West Part II - 2 Months Late!

After we left Wichita Falls, we were excited to get to Amarillo, Texas, since Tony Christi seemed to want to get there so bad, we wanted to see the hype.

Nipper was behind the wheel, so I was checking out where to stay and what seemed to be good. I found a hotel that was priced right, non smoking, no pets (Nipper was going to stay in the car) so I called and reserved a room. After I hung up, Nipper said 'was that room in Albuquerque?' Yep, it was. I had to call and cancel, although I promised if we stayed in Albuquerque, we'd use his hotel .

Our first destination was to The Big Texan where we were thinking of trying to split the 72 oz steak challenge. That's right, if you eat a 72 oz steak, baked potato, salad and dinner roll in under 1 hour its free. They even stream people making the attempt.

The Big Texan also has a Motel attached to it, so we reserved a room there but then thought it might be better to stay downtown Amarillo. So we cancelled the room there and headed for downtown. Amarillo does not have a downtown. There is nothing there. Some hotels, a convention center, a bank or two. That is about it. Back to The Big Texan it was, where I made Nipper reserve the room since they hadn't heard her voice. Dinner was gigantic, and delicious!

The next morning we left Amarillo and changed our plans, thanks to Rip's advice to go up North a bit to see Shiprock and the 4 Corners, then the Grand Canyon. So we headed for Santa Fe. We got into SF early enough to check in and walk the streets in the day time. I got a little over excited to see Trader Joe's AND Whole Foods all within a few blocks. The downtown was cute - we went to a few bars and had a good dinner at Cowgirl Cafe, then sprinted home practically before our ears snapped off.

Up early-ish in the morning, we stopped at WF for breakfast and these green things called vegetables, got ourselves some Starbucks mugs, and headed for the 4 Corners.

Insert 2 month's time and a blog that sat in the edit cue...

Ok - well for some reason once I got to San Diego, the hustle and bustle of settling in, starting school and getting bombarded with work made me forget to upload the 2nd half of our trip. EC is going to kill me!

In any case, we went to the 4 corners, the grand canyon and then made a long day's drive into San Diego where we were met by my new roommate BB. It was a fun trip, there were a few times Nip didn't think she was going to live through it, but we won't get into that. I miss here - and every time I go into a Wal-Mart, I look for a package of crayons, pencils and markers all in the same kit for poor Aidan, who didn't actually get what he wanted. I'm sure he's crushed with all of the other fun things Mommy brought home.

I'll try to upload some pics when I get a chance....!

Headed West!

Its the 4th morning of our trip, we've landed in Amarillo, TX already, logging 1700 miles.

We left Baltimore with a car almost filled to the top, hardly able to see out of the back window. By now, things seemed to have settled down and I probably could have fit another few boxes in my car.The first day we hauled @$$ down to Nashville, stopped twice. Once to introduce Nipper to Sheetz, and she took the wheel! (Even after I was told of the story that Mushy had to drive in Spain after he'd shoulder surgery) But hey, we're still here and she's driven every day since... even if she still walks to the wrong side of the car.

We got to Nashville at about 8:30 and ran straight out to see what Music City had to offer. Had dinner at Margaritaville, then went to The Stage on Broadway where we saw the Chris River Band. Then we headed down to Tootsies where we were upfront for the fall of Mr. Tyler Farr. Literally, he sang with the band you see behind Nipper in the pic, was so drunk that he got off of the stage, went to his seat, and fell. Multiple times!

The next day we got to Graceland in Memphis to scope out where Elvis lived. To start, we must say Memphis is an interesting city. It felt like I was driving through the rough parts of Baltimore, then all of the sudden, we were at the home of Elvis. I wonder if people knew we were out of towners, two white chicks with a car packed to the top, bike on the back... not looking to the sides. In any case, this was a treat to Nipper, who just got married in Vegas! Why didn't she wear her dress?! The house was amazing - going back in time! The walls were carpeted or had drapes on them. Shag carpet, jungle like furniture, gigantic kitchen and several different buildings.

After this, we made it to Little Rock for dinner. It seemed like it was a cute town, a nice downtown street, ice skating on the Arkansas River. After dinner we made it to Texarkana, AR where Smoky and the Bandit was filmed (we found this out as we were eating breakfast - thank you MH!).

After breakfast, we headed to Witchita Falls, but not without a stop in Paris Texas to see the Eiffel Tower.

When we finally made it to Witchita Falls to visit Juli and WFAC. Juli treated us to an awesome Texas BBQ at the Branding Iron, and even got Nipper to pose with some real cowboys. (check her FB for a photo) Then we went to one of the weirdest places I've ever been. A drive up bar. Yes, we drove up, a chick came out took our order and served us Red Draws in the car (beer and tomato juice). Where else other than North Texas?!

I will say, I finally heard my first negative thing about San Diego. Thanks Rip! Best stop thus far, next time we'll spend more time with this gang - thanks again Juli!

More to come on our time in Amarillo, TX - aka Armadillo.