Living Our Dream

Texas Hill Country Part V: Nature Cruise and More Texas History

When we checked into the campground we picked up a brochure for the Vanishing Texas River Cruise from the rack in the office. They have a year-round scenic wilderness cruise, plus seasonal cruises like a foliage cruise in the fall and bald eagle cruise when the bald eagles come to the river to spend the winter. The scenic wilderness cruise sounded interesting, so we put it on our list of things to do.

The cruises take place on the Colorado River - no, not the one that runs through Arizona and the Grand Canyon to the Sea of Cortez at the base of the Baja Peninsula. The Colorado River we took a cruise on is wholly within Texas. It has its source near Lubbock, TX, and empties out into the Gulf of Mexico not too far west of Galveston.

There are several man-made reservoirs along the Colorado River that are collectively known as the Highland Lakes. The Highland Lakes were formed when dams were built along the Colorado River in the 1930s and 1940s. The dams were built for flood control and to bring power to the farms in the area. One of these lakes is Lake Buchanan, which is where the Vanishing Texas River Cruise departs from. The Vanishing Texas River Cruise dock is in Burnet at the northeastern corner of Lake Buchanan, a little over an hour's drive from where we were staying.

 One thing we noticed as we drove north was an increase in the number of blue bonnets along the road. From what we saw driving around the Johnson City area and walking around the Wildflower Center in Austin, the blue bonnets were well past their peak. However, there were many still in bloom just a few miles to the north. The blue bonnets were a beautiful contrast to the orange Indian blankets that were also blooming.

We arrived for the cruise about 30 minutes early as suggested. This gives everyone plenty of time to park, check in and board.

The boat has two decks, and since it was sunny and warm, we chose the open, upper deck. The cruise lasts about two and a half hours and sails northward up the lake and then a few miles up the Colorado River. Until about a week prior to our cruise, the water level in the lake was so low due to a several-year drought, and the flow of water down the Colorado was so low they couldn't take the cruise up the river. Instead, they went out into the lake and stopped above the remnants of an old town that was submerged when the lake was created. We're glad they had resumed the regular river cruise.

We didn't see much wildlife on the open lake except for a few gulls and vultures high overhead, but when we got to the shallower water near the upper end, we saw some ring billed gulls perched on a partially-submerged log where we could see them a little closer.

Although the boat has a flat bottom and a shallow draft, the captain still had to be careful to follow the original river channel to make sure we didn't get hung up on the bottom. When we got just about to the point where the lake ended and the river began, the water beside the channel got even more shallow, and the tour guide pointed out a beaver lodge. Beavers used to be quite common in this area years ago, but this pair are the only ones around now. Unfortunately, they were out of sight, but we did get to see the lodge. The water level in the lake is rising, so they may have to rebuild in the near future if the lodge gets washed away.

Ranches line the river, and a little farther along we saw horses (and later cattle) coming down to the edge of the water to graze and drink.

As we cruised up the river, there wasn't all that much wildlife. We did see some turkey vultures, a few black vultures, several large groups of plovers and one hawk. There were all so high overhead, or in the case of the plovers so fast moving, that we didn't get any photos.

The highlight of the cruise was the scenic area around Fall Creek Falls. The falls have never been known to dry up, even in the worst drought. With all the rain Texas has been receiving lately, the falls were in full flow.

Just to the left of the falls are several caves. These caves, along with others that ended up getting flooded and subsequently filled with silt after the dam was completed, had evidence of Native American petroglyphs. The caves are the dark spots near the center of the photo.

To the right of the falls is Ceremonial Rock. It gets its name from the fact that four Native American ceremonial knives were found there. We got an even better view of Ceremonial Rock after we turned around and were heading back down river. As a point of reference, the falls are behind the rocks to the right.

 

As we cruised back down the lake toward the dock, Margery stood by the rail on the forward deck and enjoyed the breezes.

 

The next day, we drove back to Austin to see the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. The photo below shows the entrance to the museum with the iconic single star in the foreground.

And the next photo is the star from the third floor window of the museum.

The museum is extremely well done and has displays on three floors that trace the history of Texas. Unfortunately, the museum doesn't permit photography anywhere in the exhibit areas. We were disappointed, but we still enjoyed the museum because it does an excellent job presenting Texas history. The displays are interesting, the descriptions are straightforward and easy to understand, and there are short, interesting movies about various subjects at several places throughout the museum. Paul particularly liked the one about how Hollywood treated Texas in the movies. There were old movie clips with cowboys like Roy Rogers, Tom Mix and John Wayne. Oops, we might be showing our age.

