  Come on, people!!  Stop asking me what we're going to do next -- it's ALL in the binder!

 The Cadillacs weren't the only things getting tagged.

 A close-up of some spray paint -- check out all the layers!

 Grace was here.

The rest of the day was spent driving and after a brief stop to check out the Santa Rosa Blue Hole, we arrived in Albuquerque that evening with enough time and daylight on our hands to drive around and check out the temple and then find a shopping area with enough different dinner options to please everyone.  ;)  Night 2 was far more successful (at least for me because I wasn't with the girls) and the next day brought us a brief look into the Pueblo culture of the area before heading on to our next great adventure: The Grand Canyon. 

 The kids were pretty entranced by that shaft of sunlight there.

 It was really, really windy that evening and looked like it was going to storm, so Alex refused to get out of the car.  Meanwhile, Grace was so enthralled with the weather and the surroundings that she immediately started declaring that New Mexico is her favorite place ever and that she wants to live there when she grows up after becoming a pediatric surgeon.  There's never a boring moment when Grace is around.

My date at Jimmy John's that night.  Hahahaha.

One final note -- part of our itinerary for the Amarillo stop was to check out the historic Route 66 segment in town.  Unfortunately, after reading the crowd post-Cadillac-Ranch, we knew it was time to just hit the road rather than make another detour.  What I didn't realize at the time, though, was that we would NEVER make any detours on our drive to see that bit of highway even though we basically travelled along it the whole drive to the west.  The kids didn't particularly care, but I was bummed.  The next time we head out that way, though, I will be making everyone stop.  ;)