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Travel Tip – The Big Texan Restaurant and Inn
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Travel Tip – The Big Texan Restaurant and Inn
I have a confession to make. The Bible tells us that to heal, we must confess to each other.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
(from New International Version)
My confession is that I love low budget “tourist traps” that are designed to be fun and overdone. Look at the pictures on the website and you will indeed see that this place was designed to trap the tourists. I am happily trapped.
I was traveling down highway 40 in Texas and came to the city of Amarillo, Texas. It was 7:00 P.M. and well past time to stop. I saw The Big Texan from the highway. I started laughing, thanked God, and pulled in.
The room was only $40 so I was a little nervous. I asked to see it. When I saw it, I knew I was staying. I found the place delightful.
The outside of the inn is decorated like the hotels of old western Texas. Each set of rooms had a theme. The theme where I stayed was called Dodge House Hotel.
The windows inside the room have wooden shutters instead of curtains. The door to the bathroom is a swinging door like those seen in old bar rooms. The fact that it is slightly worn out and I can hear my neighbors does not bother me a bit.
The restaurant has a giant cow and windmill out front. They advertise their 72-ounce steak special. If you can eat it all, you become a member of their 72-Ounce Club. You also get the steak for free.
While I was there, someone took the 72-ounce challenge. They put him at a table on a stage and he had 60 minutes to eat a 72-ounce steak, salad, bread, and 2 baked potatoes. I did not stay long enough for the outcome but I did take a picture.
All of the staff was wearing western costumes. The restaurant includes a gift shop, dining room, and a casino. I did not order the 72-ounce steak or go in the casino.
Luke 4:8
Get thee behind me, Satan:
KJV
My 8-ounce steak was delicious and I will get to finish the second half of that tomorrow. My quarters are still safe in my pockets.
The gift shop had an author signing books that contained stories of the west. I enjoyed meeting and talking with Norman Dysart and bought his book, "Like Whispers In The Wind." This is a love story about 2 men fighting a gun battle over a woman. The woman is killed in the fight.
This book includes many black and white photographs of people of the west. As a child, Norman heard this story first hand from an eyewitness. The eyewitness was a friend of his father and his picture is in the book. Norman is probably in his 70’s himself. Norman told me story after story of the people he had met.
As I walked up to the restaurant, I took a picture of three men in western attire. They joked and said they were not responsible if they broke my camera. It turns out that they were the entertainment. Their band is called West Texas Ranch Hands. It includes a guitar, fiddle, and string bass player. They play country, gospel, western, and bluegrass.
They walked from table to table playing for individuals. I am a musician and enjoy good music. Their harmony was excellent and all played their instruments beautifully. They asked where I was from and I told them about my journey. When they heard what I was doing, they smiled and played a wonderful rendition of “Born Again.” They said they were all born again Christians.
They saw me taking pictures and got a waiter to take my picture with them. When I return to Jacksonville, I will put all of the pictures of me out on the website. That one will be included.
For the picture, they put their arm around me and joked that the waiter should take his time because they were having fun. Since I turned fifty this week, their joke increased their tip.
Just kidding. For those of you that do not know, I have been married 31 years and am madly in love with my husband. I even told them my husband was a string bass player. This weekend, Bob joined me in Texas and we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary. He flew home just this morning. Incidentally, he turned fifty just two weeks ago. I cannot believe I am married to someone who is fifty.
When the band left my table, they gave me their business card. Their business card says:
“Oops!”
"Can you imagine what those terrorist pilots thought when they saw Jesus instead of Mohammed?"
It also said:
"I don’t care about where you’ve been in life, but I do care about where you’re going. Remember, Jesus loves you."
I thought about the simple theology of that card. No matter where we have been in life, Jesus loves us. He loves us unconditionally and offers us perfect grace. We do not have to earn our way into his eternal love by some grand act for our country, religion, or God. All we have to do is say yes.
If we say yes, He forgets our past and orchestrates our future. He has a home waiting for us when we die. We can spend an eternity that begins now being loved perfectly. We can choose to come out of darkness and into the light. What an incredible God we have.
John 3:16-21
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
(from New International Version)
Thank God for men that will sing a song declaring their salvation to a room full of tourists attracted by the appeal of old Texas very much overdone.
Do you know the Jesus that West Texan Ranch Hands sang about? Are you “born again” into the wonderful love of that Jesus.
If the answer is no, I beg you to stop right now and accept His love. It is so simple. It is so wonderful. It is so real.
Ask Him to enter your life. Confess that you are a person who struggles and who has made many mistakes. Tell him that you accept His eternal forgiveness for the mistakes of your past and future. Ask Him to show you how to let Him love you and to make you His child.
The phone number for Big Texan Inn in Amarillo, Texas is 1-806-372-5000.
The phone number for West Texas Ranch Hands is 806-359-9224.
I recommend both. I also recommend the Jesus that the West Texas Ranch Hands serve.
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