Everyone and their pumpkins at the annual Rogers’ Pumpkin Carving Party

I hung out with fellow Best Job candidates Erik Rolfsen and Marcella Moser in Vancouver (Canada), had dinner with James Hill and Greg Reynen in Brisbane (Australia), met up with Mitch Moffit in Townsville (Australia), and now I can tick Steven Rogers off my list too! It’s too bad Cali Lewis wasn’t in Texas at the time.

To be honest, I had forgotten Steven lived in Texas (even though his Twitter account is @Steven_in_Texas ). My bad. The last I remembered through our Best Job e-mail threads (everyone still keeps in touch), he was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and roaming the streets of Europe! I received a message from him when we first arrived in Amarillo, Texas asking where we were planning on going in Texas and if we would be passing his way. He invited us to his family’s annual Pumpkin Carving Party, and we happily accepted his invitation!

Steven, his family and friends are all very typical Southerners. And by that I mean that they’re super friendly! I really like the feeling of New Mexico and Texas because everyone is generally nicer down south.

There were heaps of neighbourhood kids and their parents at the party all happily chatting, munching on cookies and candies, and taking part in their 20+ year tradition of carving pumpkins together. The Rogers family have a large dining room table covered in photos from past pumpkin carving parties including one where Steven is sporting an ‘80s mullet (my fav). LOL

Throughout the home, there are pictures of all their travels (and the whole family has travelled a lot). After a little tour, we started carving our pumpkins and mingling over cookies. A great time was had, and the pumpkins turned out fairly well. The only bad part of the afternoon was the attack of the mosquitoes. Both Ang and I get allergic reactions from mosquito bites and I was unfortunately bitten on the forehead. Ugh.

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Thank you to Steven and the Rogers Family for inviting us into your home!

My first time on a mechanical bull

We had arrived in Dallas just in time to miss the annual Dallas Fair — supposedly (according to a guy at the hotel) the biggest fair in all of the USA. “Well, that sucks” we thought and asked the receptionist if there was anything else we could do in the area. She said that there was nothing worth seeing in Dallas, but if we wanted a cowboy experience we should visit Fort Worth (about an hour away). Off we went!

Everything happens for a reason right? Although we missed the Dallas Fair, we had arrived just in time for The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival!

The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering

The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering happens on a weekend once each year in Fort Worth, and events include a chuck wagon cooking competition, ranch rodeo, cattle drive, dancing, and live music performances.

Walking through Fort Worth during a cowboy gathering is like walking through an ad co-sponsored by Ed Hardy and Wrangler jeans! I was glad I was wearing jeans. But even so, we stood out like sore thumbs (Ang even more so because she was wearing yoga pants). You’d be hard pressed to find a place with more cowboy hats, jeans or rhinestones. I can understand the hats and denim, but rhinestones?? Where’d that come from? I’m curious to know whether people normally dress this way in Fort Worth or if it was just for the event.

There’s so much to tell you about that I figured it’d be best to section this post off into smaller more digestible chunks:

Chuck Wagon Cookoff

Making bean stew the traditional way

Where else could you find a chuck wagon cookoff? So cool! There were dozens of teams set up with their own chuck wagons (Where else could you find people who own working chuck wagons!?!) cooking meals which all included biscuits, meat, bean stew and peach cobbler. The rules are simple: make your meals the traditional way using a chuck wagon and fire pits, using the same ingredients as everyone else. I don’t think there was a rule about how you clean the pots afterwards, but I saw people cleaning them the old fashioned way (in tubs) too.

And the best part? Everyone gets to sample the food! Even though the food made Ang and me feel a little ill (I suspect the culprit was the gravy), it was well worth it. We tried samples from three different chuck wagons which included: beef, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, bean stew (some were plain bean stews and others were bean and vegetable stews), and peach cobbler (some were more cobbler-like and others were more pie-like). It was traditional home-cooking and for the most part, it was good! I loved the peach cobbler we had at the last wagon. Yum yum yum.

There are so many cookoff participants that the competition is sectioned off into different parts of the day. So long as you’re in the area in the afternoon, you’ll come across a sampling.

Ranch Rodeo

The cowboys lined up at the start of the Ranch Rodeo

I was really hesitant about attending the rodeo because I used to associate “rodeo” with brutality, animal cruelty and other uncomfortable images. But hey, we were in Texas and it didn’t feel right not to go to a rodeo. Besides, you should try and embrace other cultures while travelling. Right?

