Texas

Yesterday, we were with Joe’s friend Ben and his family, went to brunch, enjoyed the town square (which still has a monument to Confederate soldiers), out to the dam and its resulting lake, all without my phone, so no pictures.

Today we took a road trip, Ben, Joe, and I. It was just great. We left around 9 and headed towards Fredericksburg, which has beoome a tourist destination for its wineries and cutesy main street with lots of Wild West building facades. On the way we took the Willow City Loop, which goes through ranch country with amazing wildflower displays — blue bonnets, Indian Paintbrush, and some white flower we couldn’t identify.

Lunch in Fredericksburg, and a stroll up and down its main street. Since no one in our group is a shopper, we didn’t last long there. From there we headed to LBJ Country. Our first stop was the Texas White House, with stops nearby at the LBJ birthplace, the one-room school where LBJ started school (and where he came back as president to sign the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, with his teacher from those days at his side), the family cemetery where he and Lady Bird are buried, and a drive all around the huge ranch. The Texas White House is closed because of serious structural issues caused when the family added bathrooms and cut down load-bearing walls with abandon, but we could see it from the outside in its lovely location on the banks of the Pernales River. The plane used by LBJ to fly from Washington to his ranch is still there, with the story being that although this plane was an Air Force One, LBJ nick-named it Air Force Half-One because it was so small (seating for 8 or 9).

Here I will add the aside that as someone who came of age in the 60s, LBJ was always associated with Viet Nam in my mind. Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today? was a familiar refrain. That image has changed over the years, with many trips to Texas, as I have been reminded of the incredible number of landmark laws that were passed during his presidency, frequently due to nothing other than LBJ’s own sheer force as a politician. The Voting Rights Act, the Environmental Protection Act, Medicare, the Clean Water Act, the list goes on and on.

Our last stop was at another LBJ National Park site in Johnson City (named for a nephew of LBJ’s grandfather, so the Johnson family was clearly a fixture in this part of Texas). There we saw his boyhood home (complete with outhouse!) and a few longhorn cattle there to delight the visitors, like me, who had never seen one. It is probably a trite observation, but to see that a US president began life in a three room house does make an impact.

A great day with a ride home through hill country, blue bonnets everywhere. Too tired to go out for dinner, we will just munch on snacks and head off to slumberland.Read more