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Amarillo, Texas - Part 2
Written by: Janet Pope
Day 2
The Ambassador Hotel in Amarillo Texas serves a buffet breakfast and, over coffee, I met a native Amarillian ( I'm not sure if that's a word) who shared some facts about the area.
Amarillo, according to this proud native, is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. The weather is great year round, with sustained wind blowing at 13 miles an hour, cooling off the dry heat. Though it may be hot, it is not humid. Amarillo also boasts 330 days of sunlight a year, and a cloudy day to them is when a few clouds dot the vast blue sky. The air quality is also excellent, though when I stepped out of my hotel this morning, I detected the faint odor of cattle in the air. When I asked what the smell was, I was told, "That's the smell of money, ma'am." It goes without saying that the cattle industry is Big Business in Texas. They take such pride in their beef that they even went to court with Oprah a few years back to counter her disparaging remarks.
Another big plus for the area is the low cost of living compared to the rest of the country. The rental here for a three-bedroom apartment goes for about $750 and, more importantly, a gallon of gas was selling for $1.70, while the average in the country was about $2.10. Now that would be a good enough reason to move here.
Our first stop of the day was the Oliver Saddle Shop, now owned by a third generation family saddle maker. It's the oldest saddle shop in Amarillo, and the people here, due to necessity, are serious about their saddles. I was duly surprised to learn from Richard Oliver that he only makes about 50 handcrafted saddles a year, averaging one a week, with a nine month waiting list. Each saddle cost between $2,400 and $2,700, and are as finely crafted as any work of art. Mr. Oliver gave us an inside tour of the back room facilities and walked us through the steps of handcrafting and custom designing a saddle for a customer. Most of the customers are serious cowboys who make their livelihood riding horses and though Mr. Oliver's work is known to many throughout Texas, his heart and his allegiance is definitely with the cowboy. Modestly, he showed us the presidential seal that he hand crafted in leather for the saddle made for President George W. Bush.
This is not just a shop but an honored legacy that has been passed down from one generation to another. Mr. Oliver has been making saddles since he was five and some of the tools he works with now are the same tools his grandfather used.
Oliver's Saddles also sells all other horse related accessories, fine leather belts and silver jewelry, but stop by just to see the saddles and talk to the very modest and talented, Mr. Oliver.
We headed off to explore the historic section of town and to admire the varied architecture. We passed many old homes, three of which have been turned into B&Bs: The Galbraith House-1930s, Auntie's House and Enchanted Cottage-1900s and La Costa del Rio-1930s. You can tell by the names that each has its own unique flare.
After our driving tour through the streets, we set off to visit The Quarter Horse Museum. The name I learned came from Colonial America, when this breed of horse routinely would be ridden as a working horse in one quarter mile sprints. Typically, this horse is known to have a calm disposition, work well with other animals such as cattle, and trains easily.
In the late 1860s, cowboy contests called rodeos were springing up across the country. Rodeo is the Spanish word for round up. Contestants were working cowboys who competed for personal glory and to show off their skills and their favorite horses. In 1882, William F. Cody, also known as Buffalo Bill, came up with the idea of bringing cowboy games or rodeos to the general public as entertainment. By 1885 there were more than 50 Wild West shows around the country.
In 1940, The American Quarter Horse Association was formed to register these beautiful horses and preserve their place in Texas and in history. Today the Museum contains a movie theater and changing art exhibits and displays.
Throughout Amarillo you can see a public art display of quarter horses. Each replica is life sized and decorated in a unique fashion by different local artists. They cost $5,000 each, are all sponsored by corporations and there are 50 or 60 of them at prime locations throughout the city. One was even there to greet me as I arrived at the airport.
Now that I learned about quarter horses, we headed off to get our kicks on Route 66.
We stopped for lunch at Barnaby Beanery, which is a no frills, good food, chili parlour. I tried the cornbread cheeseburger, which is fried cornbread buns topped with a juicy Texas beef burger. The rest of the table ordered an assortment of chili, burgers, chicken fried steak and "famous musical beans." Most of us had chili or burgers, but since we were six people packed in one car together for the rest of the day, no one attempted the musical beans. The topper was a homemade fruit cobbler a la mode, which came in six seasonal fruits. I tried the blackberry cobbler and it was worth every single calorie.
This area of Amarillo on 6th Street encompasses an original section of Route 66 and is known as the "funky" side of town. The stores are scattered and are mainly antique shops and book stores. A large livestock auction, held here on Tuesday mornings, is open to the public.
Our tour guide for Amarillo said our next stop was to see the Kwahadi Kivi Indian Museum, which opened only a few weeks ago. Made to look like a traditional Native American meeting place with stone walls and a large open air center, this was built as a home to a group of dancers who study and perform ethnic Native American dances.
This sophisticated dance program for youth between 11 through 18 years of age, began more than 60 years ago as an outgrowth of a Boy Scout troop. Currently there are 70 boys and girls trained to perform, but through its history they have trained more than 1,700.
Kwahadi, we learned, is a Comanche word for family group and Kivi means community gathering place. This dance program incorporates those words by bringing together a group of children and instilling in them family ideals in a community atmosphere. Based on Sioux wisdom, the dancers learn much more than dance steps, but the importance of setting goals, making good choices, working as a team and working hard. I was impressed with their positive philosophy.
The dancers get an opportunity to not only perform at this new facility, but they often tour around the country during their vacation time. If you can catch a performance you are lucky; if not, stop here to see the museum filled with donated Native American artifacts, paintings, books and illustrations.
Now off to the Big Texan Restaurant. How can I adequately describe this place? This is Texas - where everything is bigger... bigger room, bigger wooden tables and high back chairs, bigger animal heads hanging from the walls, bigger steaks and the biggest desserts you ever saw.
Talk about western atmosphere - this has a saloon motif, complete with a "play area" for children and adults alike, with a shooting range, slot machines, a gift shop and a strolling country singing trio. Everywhere you go here you inevitably will hear "Amarillo By Morning" and tonight was no exception. It's a beautiful song and I've been humming it since.
After being serenaded, the real excitement began. The gimmick here is that if you order and eat their 72 ounce steak ( yes I said 72!), complete with all the trimmings, which includes shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato and roll, you do not have to pay the $49.95.
The clincher is that you have to do it in an hour or less. There is a lot of pressure here because you are not gorging yourself in anonymity. The daring, young 24-year-old-man who we saw when we were there, Mitch Berthalan from Tampa, Florida, was escorted to a dais on a stage and his name was announced to all, before a timer went off and he began. As the minutes ticked away diners got up to take his picture, cheer him on and to check the status of his plate. Bets were being made around the room and, as the clock ticked down, a strange excitement came over everyone. Never did I think I would get this excited over seeing a grown man eat. In between cheering on Mitch in my most enthusiastic, New York style, I too ate one of the most delicious steaks I have ever had.
Now my family, knowing what a picky eater I am, is never going to believe this, but I actually tried calf fries and rattlesnake. You all know where the rattlesnake comes from, but I won't even tell you what part of the calf the fries come from. I don't know what came over me really, maybe it was the happy party atmosphere or maybe it was poor Mitch stuffing his face, but I thought if he could attempt a 72 ounce steak, the least I could do was taste rattlesnake. The calf fries to me taste like chicken but were a little dry and the rattlesnake was filled with bones. I suppose if you're stranded in a canyon, they are good alternatives, but otherwise I was thrilled with my basic steak, salad and baked potato.
Now back to Mitch. Did he make it? We were down to six minutes and the room was tense. I was seated next to him and I kept telling him to focus and not talk to all the people coming up like me and distracting him. Down to five minutes and he still had more steak and a whole roll. It was then that I noticed what seemed to be a barf pail next to him. Mitch was not looking too good and I was getting worried, but all of a sudden he got a burst of eating energy and with three minutes to spare, Mitch stood up to thunderous applause with a clean plate in hand. Standing with arms in the air and looking a little like Rocky, his first words were,"Can I have some ice cream?" I asked Mitch how he felt and if he enjoyed any of the meal, and he said not really, but he certainly seemed happy that he tried.
Well, full from steak, (even though I was not able to finish my 10 ounce portion) and content that Mitch had "won," we headed back to our hotel and looked forward to a Texas Cowboy Breakfast. It feels like we are eating our way through Amarillo.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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