The first floor of the museum tells of the Native Americans who inhabited the area and of the early Spanish explorers. It traces Texas history through the missions along the San Antonio River like Mission San Jose and Mission San Antonio de Valero (aka the Alamo) that we saw recently. It also talks about Stephen F. Austin and his original 300 settlers like the Jones family that started the George Ranch that we also visited a little while ago near Houston.

The second floor follows the Texas history from the fight for independence, including the battles at the Alamo and San Jacinto, to admission to statehood, through the Civil War to reconstruction and readmission to statehood.

The third floor shows some of the things that make Texas such a great attraction to new residents, businesses and investors. It covers ranching, the discovery of oil in 1901 and the subsequent growth of the oil industry, logging, mining and space exploration at the Johnson Space Center.

They also have an IMAX theater showing various movies and another special-effects theater where they show a multi-media presentation called The Star of Destiny that tells the story of Texas. The special effects include lightening, thunder (complete with vibrating seats) and rain with real water.

Photography was permitted in the lobby, so while we were on the third floor, we got a shot of the terrazzo floor in the lobby below. The floor is called "The Story of Texas - Born Around the Campfire." It depicts various people and places of Texas as an overhead view. The campfire is right in the center, and there are a number of longhorns along the bottom edge that are easy to pick out.

 

While we were on the third floor of the lobby, we stopped for a photo of ourselves.

 

After the museum, we went back to the motor home and did our usual chores in preparation for departure the next morning. Look for our next post to see where we ended up.

Texas Hill Country Part IV: LBJ Library and Good Texas Barbeque

You can't go very far in the central part of Texas Hill Country without running into President and Lady Bird Johnson over and over again. In addition to the LBJ Ranch and boyhood home located a little north and west of where we were staying, the LBJ Presidential Library is also located in Austin to the east. We're not big LBJ fans, but we are interested in history. LBJ is part of the history that was made during the time when we were young adults and were too busy to pay much attention. So while we were in Hill Country, we thought we might as well visit the LBJ Library.

We also decided to stop at the Barton Creek Farmers Market located at the back of the Barton Creek Square Mall on the outskirts of Austin on our way to the library. The market is held on Saturdays.

We weren't sure what to expect with the farmers market. Some farmers' markets have a couple of vendors selling vegetables out of boxes. Other times, there are lots of vendors selling a wide variety of produce. Barton Creek Farmers Market was the latter. The photo below shows only one of the two rows of vendors.

Not only was the market large, but everything was fresh and home grown, and much of it was organic. There was lettuce, broccoli, squash, carrots, and more. One vendor had some very nice-looking orchids.

There were also some natural, prepared foods like salsa, pesto, tabouleh, and cheeses. Someone was also there selling wildflower honey. Since we needed honey, we bought some. We're anxious to try it.

Several bakers at the market had artisan breads. We bought a loaf of whole-grain bread with sweet red peppers and kalamata olives from the fellow in the photo below.

 From the market, it was a short drive to the the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. It opened in 1971 and is located on the University of Texas campus in Austin.

 

The entrance to the library is on the 3rd floor. There are two floors below ground that aren't open to the public and apparently are used for things like storage and maintenance.

The first part of the library has displays showing a general history of national and world events that occurred during LBJs lifetime from 1908 to 1973. There is also some history of LBJ himself and his family that we learned previously at his ranch and his boyhood home.

On the remainder of the 3rd floor, there are displays of events more specific to LBJ's presidency like the War on Poverty, civil rights, the Great Society and the Vietnam War. There was a moving exhibit on the assassination of President Kennedy which started LBJ's presidency.

The 1968 limousine used by President Johnson is also on display.

The library contains 45 million pages of historical documents relating to the Johnson presidency. Although the floors of the library containing these documents are not open to the general public, the documents are available for qualified research. Some of the binders are visible behind a glass wall as you ascend the steps from the 3rd to the 4th floor.

 

On the 4th floor of the library are displays of gifts from various heads of state to President and Mrs. Johnson. Some of the gifts are priceless relics reflecting the history and culture of the country from which the gifts came.

The 4th floor also has an animatronic figure of LBJ that tells some of his humorous stories.

A seven-eighths scale replica of the Oval Office during Johnson's presidency is on the 10th floor.

Also on the 10th floor is also an exhibit of on Lady Bird's legacy as a humanitarian and champion of the environment. Also on display on the 10th floor is the office Mrs. Johnson used in the library. It is set up just the way it was 25 years ago.

By the time we finished with the LBJ Library, it was afternoon, and we were hungry. Salt Lick Barbecue was featured on the Travel Channel program Man v. Food and it wasn't very far out of our way back to the motor home.

