Down the Mesa and across the Panhandle

I stopped one more time at the Santa Fe Baking Company for coffee and a scone (stop #4 with my cup - how long could one paper cup actually last if we didn't live in such a disposable world? The reason I kept reusing my cup started with saving the environment, but then I realized I got a discount. How much? No idea. The first time I paid 3.80 and got the cup, then 2, then 2.80, then 2.50. Funny I thought.)

I will admit that I completely done with Pueblo Indians. I have been to so many historical pueblos and museums and shops, I am done, no longer so fascinating. Amanda told me I had to go to one more. So I did. My first stop for the day was Pecos National Historic Monument. This site was once a major trading camp for Indian groups in all directions - even the warrior Plains Indians. So much trading happened here that they find artifacts from all over the Americas to prove it. What is also interesting about this site is the Spanish Mission. The first mission was huge and was ripped apart in the Pueblo Revolt and the Indians used the adobe bricks to build a kiva right on the site - their major religious building that had been suppressed by the Spanish. (photo is the kiva in the foreground and mission in the background) Later more Spanish came and built a smaller mission within the boundaries of the original large one. Now it is all ruins. Ruins covered in snow.

I stopped in Las Vegas, NM, once the capitol and a huge trading town. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and other notables hung out here bc it was the place to be back in the day - and considered largely lawless bc of the rough crowd. I went to the historical society and Roughriders Museum, mostly bc I didn't know anything about the Roughriders other than they were led by Teddy Roosevelt. The Roughriders were a cavalry unit put together from volunteers from the southwest US - mostly cowboys. They went to Cuba and fought there in the Spanish American War. After they returned they held a reunion every year, and mostly in Las Vegas until the last one passed away.

After leaving Las Vegas I drove down the mesa that I didn't even realize I was on top of and started my travels on down the plains to Tucamcari (tuke-kem-car-i). In Tucamcari, I stopped at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum. The absolute highlight of this museum is a fossil of a fish about to pass a noticeable turd (pictured) and then another fossil that just passed one. Hilarious. There were also bronze dino models to touch, fossils of skin, imprints of tracks, and other rare fossils. I picked up a dinosaur hunting license and a squished penny before I moved on. Onward to Texas!

I caught the 'Welcome to Texas' sign and the signs that say "Don't Mess with Texas' Up to $2000 fine for littering." What a great campaign slogan. I kept an eye out for Cadillac Ranch and almost missed it. How could I miss a bunch of old cars nose first in a cow pasture? You can show up with your spray paint and tag them if you want, so they will always look different. I wonder what the cows think?

All along the highway, I had seen billboards for just about everything you can imagine and most of them over and over. Mostly for the Everyday Fried Pie Cafe and the Free 72oz steak. As I traveled into Amarillo I kept my eyes open for these landmarks and other things I needed my photo with (namely a giant cowboy outside a restaurant and some iron bulls outside the visitor's center). I looked all over for the Fried Pie Cafe at exit 71, but it could not be found and the few people I asked had never heard of it. Sigh.

I did find the Big Texan Steak Ranch. It really is hard to miss with the many many billboards advertising a free 72oz. steak (if you can eat it in an hour). It has been a Rt 66 stop since 1960. I knew about this deal, it was in my travel book, so I called my dad as I crossed the panhandle and asked him if he thought I could eat a 72 oz steak in an hour. He laughed at me. He told me that was the kind of thing that required the years of practice that he had and I didn't. He asked me how much it cost, I thought thirty bucks, and he told me it would probably be worth getting just for the experience, photos, and leftovers for sandwiches. Good idea. Mom didn't think I could do it either.

I went in, took some photos, and saw the display with the size of the steak. I asked to be seated and on the way passed the dessert case with Texas-sized homemade chocolate cake and carrot cake... how could I eat that after a huge steak? Well turns out the steak is $72 - a dollar and ounce(!) and if you order one, they put you at a table on a platform with a timer that everyone can see. No thanks, I don't have that kind of money. So I ordered a regular sized steak and listened to the roving banjo and fiddle men. I ate about half of the steak and then ordered the carrot cake (to eat half and take the rest home). Mom told me, "that's MY daughter." Dad told me I made a good choice, but I am pretty sure he has added the Big Texan Steak Ranch to his 'bucket list' (I saw the movie at the drive-in and told him about it).