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!

Texas Hill Country, part 1 (12-11-11)

    Before I discuss Texas Hill Country, I will explain why this post has been so delayed.  I made the mistake about 10 days ago of  mentioning that I hadn’t been sick, not even a cold, in about 6 years.  Well, of course, that was a dumb thing to say, since I promptly came down with my first cold in 6  years.  So, anyway, we have left hill country and have been in El Paso for the last few days, where we’ll spend Christmas with Paul’s mom.
      Texas is such a huge state that it is home to several different climates, depending on the region.  West Texas is arid, desert like, with some areas receiving as little as 12 inches of rain per year. The eastern, Piney Woods region, by contrast, is humid and can receive as many as 87 inches of precipitation every year.  It contains numerous forests of pine and hardwood trees-so different from  the deserts of the western part of the state.  The gulf coast is yet another region- one that remains warm all year, and is very hot and humid in the summertime.   Hill Country is sort of in the middle of the state and is known, of course, for it’s rolling hills and many rivers. Usually the weather here is pretty good, but during our stay, mother nature did not cooperate. We had a lot of raw, chilly days, and rain.  We were happy to eventually head towards the drier, western half of the state, but then, it rained, hailed and snowed here in El Paso last night.  Go figure.

     We spent a few days in Fredericksburg, a town that was settled in the1800s by German  immigrants.  This town really gives a lot of “bang for your buck”.  There are at least 6 museums, and an awesome downtown shopping area, full of unique stores and many restaurants, ranging from Southwestern to German food. We ate at a German restaurant with Julie and Mike, and then drove out to Luckenbach with them to listen to some guitar playing. 

 

Luckenbach is a very small unique town that is known for it’s music. It consists of a dozen or so old wooden buildings- one of which is a bar, and one is a dance hall.  Apparently there is music being played in multiple locations on most days, but of course the day we were there the weather was so cold and raw, they were only playing inside the dance hall.  We did enjoy listening for quite a while though.  

More tomorrow…..