Day 5: From Olkahoma City, OK to Amarillo, TX

1350 miles driven so far

After last night's storm, the day has awoken cloudy, windy and cold, in quite a notable weather shift. The journey today was relatively short, so we drove into Oklahoma City to have a look around. Following the pattern we are seeing lately, downtown was not tourist friendly, it consists of government and offices buildings lined along wide avenues, with no walking area or sights of significance.
One of the few attractions is a memorial place built after a bomb attack that killed over 160 people in 1995. The building was demolished and the place is now a garden with chair-like structures for each of the victims, containing a lamp that lights up at night. There were several schools visiting it at the same time.

After this, we visited the Oklahoma State Capitol building, which houses the state's government. It is relatively large, but nothing too remarkable.

Finally, before leaving Oklahoma City, we went to the Bricktown district, a former area filled with red brick warehouses that is now being redeveloped into a pubs and restaurants zone, with a feeling quite similar to that of Canal Street in Manchester.

There, we visited a true American attraction: the American Banjo Museum. This is a museum devoted to the history of the banjo, explaining is evolution from an instrument for black slaves to a mainstream instrument in jazz and blues. Their collection of banjos is really impressive.

Right after noon, we finally got on the road on our way to Amarillo, in Texas, but we didn't need to ask any of the locals which was the way to Amarillo : )

The road didn't present many features on this occasion, we drove mainly on the interstate with a few incursions in the towns nearby, but actually nothing too remarkable. As we were getting nearer to Texas, the landscape slowly evolved from the green meadows in Oklahoma to tree-less, extensive plains showing more and more brown.

Before arriving to Texas, we stopped at the Bar-B-Que Shed, where we had some of the best charcoal-grilled ribs we've ever tried, in a place with real character.

Back on the road, just after entering Texas, we witnessed a road accident (an overturn lorry) and the subsequent arrival of the medical support helicopter, which is necessary in these parts due to the long distances to everything.

We had the chance to visit a couple of Route 66 roadside attractions before arriving to our destination, which give an idea of the kind of things that are officially considered attractions on this route. The first one is called "the leaning tower of Groom", and it basically is a water tower that is, well, leaning.

Secondly, The Big Texan a restaurant near Amarillo which is completely decorated as a western saloon, even with a piano player, and which is famous for offering a 72 oz. (approx. 2 kg) steak that is free if you are able to eat it (together with four side dishes) in an hour. We didn't attempt it, but we spoke with a guy that was about to have a go at it and was really nervous. At this time, we don't know what's happened with him.

Our short time in Texas has confirmed us that most of what you see in movies is quite accurate, people with mustaches and cowboy hats driving huge trucks and wearing old Wrangler jeans.You can also find the Texas state shape almost everywhere: tiles, barbecues, pies ... Indeed, tomorrow we'll have our pancakes made in a Texas-shaped pancake maker!

But more on Texas tomorrow...