Having grown up in Oklahoma City and lived in Oklahoma my entire life, I am more than familiar with the steak challenge at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo. However, I reached the ripe old age of 50 this year having never eaten there, much less participate in the challenge.
As I was planning my excursion through the Rocky Mountain states for my 2020 vacation, I saw an opportunity to stop for a meal in Amarillo as I was heading home and decided I should at least have some sort of steak while I was wrapping up my trip.
The steak challenge involves being able to eat a 72-ounce steak, a bread roll with butter, a baked potato, shrimp cocktail and a salad in an hour. If you can get it done in that time, you get a free meal and a significant bragging point with your friends and family. And if you can’t finish in time or complete the meal - which happens significantly more often - the bill is $72 for the meal.
There was a time during my adolescence and early adult years when I was eating large deep-dish pizzas in one sitting that I believed I could have knocked this challenge out of the park. In 2020, however, I knew better and just ordered a regular-sized steak and ate like a regular person would expect to when going to a steakhouse in the Texas panhandle.
The meal was good and definitely worth the stop. And apparently someone decided to start a challenge as I was wrapping up my meal, but I chose not to stick around. But now I can say I have been there and that was worth the stop.
I’ve made this particular drive from Amarillo to Oklahoma City a few times and in recent years I’ve been fascinated with the wind power lights that glow in the evening as you drive past Amarillo. However, this time it was still light outside and I was ready to get home. But I definitely recommend driving around Amarillo at night sometime to see the number of lights on at least the east side of the city.
Ironically, after spending the entire trip attempting to make up for the existence of New York plates on my rental car (because nobody seems to like New Yorkers in the states I visited), I got pulled over for the only time while driving in western Oklahoma. Apparently a construction zone speed limit continued despite the end of the actual construction zone and I joined another car in passing a semi after the construction zone ended. Once I saw a posted speed limit that reflected that it was still the lower speed, I slowed down to that speed. But I was already on someone’s radar.
The young highway patrolman who pulled me over was sympathetic to me not knowing the speed limit remained the same and he acknowledged that I did reduce my speed once there was a posted sign. He was friendly about my vacation and said he was seeing a lot of people who had also been returning from trips. And then he let me off with a warning and I was set on the speed limit the rest of the way home.
My vacation came to a quick end that night and I was able to reflect happily about what had been a hectic trip with several 10-hour drives throughout the vacation. But I saw some places I had never been to before and now know that I will absolutely have to return to Yellowstone National Park at least once more while I am still mobile enough to move around as I please.
For 2021, however, I have already planned two more trips that I am extremely excited about the opportunity to set up and enjoy. Let’s hope 2021 gets better than 2020 in terms of the pandemic or I might be having to adjust to another trip that keeps me isolated from everyone else. Fingers crossed!
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