Today's blogging is starting live from the passenger seat of the BigTripMobile, cruising at 75 MPH in North-Central Texas. A welcome spot of solid 4G connectivity for US Cellular - yay! And you know what - this state is FREAKIN' HUGE, which has lead to another long day (450+ miles) to get a decent ways into Texas. We found a few fun things along the way to break up the miles.

This morning we finished up the space-related activities by working our way through Roswell, New Mexico. The town has, of course, continued to capitalize on being the Alien Visitation Capital of the World, all stemming from a fun 1947 incident that went viral before viral was cool. Everything in town has little green men around it, including the McDonald's and the phone book. Good job sticking with a theme for 70 years, Roswell!

The main stop before heading out of town was the International UFO Museum and Research Center. Located right on Main Street, this place is the definition of kitsch. It's not huge, but it's pretty big, and it's quite a thing to take a sketchy 1947 UFO sighting and make a whole museum out of it. And they did it well! Killer gift shop, too. Great stop, put a smile on our faces, and checked a box on a good piece of Americana. I believe.

Americana stops #2 and #3 were in Amarillo, Texas. Lunch was the first Amarillo stop, and we chose the Big Texan Steak Ranch Truck Stop. We found this place on a list of the best truck stops in America. It has a definite tourist trap vibe, but solid cheap food and lot's of folks in cowboy hats saying 'y'all'. They also had a classic food challenge consisting of a 72oz steak and a few sides - eat it in an hour and it's free. They put people trying the challenge on a stage in the middle of the restaurant along with a big digital countdown clock so you can see them suffering. We saw two people start the challenge towards the end of our meal, but we left well before they finished. There are a couple of sensitive stomachs in the family; it's understandably not possible to enjoy eating around people attempting something that involves nearby up-chucking buckets. Overall - very good stop!

We then moseyed a few miles down the road to the current location of The Cadillac Ranch. This awesome art installation is something most of you have probably seen pictures of at some point. It has more history than I initially knew, so worth a Google search if you are interested. We got our graffiti on and put a few personal tags on the cars. One more great Americana stop checked off the list.

On to Wichita Falls for the night. We'll get some laundry done and then several days in the heart of Texas. G'night, y'all.

- Jim