We had the whole day today in Amarillo. Woke early in the morning to some pretty major thunderstorms. The boys managed to sleep through them thank goodness.
When we made it out of the hotel and over to IHOP for breakfast, there was just water EVERYWHERE. Lots of radio reports for Flash Flooding warnings too.
I was determined to get to the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame so that was our next stop for the morning. Really cool place (clearly you need to have an interest in horses - the boys coped well considering their lack of such interest, though much to Craig's disgust Kaine did start asking for a 'pony').
There was so much memorabilia here from old saddles, bridles, boots, photos and so much information detailing the history and recognition of the Quarter Horses as a recognised breed and then of "cutting" becoming a recognised sport by the International Equine Federation. I was surprised by how late this actually was - only in the early 2000's.
Came out of the museum to find it still really overcast but a little less rain. Blake had spotted on our way to Amarillo a line of VW beetles up ended and covered in graffiti, same style as the Cadillac Ranch we planned to visit when leaving Amarillo. Craig was determined to go back and find them, convinced they were "only a few minutes away". For some reason none of them believed me when I said it was a fair way back. Thirty odd minutes later we finally found them again. On the plus side, we did travel a piece of Old Route 66 we hadn't been on before. Downside - there were continual Flash Flooding warnings coming across the radio and several times we drove through water covering the road.
We did find the Beetles though (at a nothing town called Conway - it was a motel, a few houses and a grain company) and I got some photos for the boys to prove we were there.
Back into Amarillo and we visited the Big Texan Steakhouse for lunch. This is another icon of Route 66, now famously known for its FREE 72 ounce steak, if you can eat it all, along with a side salad, baked potato and bread roll, in under an hour. Shockingly the person who currently holds the record for eating it is a 120 pound housewife who downed her first one in just under 4 minutes (I think) and then proceeded to eat a second meal within 5 minutes. Apparently (I missed the sign, but Craig saw it) she came back earlier this year and ate THREE of the meals in under 20 minutes or something ridiculous. There was actually a young couple started the challenge whilst we were there. We didn't stay to see if they managed it but they were doing pretty well when we left.
Brochure information told us that a section of Route 66 had been restored further up town and that it had a range of boutique stores and cafes and bars. We decided to go and check it out too - the closer we got to it, the darker the clouds became. It absolutely poured down and more Flash Flooding warnings came over the radio. When we managed to find the section of road, it was not at all what we had expected. There was a range of random stores, capitalising on the Route 66 name, but not really having much to do with it. Craig and I could see that at night time it might be more interesting as there were a lot of little bars and saloons, but it really wasn't the place for us.
Back to the hotel and another evening of Monopoly, thanks to the rain.
(Turns out sections around Amarillo had 4 to 6 inches of rain over the two days we were there, after drought.)