Texas!
We left Liberal, Kansas and drove on highway 54 kitty corner across Oklahoma on the advice of our next door neighbor at the Western Star RV Ranch.  It was a great highway and for the most part divided so easier than the last few days of driving.  We hooked up with the 287 straight into Amarillo.
 We met up with a couple, Glenn and Susan from Alberta in North Platt and they stayed at the same place in Kansas as we did as well.  We went over to their 5th wheel after supper and played a dice game.  They are also going to spend most of the winter in Mesa so we will likely see them again!

We checked into the Amarillo RV park which is a nicely laid out park, very nice staff and all amenities, except for terrible internet.  I am using the club house internet to do this blog and the staff assure me they are working on getting better internet.
We drove past may ranches, milo and corn crops, and feed lots. For the most part we have seen ranch after ranch since we left Estevan. This is definitely cattle country!  It became more apparent as we hit Texas.   The RV park told us about a restaurant called the Big Texan Ranch.  They advertise a 72 oz steak with all the fixings.  If you can eat it all in an hour it is free!  We just had to check it out.  We were picked up in a limo - check it out.  Apparently they have shot some scenes for  movies in this restaurant. |It was also on an episode of Man vs. Food.

                                                    The horn moo'd which was pretty amusing

                                           There was a hotel attached - also in bright colors and there is a gambling area as well as a photo shoot area with a maze.  They also have a huge gift shop, and a bar and a fudge store.  Lots of places to spend your money here!

                                              Heh, I think these are funny, but they drive Don crazy
http://bigtexan.com/live-stream/   you can click on this link and watch people trying to eat the monster steak.  Sounds disgusting to me  - if it was a 72 oz Mars bar I might give it a shot.

 This is my 6 oz filet - which was really good and a raspberry wheat beer which was also really good - they make their own beer.

                                           This is where they sit and try to eat the meal in an hour.  

It is hard to show you how big these pieces of cake are, but the plates are big dinner plates - not the little plates they usually show the desert on.

                    Remember the plate with my steak on?  well its the same plate under this half a cow.

Look how many people have actually eaten that - yikes!  Seriously that steak could feed a whole family of 8 I bet.  As we were eating a trio of men came along to each table and sang country music (you would have LOVED it mom).  They were pretty cute.  This was a fun place to go once but by they time you tip the limo driver (twice), the singers and the waiter plus pay for a fairly expensive steak . . .

                                       This was free however - and pretty hilarious I might add!
The next day was nice and warm and I was able to start the day out in capris and sandals.  You know its a good day when you can get up and do that!  We headed out to an RV museum which was really fun.

                                       I just love the blue stove and sink in this 1970's model.

This is the motor home driven by the Gornike family in the Robin Williams movie RV.  Notice that cool van in the background too!

Can you believe that this is an air conditioner for cars from 1940's?  It is called a Kool air and sold for 13.00 and attached to the outside of the car.

This was the way oil was dispensed until the mid 40's when they started using 1 quart cans.  All of the items in this museum were really well taken care of or restored beautifully.  It was a fun (and free) place that we both enjoyed.
http://www.rvmuseum.net/1974-winnebago.htm
The golds and greens and blue interiors of these vintage motor homes was super fun to see.

Then we headed out to the Cadillac Ranch

 It was very windy!  If it wasn't for the wind it would have been hot out but the wind was cool.

" Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle."

 http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220

Look how the paint is just caked on and dripping down even.  There are layers upon layers of paint on these old cars.  I would say each persons art work has a very short life span before it is painted over.

Today we drove out to the Palo Duro Canyon.  It is about 30 minutes south of Amarillo and is the second largest canyon in the U.S.
This canyon is quite unique in that you can pretty much drive all through the canyon floor and get out to hike and sight see at a number of locations.

                                                      I never get tired of the beautiful red rock.

              the trees are just starting to lose their leaves so the colors in the canyon were really amazing.

At a few spots along the driving path the water is right up to the road and there are markers showing you how high the water is if the road is not visible.  A lot of the roads were covered with red dirt so we assume there was rain here in the last little while

We were not lucky enough to see any wildlife or birds up close. We had packed a lunch so after  lunch we went on a little hike down to a creek.  It was very enjoyable but chilly, socks and shoes and jacket needed today. The temperature wasn't bad but the wind was cool again today.

The Civilian Conservation Corps sent 7 companies to this park from 1933 to 1937 to develop the road access to the canyon floor and the visitor centre, cabins and shelters.

This was their daily routine which I found really interesting.  The workers first consisted of young men and then grew to include veterans. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were created as part of an unemployment relief measure in the 1930's.  They were paid about a dollar a day. The average enrolee was between 18 and 19 years old, weighed 147 lbs and was 5 ft 8 inches tall.  In the first 3 months in the camps they averaged a weight gain of 11 lbs.  Total cost of this program was 3 billion dollars and the value of the work was 2 billion dollars.  It was a pretty smart way for the government to get a lot of these projects done and help a lot of people at the same time.

Campgrounds - Amarillo RV Park  - would give this a 10 out of 10 - once they fix the wifi
Restaurants - The Big Texan and Cracker Barrel ( we love cracker barrel, but I am smarter this trip and stuck to the veggie soup and salad special)

I forgot to show the tower at the train station in North Platt and also the big piles of grains that we would see periodically along the way.  We saw one pile of corn that looked like a pile of gold - of course I was too busy gawking at it and forgot to snap a pic.

Off to New Mexico tomorrow - we will be there for a week or longer!