Everything is bigger in Texas!

Everything really is bigger in Texas! While traveling down Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas we stopped at "The Big Texan" Steakhouse. All up and down Route 66 are large signs advertising a free 72 oz. steak in Amarillo. The hitch is, its only free if you can eat it within one hour. I really wanted to give it a try but my cholesterol and blood pressure are already too high so cooler heads prevailed and we settled for some really rare prime rib. Really rare.

Another highlight to our time in Amarillo was a visit to a real Livestock Auction. The Amarillo Livestock Auction is listed in a tourist brochure so we thought it might be sort of cool. Well, it was really cool but it sure wasn't touristy. We walked into the auction arena in our shorts and crocs and every cowboy in the place did a double take. I've never felt so out of place in my life. We were certainly the only tourists or mere observers to the auction. We quickly learned that this is big business and the well accessorized cattlemen in the audience weren't there to play games or put on a show for us. Of course, the only seats we could find were right down front so we had to parade ourselves down the middle isle to find our seats. Anyway, we sat through the auction not really understanding everything that was going on. After the auction closed, we did get a chance to talk to one particularly well dressed cattleman and he answered all our questions about what was actually happening in there. The final impression here is that cattle farmers in Texas aren't much like tobacco farmers or vegetable farmers back east. These guys seem to be rich and savvy.