As we rounded a bend in the road, through the trees we could see dozens and dozens of parked cars. Paul thought it might have been a farm auction or something like that to draw that many cars to the middle of nowhere. As we rounded the next bend, we were greeted by the sign for the restaurant, and we realized all those cars we just saw were parked at the Salt Lick Barbecue. We were surprised to see their lot was big enough to park 300 or 400 cars.

After we parked, we found the desk to sign up for restaurant seating. They said the wait was 45 minutes. We decided to wait, but if we hadn't wanted to, we could have gone to the take out window and sat at one of the picnic tables under the trees. The outdoor seating area even had live entertainment that was very good.

As we waited, we noticed people carrying coolers. At first, we thought they were there for take out and they were going to use the insulated cooler as a "warmer" to keep their meal hot until they got home. Then we found out the coolers were full of beer. The restaurant is located in a dry county, but they do allow BYOB.

In the 1950s, Thurman Roberts and his wife were trying to come up with ways for him to make money so he could stay at home and not have to travel all over the state with his construction job. After trying several other ideas, they decided to try to sell to the public the barbecue Thurman had become so famous for when he made it for family reunions.

Thurman and his sons built a huge pit, and Thurman would go to the pit and start cooking on Thursday nights. He would stay all weekend, sleeping on a cot, until all the meat was gone. They eventually screened in the pit and the restaurant grew from there. Thurman has passed away, and the restaurant is now operated by Scott, who is one of his sons.

There are three dining rooms, and our name was called in only about 25 minutes instead of 45. There are three indoor dining areas with a seating capacity of almost 300 people. The mansion that Thurman built near the restaurant is also available for weddings and special events. The main restaurant is shown in the next photo.

Briskets, racks of ribs and links of sausage are on the grill. Notice the bucket of sauce sitting by the grill.

We were seated in the banquet room which has three rows of long picnic tables. When its crowded like it was the Saturday we were there, you may end up sharing the table with another group. We both ordered a combination plate with barbecued pork ribs, beef brisket and smoked sausage. The sides were so-so, but the barbecue was excellent. Paul's favorite was the brisket, with the sausage a close second. The brisket and ribs were tender, everything had a nice smokey flavor, and the non-tomato-based sauce was rich, thick and a little tart.

After lunch, we headed back to the motor home. After all that barbecue, we weren't hungry for dinner, but we did get hungry again a little later in the evening. We started out intending to eat a few slices of the red pepper/kalamata olive bread we got that morning at the farmers market; but it was so good, we ended up eating the whole loaf.

We still have more we want to see in Texas Hill Country, so look for our next post.

Texas Hill Country Part III: LBJ Boyhood Home and Ranch

Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th president of the United States. The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park is located at two sites in and near Johnson City, TX. The Johnson City Unit is located on the edge of the town and includes his boyhood home and a visitor center. The LBJ Ranch Unit is about 14 miles west of Johnson City and includes his ranch and a reconstruction of the house where he was born. We were interested in the historical facts surrounding LBJ's ranch and presidency, so we decided to visit the LBJ National Historical Park.

In 1908, LBJ was born in a small farmhouse in Stonewall, TX, which is only a short distance west of the ranch. A reconstruction of the house where he was born is located in the western unit of the park near the ranch.

The farmhouse is another example of a dog trot house where there is a central, open breezeway. You can look into some of the rooms of the house, but it is not open for tours.

Lyndon Johnson attended Junction School, a one-room schoolhouse that was located a short distance down the road from the house where he was born. National Park Service bought the land where the school is located so it is now part of the Ranch Unit of the park.

Lyndon Johnson only attended the Junction School for a few months in 1912 because the school was closed down due to a whooping cough epidemic. Then LBJ's father, who felt he wasn't cut out for farming, moved the family to a house in Johnson City in 1913. The eastern part of the park is located in Johnson City at the site of boyhood home, which is shown below.

The house in Johnson City is fairly modest and was without electricity until the late 1920s or 1930s. It was built from prefabricated components bought out of a Sears catalog by the previous owner in 1901. There was indoor plumbing (cold water only), but just for the bathtub and the kitchen sink. Used bath water drained onto the ground under the house. There was an outhouse in the back yard. In the next photo you can see the single faucet at the kitchen sink on the far left.

The photo below shows the dining room. The black box on the side table behind the dining table is an early radio. The round, black object next to the radio is a megaphone-type speaker similar to what was used on the old Gramophones. The family had one of the first Model Ts in town, and without electricity in the house, the radio was powered by the car battery. You had to drive the car around during the day to recharge the battery so you could listen to the radio in the evening.

