At 7 a.m. yesterday morning the clown parked next to us in a Fleetwood diesel pusher started his engine and let it run for two full hours while he opened and slammed his bay doors, unhooked his campground utilities, had a long loud telephone conversation in the narrow space between our two motorhomes, and finally left, just after 9 a.m. I know you can’t fix stupid, but in some cases you really should be able to hit it upside the head with a baseball bat!
It was a bad way to start a good day. We drove about 20 miles south to Canyon, Texas and spent several hours touring the excellent Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Dubbed the “Smithsonian of Texas,” this was one of the finest museums we have ever visited, and in our 13+ years on the road as fulltime RVers, we have been to a lot of museums! Exhibits range from the dinosaurs who once roamed this regions, to early native people, Spanish conquistadors, cowboys, cattlemen, outlaws, settlers, and oilfield roustabouts.
There are also extensive collections of firearms, fossils, minerals, some neat old cars, and an impressive art collection. We’ll have a feature story on the museum in an upcoming issue of the Gypsy Journal.
Several blog readers had recommended we try the Stockyard Café while we were in Amarillo, but it is only open for breakfast and lunch except on Fridays, so we need to find someplace else for dinner. I did some searching online and came up with the Coyote Bluff Café, which is famous for their Burger From Hell, which is smothered in fresh sautéed jalapenos, Coyote Hell Sauce, Tabasco, cheese, lettuce, tomato and grilled onions. The restaurant was featured on the Travel Channel’s Man Vs Food television show a while back, so it had to be good, right?
When we pulled up outside the small place, the first thing Miss Terry said is “You take me to all the best places!” Okay, so it’s not impressive on the outside, but the inside was a little bit better. Just a little.
The place is decorated in what can only be called Tacky Greasy Spoon style, but the waitresses and other patrons were all friendly. Terry loves a good cheeseburger, and I… well, have you seen me? Enough said.
Neither of us were up for the challenge of the Burger From Hell, so I ordered the Dijon Mustard Cheeseburger and Terry chose the Green Chili Cheddar Burger with a side of guacamole. We also ordered the cheese fries, which were a meal in themselves.
One bite of our burgers and Terry and I agreed that the Coyote Bluff Café serves the best burger in the country, bar none. They are a full half pound of lean ground beef, on your choice of a white, whole wheat, or onion bun, and they are so delicious that your taste buds will think they died and went to heaven!
In spite of her poor taste in husbands, Miss Terry is very picky when it comes to the quality of two things, Mexican food and cheeseburgers. She was literally in awe of her burger! I asked her where it rated on a scale of 1 to 10, and she said it was completely off the charts. That’s high praise!
They serve hugs\e glasses of soda or iced tea, or you can grab a beer from the cooler, which is an old bathtub filled with ice in the middle of the small restaurant. I wonder if this is one of the same bathtubs those folks are always sitting outside in in those television commercials for Cialis?
Take my word for it, the fabled Big Texan may serve the best steaks in Amarillo, but if you want the best burger in the country, put a stop at the Coyote Bluff Café on your bucket list. You won’t be disappointed.
We’ll be on the road today and I have no idea where we’ll end up, but it will be somewhere in Kansas. Hopefully we’ll have a signal and can post a blog tomorrow, but there are places in the Heartland where the signal can be patchy, so I make no guarantees. If not, we’ll be back the next day.
Thought For The Day – Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.
Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Too bad you didn’t get to see the play at Palo Duro Canyon but that museum truly has something for everyone. We were there about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it.
http://travelinglongdogs.blogspot.com/
You might consider stopping at LaCross, KS and visiting their Barbed Wire Museum. It was impressive. While you’re there, they have a small city park with free camping. However, you paid for your electric at the rate of a quarter an hour, 15 amps only, up to 4 hours at a time.
Nearby in Victoria, KS is the “Cathedral of the Plains”. It is over a hundred years old and is an impressive structure, well taken care of by the local parishioners. Then head east to Lyons, KS to their small city museum. They have parts of Spanish Mall that farmers recovered from the fields. So Coranado did make it to Kansas! Gene
Nick,as one of “the most interesting men in the world” I’m sure you chose the Dos Eqqis XX I saw in that tub.
Yep, I think a baseball bat was in order!!!
Nick,
I think we were parked near the loud mouth in the DP last summer in Maine at Wild Duck Campground. He left an indelible impression on us as we are pretty sure he stole one of the chrome lug nut covers from one of our wheels before he departed early, early one morning. His was the only rig nearby that had lug nut covers like ours. Jerks can be found in all places.
Well Nick, “told you so” the Coyote Bluff is a stop anytime we get to Amarillo. I forgot about the museum in Canyon – you are correct, probably one of the best around.
I gotta stop reading this blog while I’m on my diet. It doesn’t make my yogurt taste very good!
The Cayote Bluff Cafe qualifies for our eternal quest for “hole-in-the-wall” places to eat. They always seem to have the best food. And, somehow the ambiance always seems to work. I guess when your belly is satisfied it all looks good!
Nick … I am a museum fanatic and I love your pictures. This will definitely go on my bucket list. Barely visible in the chuck wagon image is a dutch oven just like the one my dad cooked our meals in all his life while trailing cattle to the Sierras. I still have it and think I’ll pull it out for Sunday morning biscuits. Thanks for the memories!!
I wish you would have had time to see the play “Texas” at Palo Duro Canyon. It is something to behold and just continues the saga of the High Plains of Texas. Glad you are enjoying yourself in a small part of the Great State of Texas.
Nick and Miss Terry, I invite you to come visit the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, OK I think you would enjoy it. Let us know when you do as we live across the street and would love to meet up with you. Once we get out on the road we plan to visit a lot of the places you recommend. Happy trails…
We, too, have undertaken a quest for the best chicken-fried steak. Two nights ago we were at the Rock County fairgrounds in Bassett, NE. So we went in search of a bite to eat and ended up at the Range Cafe where I had the CF steak. It ranks near the top with the Pepper Pod in Colorado. I grew up on CF steak and I like to find it cooked just like way back when, in a skillet and not deep-fried.
Del Rancho here in cental Oklahoma serves up a mean CF steak with all the fixins’. Their CF steak sandwich is enough for two people to eat and be full on.
I don’t know how many times that the highlight of my trip was the burger obtained during the trip! I always said that I wanted to get a blog going myself just to keep track of the awesome meals found during those times on the road.