Passenger Seat Stories: Day 4: Atkins, AR to Santa Rosa, NM

Miles driven- 701
Miles to go- 898
Lesson of the day: TA trucker stops are fantastic and everything really is bigger in Texas!

Open roads of Texas

Well, yesterday’s storm was certainly the craziest thing to have happened to us during this entire trip. After spending the night in Atkins, AR and having the storm scare the beejesus out of me, we left Arkansas and entered Oklahoma.

The drive through Oklahoma uneventful. We started in Ozark (we definitely did not have the proper attire in these small towns, everyone has those hunting jackets with the forest scenery printed on them, available at your local Wal Mart of course) and continued heading westward. The scenery was endless miles of farmland and open fields. I was so exhausted from the previous night that I spent most of my time dozing off and gazing into the distance. When we stopped at a gas station, some man told me something which I understood to be, “Don’t say no,” in a thick southern accent. He reminded me of the guy in Water Boy who when he speaks Cajun, people just smile and nod, which is exactly what I did. I just smiled, laughed and walked away, smart move I think.

Goat!

The first highlight of the day came when we passed through Oklahoma City and made our way over to the TA Travel Lodge truck stop. It was there that Josh and I managed to take our first shower since we’d left Baltimore and I could not have been more thankful for it. For the record, the showers at this particular TA stop are AMAZING. After you pay for your shower, you punch in your code outside your assigned stall and inside that room is a beautiful site: marble walls, clean toilet, fresh towels, soap, flowers, a mint and spacious shower. I felt like I’d stepped inside a new world and I definitely enjoyed my time there. I emerged brand new and was ready to jump back into driving. Before we left though, Josh told me to come check out a dog that was hanging out in the parking lot. Well, that “dog” turned out to be a baby goat! It was tied up to a car just hanging out on the sidewalk, roaming around and grazing on some nearby bushes. If only my cat Toe-B needed a friend, that goat would be riding home with us in an instant…

Our next stop was Texas. Driving through Virginia definitely prepared us for the amount f roadkill that we saw while driving through the lone star state. There weren’t any signs warning drivers that the highway was a deer crossing area yet we saw at least 20 or more deer on the side of the road. It was definitely a sad site to see.

Before we got to Amarillo, we stopped to get gas in McLean. Driving through there was like driving through a ghost town; it was an eerie sight of abandoned homes and business. I wish I could have stayed longer to snap more photos but the town had a “House of Wax” feeling and we didn’t want to stay too long.

A few hours later we were finally in Amarillo and ready to feast on some Texas BBQ. We looked into a few spots and The Big Texan: Home of the Free 72 oz steak, popped up on Food Network’s list of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives website so we knew we’d be in for a treat. Stepping into the restaurant was like stepping into an amusement park; it felt liked I’d walked into a ride from Disneyland’s Frontier Land. It’s definitely a tourist spot but well worth it.

As I mentioned, The Big Texan is famous for its free 72 oz steak meal. Their challenge is: if a person can eat 72 oz’s of sirloin steak along with a baked potato, salad, dinner roll and a shrimp cocktail all within one hour, then they get a free meal and are forever commemorated on the Hall of Fame wall of The Big Texan (you have to eat the meal on a stage in front of the entire restaurant and if you lose then you have to pay for your meal which is $72 for a dollar an oz). There were no challengers that night but if Josh and I ever make it out to Amarillo again, we will definitely be up for the challenge.

Sirloin steak = demolished

We had such a great time at that restaurant and hope to visit it again sometime. To say I went into a food coma after my 8 oz sirloin is an understatement. While Josh drove us through the pitch black darkness of New Mexico I was soundly asleep in the passenger seat.

We’d hoped on making it to Albuquerque that night but we were wiped after a long day and ended up staying a trucker stop in Santa Rosa where we quickly realized that the temperature in our RV was steadily decreasing. Thank goodness for the blankets in the car because we were frozen popsicles that night!

Another great day and a few hundred miles clocked in. Our adventure is almost done but the memories we’ve made along the way will last us forever!