Day three
Itinerary: Amarillo, Texas to Little Rock, Arkansas in 9.5 hours.
Weather Condition: Cold and windy in Oklahoma and heavy rain and lightning in Arksansas
Miles Driven: 597 miles
Stops: Oklahoma City OK, Stockyard City OK and North Little Rock AK
The more East we go, the earlier I have to go to bed with the time change. We woke up bright and early at 7am and had a light breakfast in the La Quinta reception. Not an exciting breakfast, but I had a lot planned for today so we checked out early. Stacy had sent me a guide to Amarillo and there were at least two places we had to go before leaving town. The first was the Donut Stop. Google Maps had quite a few locations not far from the hotel however when we drove there they were no where to be found. We drove up and down Coulter Street looking for the two Donut Stops and found nothing. The attendant at the gas station said it was across the street, but she must have been smoking something because there was a burger stand in it’s place. We gave up after 20 minutes driving up and down the same street and headed over to the second place I wanted to see in West Amarillo on the I-40 – Cadillac Ranch. If you are driving into Amarillo, it is just 5 miles outside of town off Frontage Road on the south side. Cadillac Ranch is an art installation in the middle of a field with a bunch of Cadillacs buried face down in the ground so hold two-thirds of the car is visible. They are all graffiti’d up and visitors are encouraged to bring their own spray can and make their mark. In photos on the web, the graffiti was actually better however with time it seems everyone with a spray can, and not all artists, have made the cars rather hideous. A few of the car doors looked like they had been stolen as well, but maybe that is the purpose of this type of installation. The evolution of the piece with visitors making their ‘mark’. I took a quick few photos and got back on the road.
As we were leaving Amarillo I saw a sign in the distance off the freeway – DONUT STOP! Unintentionally we found one and went to see what all the fuss was about. Driving up to donut shop, the giant Donut Stop sign loomed over the little shop that had at least ten cars already queued up by the drive thru window. Inside the shop, it felt like a Krispy Kreme with lots of workers making donuts in the back which could be seen through a viewing window and stands of donuts waiting to be served. They had apple fritters, twists, blueberry and regular cake donuts, cherry glazed, frosted donuts, filled donuts, and your cinnamon rolls. We got a box variety and sat down for a bite. Verdict – I’m not a donut connoisseur but they were quite sweet and some a little sickly. They were good but weren’t amazing IMHO. Over-rated to be honest but now I can say I went to the Donut Stop.
With that done, we left Amarillo and Texas behind and drove eastbound to Oklahoma. The landscape from Texas to Oklahoma change from dry flat lands to greener flatlands and we drove past a lot of farming land and quite a few cattle farms along the way as well. Oklahoma City was a 4.5 hour drive and J had suggested we visit Nic’s Grill in North OKC for the best brunch. However when we finally got there, it was closed! Only open from Mon-Fri 7am-2pm and today was Sunday! Apparently a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays or Mondays in the midwest so I tried Yelp for the nearest best bbq place and it suggested Pappy’s BBQ. But it was also closed too!
I tried Yelp a second time and it suggested the Cattlemen’s Steakhouse about 5 miles south of where we were. I GPS’d the location and it took us to Stockyard City where the restaurant was and as soon as we stepped out of the car it smelled like cows. hmmm where are we? In the steakhouse, I soon realized we were in cowboy land. Half the customers had stetson cowboy hats on and there was a large photo of cattle across the restaurant. The staff were friendly and we were soon seated and ordered the luncheon pot roast special (we had steak the night before and couldn’t face another one). The food was delicious and they have the most amazing fresh baked bread. Food seems to be on the saltier side the further East we drive… why is that I wonder. The waitress gives us a few tips of places of interests and one was the stockyard next door. We drove to the stockyard down the street which was a historical stockyard where cattle are auctioned and traded every Monday/Tuesday and during the rest of the week Cowboys/Cattlehand bring in their cattle and get rounded up. I don’t think I’d have ever ended up here if Yelp hadn’t directed me to that restaurant – what a neat find! I took a walk up the bridge that goes over the entire stockyard and there below were thousands of calves being herded into pens. Holy Cow, I reached Moo city!
We spent a bit more time in Oklahoma than I’d planned so we had to get back on the road with another 4-5 hour drive to our hotel for the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. Driving out of Oklahoma to Arkansas seemed like an eternity and as it got darker the weather turned on us and again I was driving in heavy rain. We finally arrived in Little Rock where it rained cats and dogs all night.
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