A cowboy hat is an appropriate tree topper here.

The Big Texan.

A 72 ounce sirloin is definitely not in my future anymore. So I opted for a 24 ounce ribeye.

Twenty-four ounces of mouth-watering goodness.

"R. J.'s Texas Cut Ribeye." I'm going to assume that R. J. is a reference to founder Robert J. "Bob" Lee.

It was wonderful !

And so ends the first day of my return trip to Athens. I filled the car up with fuel and headed to my hotel. Today's journey from Gillette, Wyoming to Amarillo, Texas covered 782 miles. The running total now stands at 3,522 miles over a period of 9 days.

In keeping with my tradition, the first day of travel is always the longest, meaning tomorrow's drive would be about 100 miles shorter. But I was in store for something different this year that would make the trip quite . . . interesting.