 

The visitor center at the Johnson City Unit has a lot of information on LBJ and his early life and political career. After graduating from high school, Lyndon Johnson attended Southwest Texas Teachers' College and graduated in 1930. His father served 5 terms in the Texas legislature. Young Lyndon Johnson showed a penchant for politics having been elected president of his 11th grade class, and having been involved in debates and campus politics in college. He taught public speaking and debate at a high school in his early teaching career.

After campaigning for a Texas state senator who was running for the U. S. Congress, Johnson was offered a job as legislative secretary for another U. S. congressman. Johnson married Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor in 1934. In 1937, he successfully ran on a New Deal platform for the U. S. Congress himself.

LBJ ran for the U. S. Senate in 1941, but was defeated. He continued to serve in the House until 1949 when he finally did win a seat in the U. S. Senate. He was chosen as minority leader by the Democrat party in 1953, and he became majority leader when the Democrats took control of the Senate in 1954.

In 1951 during his time as a senator, Johnson's aunt sold him her old ranch located on the Pedernales River very near the house where he was born. The ranch house was in pretty bad shape by the time Johnson got it, but a series of renovations, repairs and an addition helped get it into shape to fulfill his dreams of becoming a rancher.

The ranch was only about 250 acres when LBJ got it, but he built it up to a 2,700 acre showplace complete with its own airstrip.

In 1960, Johnson was elected Vice President serving under John F. Kennedy. LBJ became President when Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

During President Johnson's administration, the LBJ Ranch served as the Texas White House. Lyndon and Lady Bird went to the ranch often where they could escape some of the pressures of Washington, D. C. But they couldn't escape the pressures of the presidency, and they even added an extra wing to the house to serve as a presidential office. The office is the low section of the house to the left of the large tree in the above photo.

LBJ was re-elected President in 1964. He known for his role in escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War. He is also known for civil rights legislation, the "War on Poverty" that created programs like Head Start and food stamps, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the passage of environmental and conservation legislation.

Although Johnson was eligible to run for another term as President, he announced on March 31, 1968 that he would not run again.

President and Lady Bird Johnson settled into the ranch life. LBJ spent his final years writing his memoirs and overseeing the construction of his presidential library in Austin. He also liked to ride around the ranch in his white Lincoln convertible and oversee the cattle operations.

LBJ died at the ranch in 1973 at age 64 of a third heart attack. The Johnsons had donated the ranch to the National Park Service in 1970 with the provision they would have free use of the home for life. Lady Bird continued to live at the ranch until her death in 2007. Lady Bird was instrumental in many beautification projects around the nation and in Hill Country. The Wildflower Center that we visited previously was one of her pet projects.

The family cemetery is located on the ranch. Numerous members of LBJ's family are buried in the cemetery including his parents. LBJ's headstone is the large one in the center to the right, and Mrs. Johnson's is the large one to the left.

Lady Bird had converted the presidential office into a family room, but all the original furnishings, draperies, and carpeting had been placed into storage. After Lady Bird's death, the office was restored to its original appearance and opened to visitors in 2008. A few additional rooms were recently opened for ranger-guided tours. Other rooms are being restored and will be opened in the near future.

Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house, so we can't show you any of the interior. We can, however, show you a cow and new calf that were in the show barn. Although greatly diminished in size, the ranch is still a working ranch today raising Hereford show cattle the same way LBJ did.

Notice that the cow is branded on her horn rather than on the hide. This is the method used at the LBJ Ranch. An identification number is branded on the other horn rather than using an ear tag. Unlike a hide brand, the animal can't feel the horn branding at all, but the drawback is it must be redone periodically as the animal's horns grow.

It was interesting to learn more about the history of our country from back in the 1960s as well as to learn what a big influence Lady Bird was both in the nation and in Texas Hill Country. We'll have more Hill Country adventures to tell you about in our next post.

Texas Hill Country Part II: Wildflower Center

After we left the capitol in downtown Austin, we stopped at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center. Lady Bird Johnson, who was the wife of the 36th president of the United States, co-founded the Wildflower Research Center to protect and preserve the nation's native plants. Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson were from Texas Hill Country, and we'll have more about them in our next couple of posts. In the meantime, here is Margery at the entrance to the Wildflower Center.

The Wildlife Center has various demonstration gardens, display gardens, theme gardens and meadows. They also feature rotating shows of flower-related artwork displayed indoors as well as numerous pieces of outdoor sculpture like this gazelle right at the garden entrance.

