Saturday, October 13, 2012

Day 13 (47): Cadillac Ranch & Gallup, NM


We got up and packed around 8 before enjoying the continental breakfast and hitting the road again. All day yesterday Devin had been complaining about feeling a little achy and stuffed up. Today it hit me. We had obviously been out in the cold and rain for days, so we figured it was the aftermath of that. Later that day Dustin texted us and said he got what Cassie had; our reply “Us too.” Outside of not feeling well the driving was really uneventful. 

Devin is a big fan of Man vs. Food, where the host takes on eating challenges across the country. We were coming up to Amarillo, home of the Big Texas 72oz steak challenge. You may be familiar with said challenge. This Big Texas is housed in Amarillo, TX, right where we were going through. After doing some research on Yelp and the MVF website, we decided against the restaurant with the challenge and instead went to the Stockyard Cafe. The Stockyard Cafe was featured on MVF and reviews on Yelp as “Best Chicken Fried Steak anywhere.” As you may have picked up in past blog posts, Devin LOVES chicken fried steak.

We followed the gps directions into a slightly questionable part of town and then into a stock yard. Right in the middle. This little cafe is attached to the stockyard management building. We had to sit in the smoking section (although no one was smoking) because the place was packed. We split cheese fries and he got the chicken fried steak and I the hamburger steak. Well, unfortunately neither was anything to write home about. His was good but he still thinks the one in Hill City, SD is the best. This place does give free dessert but we were so full we opted out. 

Just outside of Amarillo is also the Cadillac Ranch. Again, you may be familiar:


Can you find Mini-B?

Thanks to Angie for showing us RoadsideAmerica.com or we would have missed it! No road trip down I-40 is complete without a stop there, it’s iconic roadtrip!

Eventually we crossed through Texas and into New Mexico. I-40 follows old Rte 66, but much of the mother road is gone now. We passed through Albuquerque and were feeling good (as far as driving was concerned) and decided to keep going. We stopped in a small town past Albuquerque at a Wal-Mart and got Alka Seltzer Cold & some cough drops. We had our sights on Gallup, NM, right near the NM/AZ border. We finally arrived and stopped at a travel station just off the interstate for another one of those coupon books to make our hotel (which we’d picked out and gotten the coupon hint in online reviews) a lot cheaper. After checking in to the hotel we went to the truck stop at the exit and got their soup and salad bar. It was really delicious, especially after such a heavy lunch. By the time we made it back to the hotel we crashed out.

Today we traveled 708.8 miles across America for a total of 4,020.3 miles on leg 2 and a grand total of 14,545.0 miles across America.

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