Texas Hill Country Tour Day - Sat., May 10

Bob, Laura, Mom and I hopped in the car at 8:15 a.m. On our way out of town, Bob had an errand to do. When he was finished, we headed out to Random Beer Garden and Event Center to say hello to Randall.

Bob, Randall, Louise, Laura

While we were there, Randall pointed out a gorgeous green anole lizard sitting on the outside air conditioning box.

Anole

From Random we headed to Smittyville off I-10 in Welfare, Texas. We were in search of Apple Brown Sugar Danish from the Smittyville Cafe bakery. Unfortunately, they did not make those Danish today. Pout! We didn't buy anything there.

We backtracked to Boerne to head northeast on TX 46 to Spring Branch. Bob's mom, Louise, wanted to see a bookkeeping/tax service branch office owned by the lady she works for in Las Vegas. From Spring Branch, we drove north on US 281 to Johnson City.

A 30-minute movie about Lady Bird Johnson at the Lyndon Baines Johnson National Historical Park Visitor Center made me appreciate her and her work in conservation. She and I have a lot in common. Specifically, she loved nature and gardening, was independent, intelligent, and a bit shy. I respect the work she did to beautify America. In Texas, her work is evident when you see wildflowers bloom in spring along the highways.

We shopped in the national park gift store. I bought a "Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country" book. Now I can go back in my blogs and identify many flowers I could not find elsewhere.

For lunch we tried a place we hadn't been before: East Main Grill Restaurant, part of The Old Lumber Yard complex in Johnson City. Four happy tummies later, we rate this four thumbs up. I had an excellent Asian Salad. Bob had the grilled smoked turkey sandwich, and Laura and Louise split a three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich.

Interior of Old Main Grill in Johnson City, TX

The Old Lumber Yard: Main Street Grill on the left;
shopping in the building on the right. (Unknown people.)

On the way out of Johnson City, we stopped at another portion of the original Johnson property to look at the longhorns and the history of trail drives.

Texas longhorn.

Continuing on, our next stop was LBJ Park Ranch Unit between Johnson City and Fredericksburg, Texas. As we entered the park, we stopped at the Visitor Center. Bob went into the Visitor Center and bought the driving tour CD for $10 (which included one admission to the Texas "White House" [$3 value]).

On the driving tour we opted to start at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm. The Sauer-Beckmanns were neighbors of the Johnson family. A state park volunteer is on site talking about how life was lived on the farm in the 1880s.

Cactus in bloom.

Butterfly on firewheel.

Laura in barn tackhouse, Sauer-Beckmann Farm.

Louise in pantry, Sauer-Beckmann Farm.

In the photo below, does anyone know what the contraption is on the left? Take a wild guess and I'll let you know who's a smartypants.

Bob standing in front of a machine to grind
corn into cornmeal.

Docent showing a dried pig bladder which
was used to hold water.

Next we entered the LBJ National Historical Park. We heard the history of LBJ's first schoolhouse, and saw the cemetery where President and Mrs. Johnson are buried. Their headstones are the tallest ones fourth and fifth from the left. His headstone carries the presidential seal and hers has a flower.

The Johnson family cemetery

A newborn fawn taking a drink.

The driving tour continued around the landing strip for "Air Force 1/2," President Johnson's Lockheed jet, and to the working barn on the ranch. There were a couple of newborn calves and a newborn goat.

One-day-old goat.

Four-day-old calf.

Laura loves animals and was thrilled to pet a few kids.

I think she was trying to corral them!

A Laredo striped whiptail lizard at the barn.

We then toured the Texas White House, the home of President and Mrs. Johnson. 25% of his presidency was conducted from this home. Heads of state, foreign dignitaries, defense secretaries all spent time at the ranch. The president was known to conduct policy meetings from a hammock, hold barbecues, and sit out on the lawn under the 500-year-old live oak.

Laura at the presidential podium.

Louise at the preisdential podium.

We had a good time touring the LBJ Ranch, but it was time to move down the road to Wild Seed Farm, one of the largest working wild seed farms in the U.S. Two years ago when we visited Wild Seed, fields and fields of wildflowers were in bloom. Imagine our disappointment when all we saw were a couple of fields with flowers, everything else was plowed under and just brown dirt. At least we had fun shopping in the store and eating peach soft serve ice cream.

The German-founded community of Fredericksburg was our next shopping destination. Laura was especially eager to shop in Dogologie, a store devoted to all things dog.

The most fun store we entered was Rustlin' Rob's Texas Gourmet Foods. OMG. Rows upon rows of samples were out for yummy food: jalapeno jelly, cherry cobbler in a jar, hot sauces, relishes, preserves, and sauces. Wheat crackers, pretzels and napkins were placed throughout the store to try out the different condiments and foods. We had so much fun tasting our way around. The store also sells fudge.

