Snowbird Journal

Day 3—Oct 27, 2008 Special Edition

I’m trying to get better at this leisure travel deal. You know, the stop and smell the roses thing. When we were in OK we could have stopped at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum. I guess that I’ll always wonder if Dick the Bruiser was a hall of fame member and just what in the heck do you put in a wrestling museum or the gift shop. Or we could have stopped at any one of the 37 Route 66 museum’s that were advertised along I-40. But I didn’t and now it’s too late.

The other day I was looking at the map and the Amarillo area in particular. Now the only thing that I know about Amarillo is that it’s home to The Big Texan steak house. It’s a restaurant that serves a 72-ounce steak with the trimmings and the hook is that if you can eat all of it in 1 hour it’s free. When Betsy and I took Jeff to Flagstaff we stopped at the place and ate. We did see an uncooked 72-ounce steak and it was freakishly huge. If I remember correctly the place was rather seedy. But heck it’s only been there for a hundred years.

Anyway, I’m looking at the map and see Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo. I’m always interested in Cadillac’s so I look the place up on the web. I thought it might be a ranch where there were a lot of Cadillac’s with big horn’s attached to the hood along with six guns on the fenders, etc, etc. Heck no, it’s the place where someone partially buried 10 old Cadillac’s front bumper down and all at exactly the same angle of tilt. It’s sorta
like a vehicular Stonehenge. So anyway we tool on out there expecting maybe a little museum, or plaques describing the creative process of this major work of American art.
There was nothing of the sort. The ten caddies are in the middle of a millet field about a hundred yards back from a frontage road that parallels I-40 eastbound. There is a gate that you open and walk through, and then you just follow the path through the millet field to the cars. Over the years people have put all sorts of graffiti on the cars. While I took pictures Betsy added the following inscription on one of the cars—“On this day, Oct 27th, 2008 Starship Avion landed at this site. The crewmembers, Jamie, Betsy, and Tipper bring greetings from a galaxy far, far away.” I’m glad she didn’t have any pot or we’d be out there yet. Later on in the day, while Betsy was in WalMart I learned that the angle that the cars were tilted was exactly the same as the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. Now it all makes sense!! And we took the time to see it. I’m so proud.

Amy alerted me to our second special attraction. It’s in Canyon, TX just south of Amarillo. Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. Has a nice ring to it. Except that memorial part. That’s usually not a good thing. The stadium is associated with West Texas A&M, and is the largest of all Division II schools. But look, another concrete white buffalo just outside the stadium. First we see a concrete white buffalo in Chelsea, OK and now another one in Canyon, TX. And just after we’ve been to the Cadillac Ranch. It’s all coming together now. I’m telling you this trip is getting more and more mystical. Instead of Snowbird Journal we should re-name this portion of the blog the White Buffalo Magical Mystery Journey of Blissful Sedation. Wow what a day of adventure and excitement. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. We’re in luck. Our first stop will be Roswell, NM. Alien spaceships and Area 51!! Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.