Sitting in the last hotel we’ll be in on this trip. Amarillo, Texas. We had dinner at the Big Texan Steakhouse, known for the Free 72 oz steak – if you can eat it and the sides in 60 minutes. This feat also automatically allows entry into the annual big steak eating contest. On 10.04 one guy, weight 317 pounds, conquered the steak meal – just barely in 59 minutes 59 seconds. On 10.12 another guy, weight 220 ate it all in 45 minutes 47 seconds. As we were leaving, a great hullabaloo arose in the dining room. Another contestant was embarking on the challenge. Ed and I shared a mere 18 oz ribeye dinner. It was good. Here are some photos of the restaurant.
Hey, it’s Texas! Texas does big. Texas is in the US. US does spectacle. Put ’em together…
On a more somber note, we started the day at the Oklahoma City memorial. 1995. Timothy McVeigh. He had a beef with how the government handled Waco. Therefore government employees had to pay. The rectangle of shallow water symbolizes the road upon which he drove. At either end are tall walls. One end has 9:01 engraved. The other end has 9:03. In between the two on a grassy hillside, where the Alfred P. Murray Federal building stood, are chairs. One chair for each person who died at 9:02 when the bomb went off. Smaller chairs represent the children who were in the daycare located in that building.
This is the Survivor Tree. Symbol of Strength. An American elm tree just yards away from the explosion of the Oklahoma City bombing shouldn’t have survived the blast; however, this amazing tree not only survived, but it still thrives still today at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. The Survivor Tree has come to stand for a symbol of hope.
On a more uplifting note, we next visited The Western Cowboy and Heritage Museum. 2 hours was not nearly enough time. Our main goal was to see the Wilson Hurley tryptiches. We did. They cannot be described. Check them out on-line, you will have not a clue as to the grand nature, the exquisite masterful work. This man was gifted beyond human capacity. Except of course he was human. Extraordinary. I can’t even post a photo – it would be too puny, too insignificant, and an insult.
Instead, here is a photo of a statue Buffalo Bill Cody, he of the Wild West shows. Larger than life.
I didn’t take many photos here. There was too much. We would definitely return to this museum. Oklahoma City is pretty nice too. The bit we saw if it anyway.
Off to slumber world. Pretty sure we won’t be woken up in the early morning by a tornado alarm as we were this morn in Oklahoma City. That was eerie. Wicked good thunder storm and lightening show.
Wishing you sweet dreams.
Shared Illusions 