Although we arrived in Amarillo late one rainy afternoon, we
came into town listening to “Amarillo By Morning” by
my favorite Country Western singer – George Strait!
The Amarillo Museum of Art is not large but it does have an
interesting collection of Asian Art donated by Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price:
Their collection also includes several prayer rugs from
Turkey:
The night before our visit, there was a special exhibition
by local artists. Part of the exhibit
was still up when we visited. The title
of the exhibition was 12x12 and the artists had to limit their works to 12” x
12” in size. Here are a couple of my
favorites:
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| Bear Pot by Chuck Bailey |
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Cairn Rocks by David Alan Corbin
(Natural stone kaleidoscope, metal, wooden base)
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The primary reason we wanted to visit Amarillo was to go to Palo
Duro Canyon. This is the second largest
canyon in the United States. Check out
these amazing views!
There is an amphitheater in the canyon where the musical drama
“Texas” is performed each summer.
Although we missed the show, we were able to walk around the
amphitheater and view the surrounding rock formations.
When we returned to our car, we caught this little fellow
sitting on top of our roof!
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| Roadrunner |
We saw other wildlife in the canyon as well:
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| Turtle |
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| Tarantula |
In the late 1870s, rancher Charles Goodnight
established a ranch in the canyon.
Today the canyon features many camping areas. Wouldn’t it be a treat to camp with this view at
your front door!
Many of you know by now that we love hunting for the odd sights. Here is some attention-grabbing public art
around Amarillo:
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| Tex Randall |
Ozymandias of the Plains is a giant pair of legs paying homage
to a king -- Ramesses II (his Greek name was Ozymandias) -- and to a poem
written by Percy Shelly.
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| Ozymandias of the Plains |
And, of course, we had to visit the famous Cadillac Ranch! This installation, created in 1974, features
ten Cadillacs half-buried. The cars are
buried nose-first to best show their tailfins as they evolved between
1949-1963. It is a custom to bring a can
of paint to add your own special graffiti to the cars. After a heavy rain, these cars look as though
they are in a lake! Since it was very
muddy, many people chose to paint the ground around the cars.
Whether a tribute to the Cadillac Ranch or to the West Texas farmer, Combine
City now features 14 Combine Harvesters planted in the ground:
If you like steak, the Big Texan Steak Ranch is the place to go.
They are known for their 72 oz. contest – if you can eat 72 ounces of
steak (plus sides) in 1 hour, you get your meal for free! We weren’t that hungry, but we did get to
watch someone who thought he was. Sadly,
his eyes were bigger than his stomach.
If you have a small steak, there’s room for dessert! 😊
As we travel to our next destination, we drive through this happy
little town:
