LBJ Parks

Lyndon Baines Johnson, and to a lesser extent Lady Bird Johnson, loom large over central Texas as Abraham Lincoln does over central Illinois. Today we drove along the Pedernales River in the hill country west of Austin visiting a variety of home, ranches, and parks associated with LBJ. It was kind of amusing...when we visited the older places I saw things like a hand pump that reminded me of my grandparents' old cabin in northern Wisconsin. Even further, when we visited the "Texas White House" on the LBJ ranch (restored to 1968 time), Karen and I were both reminded of decor from the 1960s/1970s that we saw as children (and sometimes later). The torch is being passed: Kris is too old to get the Junior Ranger badges, but she helped Katie get hers. I'm proud of Karen, Kris, and Katie for their involvement in this National Park program over the years. After that we drove to nearby tiny Luckenbach (the one made famous by the country song, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZeYDBY4fw), but they were having a blues fest and it looked a little crowded. We drove on to Fredericksburg for supper. We were surprised at the number of little boutique shops and restaurants in the downtown near the Nimitz and WWII Pacific Theatre museums - we were reminded of Door County, WI, Galena, IL, Leavenworth and Poulsbo, WA, etc. etc.