Soggy Cadillacs and Sod Poodles

The Connors are headed out west once again and bringing along the Christensens this time.  Ryan will be turning 40 this month so we decided to take a big family trip to Colorado to celebrate together.  It turns out that the distance to Amarillo from Tulsa and Frisco is almost exactly the same so we all headed out this morning for Amarillo.  Mom and Dad got an early start at 8:30 and the rest of us pulled out at 10:00, but we managed to arrive at our hotel at almost exactly the same time.

  

Our drive was pretty uneventful as we have driven this route many times by now.  We saw about 1,000 windmills and 1,001 signs for the Big Texan.  The major highlight was seeing a Sonic with inside dining.  Fancy!  

We splurged for the in-car Wifi this month so the backseat was mostly heads down and quiet.  Rodney and I passed the time by trying to remember who we knew from Texas Tech from each small west Texas town we passed through.

We arrived at the hotel around 4:00.  It seemed that no matter where you traveled from or what time you left, everyone staying at this hotel arrived at exactly the same time.  After finally checking in and getting settled in our rooms, we headed out with spray paint in hand to Cadillac Ranch.  None of us have ever visited this tourist trap and it was only 15 minutes from our hotel,  so we decided to check it out.

We arrived at the spot and parked on the side of the service road along with many other visitors.  This place was busy on this holiday weekend.  We spotted the Cadillacs in the distance and noticed that everything in between, starting with the service road itself, was covered in spray paint.  As we got closer, we were disappointed to see that every single Cadillac was surrounded by a giant puddle.

All other ground was bone dry and people were spray painting anything they could reach.  Some people had wrapped their shoes in trash bags and gone into the puddles to reach the cars.  A few others went in barefoot.  Ewww.  

The first Cadillac had a big mound of dirt fairly close to it so the kids got in line to stand on the mound and make their mark on the only place they could reach.

The spray paint is THICK on these cars.  We all agreed that Cadillac Ranch could use a little sprucing up. Aside from the drainage issues, the whole place was generally trashed. And 47 years of spray paint buildup is a lot!  It’s also possible that we have been spoiled by beautiful national parks. 

When we felt that we had sufficiently experienced this attraction, we headed back to the hotel for the complimentary happy hour, hot tub, pool, and sauna time.

The kids had never been in a sauna before and it was a hit.

We were getting hungry so we got dressed and walked across the street to Joe Taco for dinner.  It was delicious!  

We didn't know this before, but our hotel is right across the street from the AA baseball team, Amarillo Sod Poodles (which is apparently west Texas slang for prairie dogs).  It turns out they were having a game tonight followed by fireworks!  We walked around a bit after dinner and Rodney found an official Minor League baseball just lying on the sidewalk outside the stadium.  Caleb was excited about this new treasure.

We decided that the top level of the parking garage where we parked for our hotel would be the perfect spot to view the post-game firework show.  Some of us went back to the sauna while we waited for the game to end and we watched in our swim suits.  It was a perfect night and a really good fireworks show from the perfect viewing spot. 

The perfect ending to a great first day.  Tomorrow, we go to Colorado!