I'm Back!

I've become so lazy. After having to load and unload luggage almost everyday for the past two weeks I've also developed some nice looking biceps. After being home for a total of two days I can genuinely say that there's no place like home! Everything is where it should be, I have a computer, and more importantly my own room back!---- Not that I didn't mind sharing a hotel room with my grandma, but she snores too much for me to actually get a good night's sleep. Another thing I'm glad about is not having to lug my family's luggage everywhere. When we checked into our hotel in Vegas the bellman counted how many bags we had and there was a shocking 29 (!) bags ranging from large enough to hide a mini pony in-- to backpack sized bags. Needless to say, I'm done with luggage. From now on any of my travel essentials will have to fit inside one duffel bag or else it'll be deemed non-essential.

Like I said at the beginning, I'm lazy (probably from having to be a pack mule for two weeks) so I'll post a few pictures of stuff that I saw/did on the way up to Vegas....

Our first stop was in Amarillo to eat at The Big Texan. It's been a dream of my dad's to eat at this place since as long as I can remember. They've been on TV about a gazillion times for their 72 0z. steak challenge. If you can it that sucker along with a salad, baked potato, and dinner role in under an hour the meal is free.

While we were eating some nice minstrels came by our table and sang us a song about cowboys and heartache.

Two guys from the northeast tried the 72 oz steak challenge..... and failed miserably.

The restaurant itself was one giant saloon decked out in enough taxidermy to populate a mile's worth of prairie.

My parents made us sit in the giant rocking chair. It took five minutes to get my baby brother to sit in my lap and look at the camera---- obviously he didn't feel like smiling. Oooh, and the restaurant gives out complimentary cowboy hats which is secretly why I wanted to eat there. Now I have two cowboy hats.

Randomly we stopped at this shack of a gift shop that was selling petrified wood. Can you believe this chunk of wood/stone is worth over $3000?! I think this was somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona... the states all blend together after a while.

The gift shop was also selling ostriches. No joke!

I saw a lot of rolling hills, mountains, and rocks while on the road--- all of which I'm unaccustomed to. Living in the Piney Woods of east Texas, the closest thing to a mountain around here is a jungle gym so it was quite the shock seeing mainly dirt and shrubbery.

I'll post more on my trip later.... when I unpack the memory card with all the Vegas pictures on it.... XP