OUR ROADTRIP TO COLORADO! Day 1 & 2

Do I have a Road Trip adventure for you!

My husband and I spent a week through Texas, New Mexico, and majority of the time in Colorado. Click here for our itinerary with links to all the different places we visited. (These will be added as more articles are included.)

Our first day of our vacation was all about driving over to Dallas, Texas. We stopped at the Terrell Buc-ee’s and grabbed BBQ sandwiches. Buc’ees has one of the the cleanest and giant gas station bathroom ever. Then hopped back on the road and spent the night at my sister’s and brother-in-laws. The next morning we jumped in our car for the next stops.

For day 2, we had two main stops plus a rest stop that had some surprises. From Dallas, Texas, we drove to Amarillo, Texas. The drive time was around 5 hours and 30 minutes. Our first touristy stop was in Bowie, Texas. And if you know me, you know I looove roadside attractions like Uranus, Missouri and Monster Mart.

So our very first touristy stop was of a Guinness World Record – The world’s largest Bowie Knife. Yep, that’s right! I do like a well made knife and throughout my life have dreamed of some day being in the Guinness World Record book. Somehow we ended up driving very near this little town and convinced my man to swing by this quick stop. How could we not stop. I mean that’s a giant 20 foot 6 inch Bowie knife!

We got back on track and headed down the road. The wind farms started popping up on the horizon on either side of the road. At some point, my tiny bladder was sending out distress signals. So off the divided highway we went and pulled into a rest area. I’m guessing we were in what they call “Hill Country” as the bathroom break had kind rolling hills all around, scrub brush, and a light mix of desert. It was beautiful in a Wild West kind of way. 

What I didn’t expect though were the amount of warning signs at this rest stop. Can you guess what the warning was?

Could it have been ‘Don’t drink the water’?

NOPE. 

Maybe ‘Watch out for escaped prisoners’? 

NOPE. 

The warning was for rattlesnakes.

Yep.

RATTLESNAKES!!!

Eeeeek!!!!

There were like 5+ signs about these venomous critters. Where did they come up with this rest stop being called a “Safety Rest Area”?!

One sign was on the ramp into the rest area. Then another as we went toward a parking lot. And at the sidewalk to go into the building. Next there was one by the covered picnic spot. A couple steps from this was the start of a hiking trail… and the welcome sign for rattlesnakes! The last one I noticed was as we were about to get on the ramp to go back on the road. What in the world?! Did we need to worry about the snakes while in our car as we were speeding away?

I guess you can’t be too careful.

Speaking of being on the road, something happened a little while out of Dallas during our drive. My neighbor across the street foretold of this phenomenon as we drew closer and closer to The Big Texan… Billboards.

Lots and lots of billboards about, you guessed it, The Big Texan and the 72oz steak dinner that if you finish the steak and sides you get it free plus fame!

The billboards would be in the middle of a small town, on a lonely stretch of road, and on the side of the big 4 lane highway we traversed. When my friend had told me about all the advertisements in our future, I didn’t really think it could be too much. The amount of billboards met the expectation she foretold. It was like an amount between Buc-ee’s billboards but not more than Gordan McKernan billboards.

Let’s face it, not even Buc-ee’s billboards can compete with the amount of Gordon’s marketing.

Case in point….

By the time we made it to The Big Texan, the sun was thinking real hard about turning in for the night.

I took a minute to check out the Texas shaped pool from the 2nd floor. Our motel was contactless and we got the hotel room code number through the travel sight Expedia. I loved how the cheesy place looked like an Old West town and had some other quirky things like the hidden Frankenstein looking out a faux window. I also liked how our room looked like a old saloon. (It was either #202 or #204.)

On the inside of the door, it was full of signatures from people that had stayed there. It was fun to read a bunch of these and amusing names as well. I drew a tree with C&C in a “carved” heart on it for our mark.

When dinner time came around, we walked across the small parking lot the Big Texan restaurant slashy bakery, slashy concert venue –  aka  the Starlight Ranch, slashy gift shop, slashy RV Park, and slashy Horse Hotel (Yep, we’ll get to that in a hot minute). 

We put our name in for a table and were told it would be a 45 minute wait which meant stopping through the gift shop. There were all sorts of souvenirs for Texas, the Big Texan, household items, cowboy gear, clothing, and just about anything you could think of. There was even a rattlesnake in a terrarium. It wasn’t for sale though just out in a display. I’m guessing someone caught this feller at the rest stop between Dallas and Amarillo. 

We picked out a bunch of fun souvenirs and our buzzer alerted us that our table was ready. There was a 10 people deep line of people with buzzers buzzing. It only took about 10-15 minutes for our turn.

I was so happy to get to sit on the balcony that wrapped around the top of the 2+ story giant room. On the floor level, it looked like shared table seating for giant parties of people. In the far wall was the master grill guy keeping steaks cooked and the servers lined up with side items and heavy trays of orders.

It was amazing how this all worked so smoothly and was fun perched from above people-watching. In front of the grill was a stage of sorts with a table and 6 chairs. Above the grill were 6 timers set I think to 60 minutes.(maybe 90?). So 6 people at once could try to “win” the 72oz steak challenge. You can also watch a live stream of it here if there is anyone trying to join the champion list.

I just had a measly little 8 ounce steak which was AMAZING! It was delicious and lived up to the hype.  It felt like I needed to be rolled down the stairs and out the door just eating a teeny steak. But we did make sure to order to go desserts from their bakery to enjoy while watching a movie later. I had strawberry shortcake and YUM! It almost beat the deliciousness of the steak.

Sweet & savory – what a combination!

On the way across the parking lot between the restaurant and the hotel, we went toward the Texas shaped pool and the motel building in the back of it. After that was the Horse Hotel. Yep, a horse hotel. How much more Texan can the The Big Texan get?

Welllll, there’s also a RV Park that had bunches of dually trucks hitched with giant horse trailers or even cattle trailers. (See the horse on the right hand side of the photo above.)

The Big Texan was such a fun and quirky stop. I loved the steak and hope to come back again with the kids some day. I’d like to take a dip in the Texas pool and also try out some more of the bakery items. If you are looking for a place to stop on Route 66, I highly recommend this place! And there are lots of cool places to see in this big little town like Cadillac Ranch, museums, parks, music venues, and more.

Be sure to check back on more of our fun touristy places here that we got to visit… plus the AMAZING Beck concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater.

Click here for more travel articles.

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