Deep in the heart of Texas

JC, feeling homesick, sent me the following bit of nostalgia today. How someone who grew up so differently from me ended up to be my doppleganger I’ll never understand.

Below are a few of the things I miss when I get home sick for Texas. Like I said, it doesn’t happen often and I get over it in a matter of minutes once I’m there, but aside from the kids and my parents, this is what I want when I have that feeling.

Chicken fried steak was one of my favorite meals growing up. It’s always best when it’s big enough to stop your heart.

Of course, you have to have something to wash down all that grease, so Lone Star Beer it is. It’s not the best beer in the world, but every Texas boy has consumed a lot of the stuff.

Both of these things can be found at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, home of the free 72oz steak provided you can eat it, along with a buttered roll, a baked potato, a side of beans, a shrimp cocktail and a dinner salad all in under an hour. They also have a bizarre ‘opry’ style dinner show featuring tap dancing twins, square dancing, troubadours and some of the best acting within two square miles.

Aside from this, there’s the fast food, specifically, Whataburger. Whataburger is the best fast food to be found. All orders are made fresh when they’re ordered making it a bit slower than most fast food, but it’s definitely worth the wait. I don’t think I’ve gone back once without having a Whataburger or a Breakfast on a Bun. Prior to leaving, my regular Friday night dinner was a triple-meat triple-bacon triple-cheese Whataburger with a 44oz vanilla milk shake and fries.

Then there’s Mexican fast food and Taco Villa beats the heck out of Taco Bell or any of the others on any day. It’s actually close in taste to a lot of the fare you get at the walk-in tex-mex restaurants.

Aside from the food, I miss sitting, writing under the cars at the Cadillac Ranch. I’ve also graffittied the heck out of these cars as has every other person who’s come to see them. They’re also a great place to meet people from around the world. It’s amazing the number of people who’ve made a side trip just to see some partially buried cars.

The Cadillac Ranch was created by the Ant Farm and was funded by Stanley Marsh 3, an eccentric oil millionaire who lives in town. He’s funded many of these kind of projects including the “remains” of a giant statue called Ozymandias that resides in a field between Amarillo and Canyon.

At some point, someone painted socks on the legs.

There’s also the floating mesa; a mesa with a sky blue fence around the top.

But, the most visible of his “art projects” is the huge number of customized road signs all over the city. Most of these reside in people’s front yards as the city confiscated any that were placed along the roadways. According to the site where I found the pictures, there are over 5000 of these signs in the area.

I also miss seeing people ride their horses through the middle of town. It’s not at all uncommon to see horses hitched outside of fast food restaurants.

There are also those plains sunsets that seem to last forever.

And, tornado weather. There’s something I really like bout this. There’s a weird feeling in the air when a storm like this comes along.