We got tickets and I’m so glad we did. The rodeo was my favourite part of the day! They didn’t do any of that bull spearing or thrashing that you usually see on rodeo ads or videos on tv. The rodeo was a competition featuring real challenges cowboys face on the farms:

Team Sorting: Working as a team to single out and move calves from the herd one at a time and in order (the calves are numbered) from one end of the field to the other. Some of the teams were able to do it really quickly and were very impressive.

Bronc Riding: Riding an angry horse for a minimum of eight seconds. Ok, I don’t think the cowboys do this on a regular basis (it’s really bad on the back), but it was definitely entertaining! Nobody was hurt (animals included).

Calf Branding: Working as a team to rope a cow and brand it. I flinched and went wide-eyed when it was announced that the next competition would be calf branding. I don’t appreciate the idea of branding cows because I don’t think they appreciate it either. Most of the cows and horses at the rodeo were branded. Thankfully, the competition used fake branding irons and flour to mark the cows.

This was taken earlier in the day when they were having horse cutting competitions. Horse cutting is when you separate one calf from the herd.

Maverick Branding: A combination of calf branding and team sorting where you have to cut the calf from the herd before you brand it. I wasn’t as keen on the sports that involved lassoing the animals because it looked painful and some of the cows would ‘moo’ in distress. They all walked away without any limps or signs of abuse though.

Mutton Bustin’: This was the CUTEST part of the competition! Little kids between 5 and 7 years of age would take turns mounting sheep and ride them for as long as they could. Some of those sheep could run really fast and most kids would fall off less than two meters out of the gate. There was one little boy though that seemed to have no concept of fear and latched onto that sheep all the way to the end through the herd! The crowd went wild as the kid strutted his way back to the starting line to receive his ribbon.

Team Doctoring: This is the only time when I’m ok with lassoing and tying down a cow. For this event, the team must cut their assigned cow from the herd and tie her down on both ends. This is done on a farm to allow a doctor to safely take a look at a distressed cow.

Wild Cow Milking: It’s exactly how it sounds! LOL And no, cowboys don’t normally do this on a farm.

Cattle Drive and Music Performances

Twice a day, cowboys would march a herd of cattle down the street. It’s a short spectacle, but worth a look if you’re already there.

Throughout the day, there are live music performances on several stages throughout the stockyards. Some performances don’t require a ticket, and others (the better ones) like the Quebe Sisters are held on stage in Mule Alley (ticket required). Mule Alley is also where they have the Swing Festival (dance) at the end of the night to live country music.

Around Fort Worth

Cowboy Boots

It was recommended to us that if we wanted to shop for cowboy hats, boots or jeans, we should shop outside of the main stockyards area because it’s very touristy and the prices are higher. I agree that the main stockyards area is very touristy, but it’s hard to imagine the prices being any higher than those of the surrounding stores. Boots were being sold anywhere between $200 and $2,000 per pair. Yes, they’re handcrafted and detailed, but gee whiz $2,o00 is a lot to spend on one pair of shoes. In another store we went to, each shirt was priced over $150 — the cheapest thing I found was a really ugly blue shirt on the sale rack for $70.

Tips for Travellers to Fort Worth & The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering

1. Prices: To attend some of the events at The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering, you must purchase a ticket (it cost $30 per person this year with an additional $10 to attend the rodeo). You only need one ticket for all the events (except the rodeo), and events that require the purchase of this ticket include: music performances, horsemanship clinics, daytime cowboy competitions (ex. horse cutting), and admission to the markets, Cowboy Hall of Fame, and small museums. You do not need a ticket to shop in the malls around Fort Worth or sample food at the Chuck Wagon Cookoff. Even if you don’t purchase a ticket for the daytime events, I would highly recommend going to the Ranch Rodeo ($10)!
2. There are surprisingly few places to get quick eats at the main Fort Worth stockyards area. If you’re there for the Cowboy Gathering, stop by the chuck wagon cookoff areas in the afternoon for free samples. There are enough samples to keep you full throughout the day if you’re short on change.
3. You can bring snacks and drinks into the rodeo (they’re very casual), but you can also purchase snacks there (hot dogs are $3.50 and they also have cotton candy, burgers etc). Do NOT purchase a chilli hot dog. It tastes as nasty as it looks, and it looks pretty darn nasty.
4. Watch where you step because the cows and horses walk on the same roads as the people.
5. This may be different next year, but when we entered the main area of Fort Worth Stockyards, there was a sign for $10 all day parking. We went a little further in and ended up finding parking for $5.
6. I don’t think Fort Worth would’ve been as much fun if we hadn’t stumbled across the Cowboy Gathering. But, if you’re there for it, plan to spend an entire day there. Go early (before noon) for good parking. If not, a couple hours to circle the area will suffice.

