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.

Deer O'Clock - Sat., Aug. 31

Wending our way through Texas Hill Country at 6:45 a.m. (dawn) is a mighty fine way to see deer (and a skunk, I'll get to that later). On US 281 heading north out of San Antonio, all the way to Blanco, we didn't see any deer. Boom! Get off the main highway onto FM 1623 and the wildlife seemed to know it was safer to venture into the road.

Our first close encounter was with a skunk. I saw it in the road and avoided a direct hit, missing it with all four tires. The skunk, however, blasted the undercarriage of the car with a direct hit of Eau de Skunque. Whoooeeee, my Escape pod didn't Escape that. I see a car wash in my future!

We followed FM 1623 for 20 miles, seeing deer along the road and off in the trees. One young buck raced along the right-hand side of the road. It looked like he was going to leap in front of the car at any second. He finally took off over a fence to the right.

In the small community of Albert, we turned north on Lower Albert Road, a very small, paved farm road. Along this road is where deer congregated. A doe and two fawns bounded across the road in front of us. Deer watched us from the fields and from the sides of the road.

As we drove closer to US 290, there was a very high fence to our left. There, scared to pieces, was a young buck. He turned and bolted along the left shoulder of the road, knowing the fence on his left was too high to jump. We clocked him at 30 mph. We stopped for a bit to give him a chance to cross the road and jump the lower fence on the other side, but he continued running on the left side. He then slowed to 20 mph. We were getting very close to US 290 and I tried to get the deer to cross the farm road. While I was watching him (because he finally crossed in front of me), Bob yelled, "Watch out! There's another deer." I put my brakes on as a doe skidded across the asphalt in front of the car. Luckily, I did not hit either one. Whew.

Then I watched as the frightened buck crossed US 290. We thanked our lucky stars that US 290 did not have any cars coming or going just then. He made it to safety.

We took US 290 past a Rest Area, one mile west to Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Site where our Volksmarch started. After signing in, I needed to use the restroom before our 6.2 mile walk. The restrooms at the park were being cleaned and the ranger cleaning them would not let me use them.

So, back in the car to the Rest Area. As it was only a mile away, it wasn't a big deal. As soon as we got back and exited the car, the ranger came out and said, "You can use the restrooms now." All the other people who were in the parking lot ready to walk applauded.

At 7:30 am we were finally on the path.  The walk took us past the Visitor Center, which wasn't open yet, past a statue of LBJ and to the Sauer Beckman Living History Farm (also not open for the day).

Statue of LBJ

What's he pointing at? LBJ asked that his statue be in the State Park (now a National Park) pointing at the Pedernales River. He once said, "My first memories are of this river." He was born and raised in the Texas Hill Country and always remained close to it saying, "I feel at home here."

Limestone is a key building element in Texas.

Path to Sauer Beckman Living History Farm.

The ram has gorgeous horns.

When the Sauer Beckman Living History Farm is open there are rangers in period dress doing chores the original inhabitants did, including cooking, canning, making soap, feeding the livestock, and cleaning.

Sauer Beckman Living History Farm

From the Living History Farm, we walked through the parking lot where we had started and onto Ranch Road 1. Our next stop was Danz Homestead. The Danz's had a sad history. In 1845, hundreds of hopeful German immigrants came to the Texas Hill Country in search of land, political freedom and adventure. Johann "Casper" Danz, his wife Elisabeth and their baby boy Frederick were among them.

Tragedy struck the Danz family many times. Soon after arriving in Fredericksburg, Elisabeth and her son died from an epidemic. Casper's second bride died during childbirth. In 1857, Danz married his third wife, Johanne Dorothea Bock. The third time was a charm and the family flourished with 11 children. In 1860, the couple bought the land where we were today and their descendants lived there until 1966 (106 years!) when the land became a park. It doesn't say where they moved at that time.

You can read more about the sites at Danz Homestead on the plaque below (click to enlarge).

Cabin B

Bob in front of Danz Cabin.

Danz Cabin

The photo below shows how the home was constructed. There used to be a stairway leading to the upstairs door on the outside of the rooms. This allowed more room INSIDE with no staircase taking up precious space.

Danz Cabin

Cabin B

After the Danz Homestead we walked quite a way along Ranch Road 1. We enjoyed being next to the Pedernales River. I was particularly amused by some signs we saw along the road.

Here are photos from the rest of the walk.

Trinity Lutheran Church

Anyone recognize this plant?

Here's another photo, same type of plant as above.

Junction School House where LBJ first went to school.

Interior of school house.

Pedernales River (quite low).

A Texas longhorn.

The walk ended back at the Visitor Center parking lot. Our time for 10K was two hours. Temperature when we finished at 9:30 a.m. was 95 degrees. Today is going to be a scorcher. Good day to be in air-conditioned comfort.

Bob is volunteering at a car show at Random Event Center in Boerne (pronounced burn-e) today. They are expecting 40-80 cars. Three food trucks will be there, and a live band will play this evening. Bob left at 12:30 p.m. and expects to be there until midnight. The car show starts at 6 p.m. awards will be at 10:30 p.m. If he's not too busy I asked him to take some photos with his phone for the blog.

As I've been sitting here, hummingbirds, doves, yellow jackets, a squirrel and a woodpecker have all been active outside the window. Here are some photos of the action...

Golden-fronted woodpecker.

Inca dove.

Inca dove.

Golden-fronted woodpecker.

Golden-fronted woodpecker.

Golden-fronted woodpecker.

Northern cardinal peeking through the feeder.

White-winged dove.

White-winged dove and Northern cardinal.

White-winged dove.

That's it for today.

The end.