Worth a visit!

Fredericksburg's stores roll up the sidewalk about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night. We walked to Wheeler's Restaurant for dinner and were seated immediately.

Louise and Laura split a burger and fries. Bob and I shared a turkey pastrami Reuben sandwich, red cabbage and hot German potato salad.

To end our tour, we stopped briefly in Comfort, Texas (an antique town). The main attraction we wanted to show them was the Treue der Union monument.

History of the monument

Laura, Louise & Bob reading more history.

Treue der Union is one of the few places in the U.S. allowed to fly the flag at half mast 24 hours a day.

Flag always half mast.

Once home we watched the Spurs-Blazers playoff game and were so sad our beloved Blazers (remember we have been Oregonian Blazer fans for 30 years) lost again. I wish they put up more of a fight. Looks like they may be swept. That being said, we are Texas residents now (seven months) so we will proudly root for the Spurs if or when the Blazers are out of the play-offs.

Travel bug out.

All Things LBJ -- Fri., Mar. 29

Today we learned about Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States and his wife, Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson (aka Lady Bird). We stopped in Johnson City, Texas, at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park where we watched movies on both Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson. Excellent movies, but I especially liked the movie on Lady Bird. I felt a kinship to her. She liked writing, photography, being out in nature, and worked to beautify U.S. cities and highways. Limitation of billboards in the U.S. was part of her legacy.

Inauguration ball.

Janyce in museum display room.

The museum is small but well put together. I, again, enjoyed reading all about Lady Bird, how she got her nickname, her public speaking skills, what a shrewd investor she was, all the parks she helped dedicate, and how she advised the President.

How she handled an antagonistic crowd.

Fort Davis National Historic Site

Lady Bird in Big Bend National Park

When we finished in the museum, we walked outside to take a look at Lyndon's childhood home, and walked the nature trail to the Johnson settlement.

Lyndon Johnson's boyhood home.

Nature walk to Johnson settlement.

Johnson family settlement

Majestic old live oak on the property.

Windmill and water storage tank. Windmills
are used to draw water out of the aquifers.

Texas longhorn.

Texas longhorn.

Jan and Mom on the trail.

Purple verbena

After the history lesson and museum we took Mom and Jan to Pedernales Falls State Park for some nature time. We drove to the end of the road and hiked to see the falls. State park user fee of $6 per person to enter.

Local road 2766 to Pedernales Falls

Pedernales Falls

Cut-leaf daisy.

Water-carved rocks

Jan, Mom, Bob at Pedernales Falls

Bob and Jan overlooking the falls basin

Pedernales Falls Trail.

From Pedernales Falls, we traveled 14 miles west of Johnson City on Hwy 290 to Stonewall, Texas to the LBJ State Park and Historic Site. Here we took an audio driving tour of the LBJ ranch in our own car. (Pick up audio CD in the park visitor center.)

Our illustrious tour guide showing us the park.

We stopped at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm to view life as it would have been in the early 1900s.

Bluebonnets (Lupine texensis) and whitebonnets (?). All lupine.

Isn't she just adorable? She even has bangs.

We continued our drive past Trinity Lutheran Church (President and Lady Bird Johnson did not attend church here).

Trinity Lutheran Church

Our tour then took us past a one-room schoolhouse, President Johnson's birthplace, the cemetery where they are buried, the working barn, the airstrip and finally to the Texas White House. We hopped out of the car and paid for the tour of the Texas White House. We had an excellent tour guide who kept us entertained with stories about Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Amphi-Car. President Johnson used to enjoy taking people for
a ride in this car, pretending he lost control and the car would
careen down the bank into the river, terrifying people who didn't
know it would float and still be drivable.

The Texas White House and "Cabinet Tree"

Beautiful trees along the river. Jan snapping photos of the
Texas White House.

Air Force 1/2.

Vote Mom for President!

With LBJ history firmly under our belts, we drove west on US 290 to Wildseed Farm looking for more wildflowers. Wildseed Farm, in season, has fields ablaze with color. They also have excellent peach ice cream cones. Pay the extra $1.00 for peach. It's worth it. You can have vanilla anytime.

We found a few flowers in bloom, but nothing like last April. We are too early. In about two weeks, this place will probably be at its peak. Here are photos of Wildseed Farm. Any help you can provide identifying wildflowers is greatly appreciated.

Red poppy.

California poppies.

Phlox drummondii??

Five-spot (Nemophila maculata)

Johnny jump ups

California poppies and bluebonnets.

Sweet William

Ox-eyed daisy

Wildseed Farms

Red-winged blackbird

That's it. From Wildseed Farm we headed back to San Antonio. Another long day.

Tomorrow morning Mom and Jan fly back home. We're taking them to the airport at 4:00 a.m.

Good night.