We were somewhat unnerved by this pair of 10 to 12 foot ants since we are battling an ant infestation in our motor home right now. Fortunately, our latest selection of ant bait (Combat Liquid Ant Bait) is working, and we seem to be winning the fight.

 

The Wildflower Center has an observation tower where we could get an overview of some of the gardens.

You can see the white horns of a sculpture of a longhorn steer near the center of the photo above. Paul couldn't resist posing for a photo beside the sculpture because he liked the way it was made from tools such as rasps, gears, files and wrenches.

From the tower, we couldn't see very many flowers blooming. Although the Wildflower Center's web site said a cool spring has held many of the flowers back, it looked like the blue bonnets were past their peak. There were, however, some colorful beds in the informal garden.

There were also some cacti in flower.

There is a section of the garden devoted to raised-bed wildflower gardening. Galvanized livestock troughs are used as containers.

We walked a short loop around one of the meadows. Although there were no massive displays of wildflowers, there were some blooms here and there like those in the next photo. Clockwise from the upper left: square-bud primrose, Indian blanket, antelope horns, and Indian paintbrush.

We had hoped our timing would have been better than it was and that we would have seen more showy displays of wildflowers at Wildflower Center. However, we did learn a little more about wildflowers and we did learn some of their names.

We have lots more sightseeing planned for Hill Country, so look for more posts.

Texas Hill Country Part I: Texas Capitol

We took our time leaving San Antonio because we had only about a 65-mile drive to Miller Creek RV Resort located just a few miles south of Johnson City, TX. Miller Creek RV has roads and pads that are a combination of gravel and dirt. They have full hookups and free Wi-Fi. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 30/50 amp. The sites are a mixture of pull-throughs and back-ins with grass between the sites. Site width isn't bad for a private campground. The photo below shows our site at Miller Creek RV.

The next photo is a little more distant shot showing some of the neighboring sites. As you can see, the campground wasn't very full.

We had a back-in site that had a nice view of Miller Creek behind us.

Johnson City is in the heart of Texas Hill Country. Texas Hill Country runs from about Austin westward to Fredricksburg, and from the northern suburbs of San Antonio northward to a little past Llano. Hill Country features regions of rolling to rugged hills underlain by limestone or granite. Hill Country is known for its showy wildflowers that bloom along the roads and in the fields in spring.

Much of Hill Country was settled by German immigrants, and you see town names like Fredricksburg, New Braunfels and Gruene (pronounced Green). It's an unusual contrast to the Spanish-sounding names we were used to seeing in Texas.

We visited Hill Country back in 2007, and we liked it so much we decided to visit again. Click here to read about our first visit to San Antonio and the Hill Country.

For our first sightseeing outing on this visit, we headed east about 40 miles to Austin  to visit the Texas State Capitol. The current building, which was completed in 1888, was the fourth building to serve as the seat of Texas government.

The building is constructed from pink granite quarried from the Marble Falls area of Texas which was about 25 or 30 miles north of where we were staying. With an area of 360,000 square feet, the Texas State Capitol is the largest of any state capitol building.

 

In the lobby there are statues of Sam Houston (left), hero of the Texas fight for independence, and Stephen F. Austin, who led the original 300 Americans into the then Mexican territory.

 

Although the dome is not the highest capitol dome, it is about 15 feet higher than the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D. C. Inside, the single, 6-foot diameter star at the top of the dome sits 266 feet above the floor.

Upstairs, we were able to get to see the senate chamber since the legislature was not in session. Interestingly, the Texas legislature only meets every other year, so having another career is imperative. Perhaps it's an idea that should be adopted in Washington.

We learned that the building was financed by a barter transaction where 3 million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle were exchanged for financing of the construction of the building at an estimated cost of $3 Million. Two brothers, Charles and John Farwell from Chicago, created a syndicate backed by foreign investors and received a strip of land approximately 200 miles long varying in width from about 20 to 30 miles wide along the border with New Mexico.

The 3 million acres of land became the X I T Ranch, which at its peak had 150,000 head of cattle behind 1500 miles of fencing. After being plagued over the years with cattle rustlers and predators such as wolves, and with falling cattle prices in the late 1800s, the syndicate began selling off parcels of land to pay investors as the bonds came due. By 1905, most of the land had been subdivided; and by 1912, the last of the cattle were sold.

Not only was the tour of the capitol free, but the parking garage designated for capitol visitors provided two hours of free parking. Additional parking was very reasonable at only a few dollars an hour, but we made it back within the two-hour limit.

We made another stop on our way back to the motor home. Stay tuned, and we'll tell you all about it.