Extended Weekend Getaways By Kathleen Walls
Publisher AmericanRoads.net
Amarillo, TX – Courtyard Amarillo Downtown
Following such a historical route, it fits to stay in a historic hotel. The Fisk Building, an eleven-story building constructed in the mid-1920s during Texas’ oil-boom years, was originally built to house doctors and dentists. The First National Bank occupied a portion of the building from 1935 to 1951. In 2011, the building was converted to the 107-room Courtyard Amarillo Downtown, one of Marriott’s Courtyard hotels.
It has all the comfort and amenities you expect from a Marriott hotel with the bonus of historic touches.
The Big Texan
The Big Texan is food and fun wrapped in one crazy package. It’s the kind of place Miss Kitty would choose on a dinner date with Marshal Dillon. From the parking lot on, you feel you’re on a western movie set. There’s a life-sized windmill, a big cowboy, wooden swings, and a huge plastic bull out front with a sign offering “Free 72-Ounce Steak.” 
The dining room is classic Old West décor, with cowboy musicians roaming around playing requests. The massive grills have grillers turning out steaks at the speed of light, with a table right in front set for anyone wishing to try for that free steak.
If you want that “free” steak the sign promised, you must eat a 72-oz steak with all the trimmings, 3 fried shrimp, garden salad, baked potato and a dinner roll, in one hour. The most spectacular win was in April 2016 when Molly Schuyler, a 128 lbs young woman, tucked away three of the 72-ounce in 20 minutes. She broke all records and won a grand prize of $5000. 
- J. “Bob” Lee opened The Big Texan in 1960 on Route 66 and his sons, Bobby and Danny, carry on today. In 1970, he realized the new highway, Interstate 40, was going to divert much of the traffic from Route 66, so he moved the restaurant to its present location.
They have an onsite brewery where Danny and brewmaster, Tom Money, brew Texas-style beers. There’s a motel designed to look like an old western town. Their latest addition is an RV park.
For groups of four or more at local lodgings or RV park, The Big Texan will send their black limo complete with bull horns to pick you up and return you. Perfect if you plan to party hearty.
Quarter Horse Hall of Fame
Since the horse was Texans’ main transportation long before cars, there’s the Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum. Start with the video in the Ken & Laina Banks Theater to learn the history of the American Quarter Horse. 
You can get the “inside story” at the X-ray exhibit. You can’t help falling in love with “Doc” the vet and “Two Bits” the horse getting his checkup.
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, a fantastic museum located on Texas A and M University Campus in Canyon, Texas, calls itself “The Smithsonian with a Texas accent” for good reason.
It covers 14,000 years and 26,000 miles of Texas’ panhandle. It began as a bits-and-pieces museum during the Great Depression and continued to grow until it’s now the largest history museum in Texas, with over two million artifacts, way too many to tell about all. 
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum has Pioneer Town covering life in the Texas Panhandle from 1890 to 1910. You can see the village church or visit a Chinese laundry.
The transportation section covers stagecoaches to classic cars. One of my favorites is the 1910 Zimmerman, one of the rarest of American-made autos, that really were horseless carriages made from old buggy parts. You’ll see lots of classic cars, the old Burma Shave Signs, and so much more.
Jack Sisemore RV Museum
Jack Sisemore RV Museum’s tucked away behind Jack’s RV sales and service. Step inside and you experience time travel. The jukebox, in a 1950s diner, is playing Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Fats Domino. 
Stepping farther back in time, there’s a Lampsteed Kampkar, designed a kit to fit the Model T Ford chassis. Its rear compartment folds to become two double beds. Upright, the bed frame’s center section becomes a pair of bench seats.
Then there is the big 1948 Flxible, that was used in Robin Williams’ movie RV. The nostalgia continues with a shiny like-new 1962 Airstream, the little aluminum 1946 Teardrop or the teensy red and white 1953 Fleetwood Travel trailer. 
As a longtime RVer, I was in heaven here.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park
Texas doesn’t get outdone in the nature department. The 120-miles-long Palo Duro Canyon is second only to the Grand Canyon in the United States. 
Once you enter the park, the views change from flatlands to fantastic canyons with amazing colors and shapes. Every formation is unique. There are hoodoos, mushroom-shaped columns of sedimentary rock jutting out of the canyon floor, and ruffle, called by early Spanish explorers “Spanish Skirts.” Early Spanish explorers named the canyon “Palo Duro” meaning “hard wood” because the area is filled with mesquite and juniper trees. The cliffs and formations are variations of reds and oranges with some buff mixed in. The mesquite trees are bright green and the juniper a darker green. Tiny flowers standing alone on barren sand or rock are very eye-catching.
Best place to start is at the Visitors Center. There is a museum of natural and historical facts about the canyon here.
You can stay at the park’s campground or cabins. If you visit from June to August, you can see Texas, the state play of Texas, at the Pioneer amphitheater, carved in one of the canyon’s natural basins.