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Round Trip USA

Ok, I lied about the Big Texan being the only touristy kitsch thing to see in Amarillo, Texas. I forgot about Cadillac Ranch!

Even though it’s a tacky piece of “art,” I’d still recommend a visit if you’ve got a car and a few minutes to spare. It’s free to visit and if you’ve never tagged something ugly with something even uglier, then here’s your chance!

Be aware that the ranch has moved about 1 mile away from it’s original site and locals might give you directions to the old location. No worries though, because once you get to the old site, you’ll see a helium factory where they’ll give you proper directions to the new site. Follow their directions instead of your own perceptions of what might be a quicker route, because there are one way streets in this middle-of-nowhere industrial / farm area. Go figure.

Normally I wouldn’t stop at a helium factory for directions, but I had read that the Cadillac Ranch was created by a millionare who made his fortune selling helium. I figured the people at the factory would know about their boss’ weird art. We drove the car towards a group of men at the factory and before we said anything, one of the guys said “Cadillac Ranch?” and gave us quick and simple directions on how to get there. They get a lot of lost tourists their way.

There are a few stories floating around about what the Cadillac Ranch symbolizes. One says that it’s meant to represent the richness of America where expensive Cadillacs are a dime a dozen and can be buried in the ground as art. Another says that the Cadillacs represent the evolution of the car industry since each subsequent car in the line-up is a newer model of the one before it. Finally, the last story just says that the millionare who owns the property and the factory in the area is eccentric and that’s reason enough.

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Tips for Travellers to Cadillac Ranch

1. As mentioned above, the ranch has moved so if you find yourself in the wrong area ask the guys at the helium factory for directions.
2. You can bring your own cans of spray paint, but if you only want to write a word or two you can find some cans on site with some leftover paint to use.
3. Wear closed shoes (no flip-flops) — preferably with no traction. The area is super muddy and we ended up taking about a half hour just to scrape everything out of our soles.

I shrunk!

Morten originally didn’t want to bother stopping in Texas because he had heard that it was just cattle country without much going on. When I was at Surfers Paradise (Australia), I got to talking with a woman who moved to Queensland from Texas and made the food sound so good. I wanted to go to Texas just to try some of the traditional grub! Cattle country = good steak, right?

Well, it turns out both Morten and I were wrong.  Texas was a lot of fun (we ended up staying for three days) but the food wasn’t as good as I thought it would be — not bad, but not great.

The Big Texan

The one tourist attraction in Amarillo (our first stop in Texas) is the Big Texan restaurant. Why? Because it’s home to the famous 72 oz steak — free if you can eat it with a giant shrimp cocktail, roll with butter, salad, and baked potato in under one hour, or $72 if you can’t. How big is a 72 oz steak? Well, you’re only supposed to eat as much meat as the size of your fist. The 72 oz steak is roughly six or  seven times the size of my fist, or the size of a small cat.

We decided we couldn’t eat that much so we ordered a regular steak for two, and a chicken fried steak to share between the three of us. With each order, you get two sides so we picked: fried okra (a very bland green vegetable), beef steak tomatoes with raw red onions, coleslaw, steak fries, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Needless to say, it was still too much food. We didn’t bother to pack up the leftovers because most of it consisted of the chicken fried steak which tasted cheap (imagine a fast food copy cat of McNuggets in a larger form made with mashed beef that doesn’t taste like beef).

The 72 oz steak at the Big Texan

If you order a steak at the Big Texan, always order it one step rarer than you would normally order (ex. if you like your steak medium rare, order it rare). They warn you on the menu that due to their cooking methods, their steaks always come out drier and more well-done than other restaurants.

I wouldn’t recommend the place for the food, but I do think it’s worth a stop if you’re in the area just to feel like you’re living in a world of giants. You’ll find just about everything in giant form: money, cow, cowboy boot, chair, rice crispy square, Hershey bar, cake, steak, etc.

Oh, but if you’re a vegetarian or animal rights activist, steer clear of the place. It’s a steak house and every wall is covered with the work of taxidermists: elk, deer, moose, beaver, boar, bear… anything furry and formerly wild.

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