The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas!

With the hopes of seeing the big balloons overhead we left Albuquerque in themorning around 11:30AM. We saw none and soon understood from radio reports the balloon race for today was canceled due to possible thunderstorms....strangely the only place we could see there were clouds were right over the balloon area. Oh well.
The drive seemed a little long though it was only a five hour drive. We went from the mountains around Albuquerque to the high desert to the prarries of the panhandle of Texas. We decided to try a new campground. It's nice enough and the lady running it is really a Texas rose. Friendly but Texas tough. I gave her one of our post cards when we checked in. Before long the word has spread around the camp that we are there. She came by our site later on, before we headed off to dinner and asked for more cards. She was giving them away to people she thought might use us someday. Wow.


She gave us an extra site for our van and trailer at no extra cost. Cool!

In the many years we have travel through Amarillo we always talked about going to the Big Texan restaurant. You may know it from TV, most recently Man Vs Food. They have the 72oz steak challenge. If you finish it and it's sides you get it for free...if not you pay $72.00.

We found out that the Big Texan would send a limousine with big horns on the hood to pick us up at the camp and bring us back. We did it.

The place is like a Texas theme park. Everyone is wearing cowboy wear most with sheriff badges; from the owners to the bus boys.

There is a fake ghost town and neat little attractions around the place and a big gift shop. Inside there are cute things like the giant rocking chair you can sit and take a picture in. It really is a theme park of sports.

The servings were humongous and almost all of us finished our plates.



We decide to go all out and order rattle snake and Rocky Mtn Oysters (Bull balls) for appetizers.

They were out of snake but they had plenty of oysters. I abstained but everyone else tried them We didn't tell Mami and the little ones what they were until they tried them...great video footage. The picture to the left are el torro's jewels.



Down the hatch!

Of course James had to demonstrate his skills and people began to come over and request him to balance things so they could show their young (left) or take a picture.

One of the owners (pictured with the beige shirt and stuff on his belt) gave Jim permission to use one of the chairs. BTW you may notice the timers on the wall behind Jim...those are for the 72 oz challenge...only one hour to eat that much meat and side.

After seeing that the staff cleared a table. The manager announce to the house what was about to happen and every phone camera and regular camera was out as Jim balanced a very heavy table on his face. Though, it isn't the heaviest thing he has balanced.

Mami finished a 20 oz T-bone!

For desert kids got to have ice cream or a cowboy hat....gues what Olivia and Amelia chose. She found those glasses at the last fair.

Tummies full and wallent empty we have come back from the Big Texan. We will sleep well...or have heartburn...I'll let you know.