Texas Hill Country (11-20-12)

Hill Country was home to President Lyndon B. Johnson.  In fact, although his ranch was donated to the National Park Service years ago, his daughters and grandchildren still visit the area and have cottages here.



When LBJ donated his ranch to the NPS, it was with a stipulation that it remain a viable working ranch, not a static “relic” of the past, so as we took the driving tour, we could see the animals, and some of the ranch hands working with them.





LBJ spent 25% of his time as President in his office at this ranch and was the first president to have an “offsite White House”. He worked here because he felt it kept him grounded to be surrounded by the “real” America. 


In the center of the ranch is an airstrip, where many heads of foreign countries and top officials were flown in to be guests at the ranch, and many deals were made out here in Hill Country.  Relaxing wasn’t high on LBJ’s list of things to do, and he wrote more legislation than any other president, before, or since.  Over 300 pieces of legislation related to conservation and environmentalism, including the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Water Pollution Act.



Although the tour of the ranch  and the nearby Sauer Beckman farm was free, it cost $2 per person to tour the ranch house, and no interior picture taking is allowed.  It was worth it to see where he spent his time, and learn more about this president. The ranch house has 28 telephones, which we all know, back in the 60’s, was unheard of. 

Touring the ranch house brought back some childhood memories for me, since it is decorated in the typical style of the 1960, the era I grew up in.  In one of the movies they show, LBJ mentioned the spelling bee they used to have in elementary school, where all the kids lined up and the first person in line had to spell a word.  If it was spelled correctly, they went to the rear of the line, and if they were wrong, they sat down.  I had forgotten those spelling bees! I also learned that LBJ didn’t start college until he was 26, but he did graduate and became a teacher.  The bulk of his income came from the radio and TV stations he bought.

The Pedernales River runs through the LBJ ranch, and nearby is Pedernales State Park.  We checked that out, did some hiking, and really wished we were here when it was warm enough to swim!  The water looked awesome and the bouldering was a lot of fun.

We were staying just outside the town of Fredericksburg, so we ventured into town for some lunch and shopping.  We found Hondo’s on Main St. which had good reviews and live music out on the patio.  The weather was perfect for sitting outside for a while!

Cavern Of Sonora TX(11-14-12)

“If you only go into one cave in your lifetime, go into this one”.  So says my husband, who has been in numerous caves, including Carlsbad Caverns.  What’s funny is that we found this cavern accidently.  After a brief but enjoyable visit with Paul’s mom, we headed clear across Texas and were on the hunt for a place to stop for the night, on the way to Austin.  The RV park that popped up in our path is called “Cavern of Sonora RV Park”.  Well, after seeing the name,  we googled to see if there are indeed caverns,  Trip Advisor rates this cavern as a 5 out of 5.  Pretty good!

We decided it was worth the stop, and booked two nights so we could take the 2 hour tour the next day.

This cave is very alive, and still growing. Unlike most other caves, it’s quite warm and humid in this cave.  Because the cave has no major openings, the carbon dioxide level is also higher than you would usually find. 

They actually monitor the carbon dioxide levels and when it’s raining outside, and therefore the humidity is at 100%, they open both “doors” to the cave to let fresh air in.

As we walked through the cave, we could visibly see the changes that were happening due to the moisture in the cave, causing the formations to grow. Water dripped on a regular basis.

There were only two other people on the tour with us, and our guide gave us a special treat.  She led us into a room that is no longer open to tours. The owner of the cave (it’s privately owned) got tired of people touching the cave formations and stopped people from going into the most beautiful room of all.  We all promised to be good, and she showed us a spectacular room!

Our guide did something pretty typical on a cave tour, but with a slightly different twist.  We came to an area with benches and she had us all sit down so she could turn off all the lights and have us experience total darkness. After explaining that even night vision goggles wouldn’t work in the cave because they have to have a tiny bit of light to magnify, she did an experiment.

After we had adjusted to the complete darkness, she had us hold the palm of our hand in front of our face, touching our nose, then bring it out about 4 inches.  She told us to wave our hand back and forth.  Amazingly,  I could see the shadow of my hand moving. Then she told us to close our eyes and wave our hand.  Oops,  I could still “see” the shadow moving.  Our brain expects to see it, so it does.

All in all, walking through the cavern felt like a Disney ride- quite surreal and totally amazing. There are more pictures of the cave if you click on Recent Pictures.

¡Viva Terlingua! (11-04-12)

It's hard to believe, but this is my 300th blog post.  Anyone who has read it on a regular basis knows that sometimes I write posts with regularity, and sometimes I don't.  Some posts are more interesting than others.  I guess it's the nature of the beast.  Sometimes I am in the mood to write and sometimes I'm not.  So anyway, thanks for bearing with me for the last 3 years!

Terlingua- home to the world renowned International Chili Cook Off! We’ve been to Terlingua several times, as we use it as our base to explore Big Bend National Park. This time we made reservations a year in advance, to make sure we got a place to stay for the Cook Off. Our friends Julie and Mike arrived the day before us and set up camp.

Before the cook off started, we met a couple, Will and Cindy, who were participating. giving us an “inside track” to all things Chili.  As it turns out, the Cook Off was not at all what we expected- there was no Chili, brisket, or beans for the spectators.  This was pure contest, with very few samples and in general, no food available for purchase.  You could get a burger, or a burrito, but that’s about it. Quite disappointing. There are actually two Cook Offs at the same time- the original one and the CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International)Cook Off. 

 The entrance fee to each is about $30 per person.  We paid to get into one of them but then couldn’t say exactly what we got for our money.  Luckily the day we decided to check out the other one, the guy at the ticket booth, for whatever reason, accepted the wristbands from the competing Cook Off, so we didn’t have to pay again. 

Having been denied our dose of Chili, we found ourselves eating at the Starlight Theatre several times. They usually have live entertainment, but the best part is the $1 tacos and $2 Margaritas.

On the way down to Terlingua, we stopped in the Houston area and had dinner with our friends Dave and Avril.  They live in an interesting subdivision.  Instead of your typical golf course, their subdivision has its own runway.  Many of the homeowners own planes- Dave and Avril own two-and their driveway leads directly to the runway.  Talk about easy access! Being near Houston, in addition to many pilots living in the subdivision, they also have several past and present astronauts as neighbors.

Dave and Avril flew down to Terlingua to spend a few days hanging out and hiking with us.

We revisited two of our favorite trails with them- the Lost Mine Trail, and Santa Elena Canyon.

After an awesome two days of food and fun, it was time to watch them fly off into the sun……

 

The hiking continued with Mike and Julie.  Near the RV park there is a short hike that leads to some petro glyphs. There were also some great boulders to climb on as well! Note how blue the sky is! 

One of the things I love about Texas is how blue the sky is.  In fact, the weather has been absolutely perfect while we’ve been here.  We’ve eaten most of our meals outside at the picnic table.  It's been a week full of great food and fun with friends.  Tomorrow we move on, headed towards El Paso to spend a few days with Paul's mom before starting our trek towards Florida.