DAY SIX (18 March 2003): JOHNSON CITY
Today’s journey was suggested by
Earl. He’d commented at dinner the previous night he wanted to head out
to Johnson City ,
to see the birthplace of LBJ. That seemed like a good destination, and I
plotted the route in order for us to get a good start to the day. From Austin , we went west on
Route 290. Everyone got a chuckle when we passed ACC’s Pinnacle Campus,
although not because it was the only tall building in the area. That place was one of many locations of Austin Community
College Glens Falls (one of the places I got my schooling from)
was Adirondack Community College
That was reinforced when on the
edge of Johnson City
we stopped at a place called Hill Country Cupboard. The sign out front
noting the chicken-fried steak being “so good” that “nearly three dozen sold”
was irreverent enough that it got out attention. It was a good place to
stop for second breakfast. Besides, Mum had been saying that she wanted
to have some chicken-fried steak since she got here, and that seemed like a
good candidate.
The place wasn’t much to look at
inside, as it appeared to be pretty standard. It reminded the family a
lot of the Auction Bar Restaurant (back in Argyle, NY) where they frequented.
Hill Country Cupboard had their menus pasted to paper bags, and its
little things like that which provide interesting character to an
establishment. The portions were large, prices reasonable, and the food
was good. This was such a good find.
Route 290 had done this weird
zig-zag were it joined a road going north & south before branching off and
continuing west, right near where we stopped for second breakfast. (Had
we continued north, we would’ve eventually ended up back in Burnet and Marble Falls Johnson City , we also
noticed there were a lot of signs for wineries. Mum commented that she
like to take one of the wine tours here. Sue responded that she’d rather
go back over the Sam’s Boat to get another beer.
An easily-found sign led us off the
main route to President Johnson’s boyhood home. There wasn’t much square
footage inside, as all the bedrooms were small. There didn’t need to be
much space beyond the kitchen, because most people worked outside the home.
The house was filled with artifacts from that time period of LBJ’s birth. There was also a representation of the house
which his ancestors had lived in (both from the 1860s and a modern
representation).
The style of this home was called a
“dog run.” It’s said the open area in the middle allowed the dog to run
through it. The bedrooms were separated from the kitchen & living
area, which may’ve made it easier to entertain guests. It also meant
having two heating units, for those occasions when it did get chilly in Texas . The benefit
to the house design was the middle area was shaded most of the day, so it made
a cool place to have meals. And because it was covered, it was a good
place to sleep on those hot evenings because you didn’t have to worry about
being rained on.
Parts of this homestead are still a
working farm, and there was a short hiking path nearby. I was more
interested in the nature hike than the cows in the bar, but we hit a bit of
both. We noticed a tree off the path which looked like its come straight
out of Hell. The branches were all
twisted, and going off in many different directions, but rarely up. I’d seen a couple trees like this near the Alamo too. Earl’s into naturalist stuff, so he knew
all about it. I just thought it was interesting to look at.
Only a few miles down the road was
the ranch where LBJ lived after he retired from the Presidency. His grave
is on the premises, too. Lady Bird still lives here, so the mansion is
not open to the public for tours. While she’s probably gotten used to a
constant stream of strangers parading through her yard, it must be difficult
not to be able to wander outside whenever you want.
The
guided tour we were given showed us some interesting thing, including the old
cars that LBJ liked to collect. One of his relaxations was to simply go
for a drive. The stream which ran
through the mansion grounds had something built specifically into it, so LBJ
could pull a prank on his guests. He had a tiny blue car, which he
referred to as his “aqua car,” that he’d tell people could float, and to
demonstrate that, LBJ would proceed to drive into the stream. But where
he’d enter in, there had been a cement barrier constructed which was wide
enough for a car to drive over. I’m sure it never too long for his guests
to figure out what he was doing, but it apparently gave LBJ some fun.
Once we’d seen everything at LBJ’s
mansion, it decided it was time for a mid-day snack. Some ice cream would
be nice. Notice the pattern with my family? As we all grew up in
dairy country, the thought of going to get ice cream was a common one. On
the drive out here, I didn’t recall seeing any place that we could’ve stopped
at, and we didn’t want to wait until we got all the way back to Austin (as it’d
be too close to dinner then). Looking at the map, a place called Fredericksburg was close
by and seemed to be larger than the surrounding areas. The appeared to be
a good place we could find something.
It wasn’t that long of a drive, and
right on the edge of the town we found a Diary Queen. That worked for us,
as small cones of creamy goodness were enough to hold us over. I, of course,
got a milkshake. It’s easier to handle when in a vehicle.
When we arrived back in Austin , and had a good
dinner, it was time for me say my good-byes. The family was flying out at
10.30 the next morning, so it had made no sense for to take that day off.
Once they were dropped off at airport, it wouldn’t be too far into my
work day, so I might as well continue to make money.
During the time here, Bruce had
been very comfortable with driving around the area, so everyone was in good
hands getting back to the airport. It had been a great time having them
down. There was so much to see in the area, and my parents looked forward
to coming down on regular visits to enjoy even more. The others even
mentioned returning with them so they could also experience what the Austin area had to
offer. New things had been found which I
could continue to enjoy, and I’d start exploring further to find other places
to take the clan to the next time they were down.
For current information on the places visited or mentioned:
Hill Country Cupboard: http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Overview/493/hill-country-cupboard
LBJ Boyhood Home: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ggl01
LBJ Ranch (National Park): http://www.nps.gov/lyjo/index.htm
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