Friday in Amarillo (Fri.)

Today we did a little touring of Amarillo.  We decided to go out for breakfast, and Mazie found an ad on the campground brochure for the Calico County restaurant, so we went looking for that.  The food was very good, and they served us with small, homemade cinnamon rolls when we sat down.  I had found a couple flea markets on the internet, so thought we would check them out.  The first one was closed, but the second one was open.  It was full of old, antique, mostly junk, but we spent an hour or so walking through their various buildings.  Joe found a couple of hats he thought Mazie and I needed, but we all managed to get out of there without spending any money.

Next we stopped at the Jack Sisemore RV Museum, a museum behind an RV service center that has on display a variety of restored campers from the early days of RVing.  I would guess there was a dozen, plus a pretty nice display of historic motorcycles mounted on the wall.  Since both the Johnsons and we have been RVing most of our adult lives, we could relate to some of these models.

 This converted bus was the original camper used in the movie "RV" starring Robin Williams.

This is one of the original pop-ups, and when it was brought in, all they did to it was polish it.  This is the way most people started RVing back in the early 60s, and there was a time Joe and I really wanted one of these.  We started our RVing in the back of a Dodge van.










From here, we headed back to the campground to rest up for our evening out with Clint and Lauren.  Since we never get an early start, the day gets away from us pretty quickly.  Before long, it was time for Clint and Lauren to come by, in Lauren's new Buick, and after a short visit/happy hour, we headed out to the Big Texan Steakhouse, where they offer the free 72-ounce steak to anyone who can eat it.  None of us opted for that, but they did have one on display.

 This is one of the limos they use to bring people here.  When we stayed in Amarillo 2 years ago at a campground which was only about 1 mile from this steakhouse, one of these limos came through that campground and picked up customers for the steakhouse.

 I guess this is the entire meal for the 72-ounce deal.  There's a salad, roll and baked potato to accompany the main dish.

This is what a 72-ounce steak looks like.

We had to wait a few minutes, so our group found seats at the bar while Mazie and I checked out the gift shop.

So here's Joe, Clint with his head turned, Lauren is the blonde next to him, and then Dave.  We probably waited 20 minutes to get seated.

 While I was checking out the gift shop, Joe was checking out the cute cowgirls at the hostess station.

 This place is huge, and noisy, and crowded.  Unfortunately our steaks were not that great. I, of the well-done filet mignon, had to send my steak back twice before they got the red out, and by then it was nearly charcoaled.  Our group bravely ordered "mountain oysters" as an appetizer, along with jalapeno poppers.  The jalapenos were good, but Mazie and I chickened out on the "oysters."

 I've been on the hunt for an armadillo to add to our traveling zoo for 2 years, since we saw the one and only in Louisiana.  Finally, I was successful.

So this is our newest addition to the front dash.  His "back" is plastic or vinyl, and he's brownish/gray. 











Clint has to work Saturday, and Lauren said she has to go in to work for a little while, so they headed on home while we finished up.  They are having us for dinner at their house tomorrow night, so we are looking forward to that.  Clint used to have a band, so we are hoping to be serenaded by him sometime tomorrow evening. 

It was beautiful here today, in the low 60s in the morning and it stayed in the 70s all afternoon.  Was cloudy but didn't rain.