"The Situation is Improving, Mr. President"

With the weather improving gradually this week, we ventured out on Wednesday the 6th to see an area landmark. We had visited the Texas Hill Country briefly a few years ago and drove by the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch in Stonewall, Texas, but didn't have time to stop. This time we did.

Stonewall is only 44 miles from Buckhorn Lake RV Park, so it was a quick trip through Fredericksburg to the location of the Ranch. The Ranch is now divided by the Pedernales River into two separate parks. On the south side, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department manages a Visitors Center, a day-use facility, and the Sauer-Beckman Living History Farm, which allows visitors to walk among Pecan orchards and fields, glimpsing a view into an historical farm.

Exhibits in the Visitors Center peek into the complexities of the Presidents life. Dealing with an inherited war in Vietnam, economic woes at home, and struggles within his own party, LBJ used all of the political skills developed over many years. He still couldn't quite keep all of his loyal followers:

LBJ's saddle, boots, and hat are on display.

Lyndon Johnson was born at home in 1908. The German-Texan midwife who delivered him, Augusta Sauer Lindig, was born and raised at the nearby Sauer-Beckmann farm. The Johnson home was twenty miles from the nearest doctor, and the family did not have a car.

This desk was used by Lyndon when he attended eight grade at the school in nearby Albert, TX. His initials are carved on the top.

Young Lyndon planted his roots deep into the Texas soil even at an early age.

On the north side of the Perdernales, the National Park Service administers a working cattle ranch.

Lyndon was born in this modest farm house. He enjoyed country life, learning to ride horses, hunt and fish along the banks of the Pedernales.

The driving loop through the working ranch took us by some young twin calves, with Mom keeping a close eye on their welfare!

A long runway was built at the "Texas White House", but was found to be too short to land Air Force One on it, so whenever LBJ visited the ranch, he landed at a nearby air force base and flew in a JetStar to the ranch. Named "Air Force 1/2", the plane was most often piloted by Brig. Genera Jim Cross. Although a fleet of JetStars was at the Presidents disposal, this particular plane was a "Texan". It had been retired 50 years ago by the Air Force, and was rescued just before it was to be salvaged, in the Pentagon's "bone yard" in Tucson, AZ. Restored, it has been put on permanent display near the Texas White House.

Knowing full well that Fredericksburg is a Texas destination, we nonetheless ventured into town on Saturday night for dinner. One of the highest rated restaurants in Fred is the Fredericksburg Brewing Company. The food was superb! Rueben Sandwiches, Unpronounceable German Schnitzels and Sausages filled us up to the brim! Parking was a bit dicey, since every store in town was lit up like the Fourth of July, but walking back to the car, we came across Saint Mary's Catholic Church with the moon in the background.

It's Been That Kind of Week....

This picture says it all.....

After spending February 23 in Bandera and environs, we stayed home over last weekend and caught up on some rest as well as doing a few chores, among which was the completion of the wash/wax project on the motorhome. Yeah! On Wednesday we felt the need to venture back into San Antonio for a bit of shopping and ..... lunch at Torchy's Tacos. Let's see....we ordered the "Trailer Park", which had fried chicken and green chilis, the "Green Chili Pork" taco, with...wait for it....pork simmered in green chilis. We also ordered the "Baja Shrimp" with shrimp, cabbage, and jalapeños; and the "Republican", which included grilled jalapeño sausage, jack cheese, and poblano sauce. Put all that together with an order of "Hillbilly Queso" as an appetizer (chips, green chili queso and chorizo sausage, and you'll see why we skipped dinner that night!

Thursday and Friday were haircut and pedicure days, and enjoying the warm weather outside with the neighbors. Sasha ran and ran at the dog park and thoroughly tired herself out. Finally!

While watching the local tv news channel on Friday evening, we learned of two unique celebrations being held this weekend in San Antonio, both in the same area, so we had to brave traffic and go check it out.

The Menger Hotel is celebrating it's 160th birthday this weekend.

Located just a block away from the Alamo, the Menger was opened in 1855 as a boarding house and brewery by William and Mary Menger, both immigrants from Germany. The boarding house was so popular that it was replaced with a two-story structure in 1859....the beginning of the Menger Hotel. The Mengerwas San Antonio's most prominent hotel in the 19th century, and was periodically enlarged and remodeled to accommodate guests such as cattleman Richard King of the famous King Ranch, Generals U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Theodore Roosevelt recruited his regiment of "Rough Riders" in the Menger in 1898.

A very impressive structure, now covering the entire city block, the Menger remembers its roots with an impressive entrance.

A number of antiques grace the hotel, among them this unique clock showing the hour, second, day and date.

Sidebar:
Barbed wire, known as "Bob Wire" by cowboys, was a french invention first patented in the US in 1867, but it didn't gain favor with cattlemen until the late 1870's. A fellow out of DeKalb, Illinois began manufacturing barbed wire in 1874, and it was his wire that was first successfully demonstrated in Texas. A veteran salesman named John Gates set up a barbed wire corral just outside the Alamo in 1876 and drove cattle into the pen. Astonished cowboys and cattlemen saw how the wire held the animals and asked how they could order some. It's said that Gates invited everyone into the Menger Hotel for libations and orders. After the demonstration in Alamo Plaza, the market for barbed wire exploded with large sales to ranchers along the frontier.

John Gates, nicknamed "Bet-A-Million" Gates, became the worlds largest manufacturer of barbed wire, and helped found the Texas Company, later known as Texaco.

The other celebration, if that's the correct word, that's happening this weekend, is the Commemoration of the Alamo Siege and Battle. In 1836, between February 23 and March 6, Mexican troops under President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission from Texians that had driven all Mexican troops out of Texas several months earlier. Roughly 200 defenders, including William B. Travis and James Bowie, died at the hands of the 1,500 man Mexican army after fending off two attacks. On March 6, 1836, the Mexican army stormed the walls of the Alamo and one by one executed the defenders. We all know the story of how this battle infuriated remaining Texians who banded together by the thousands and defeated the Mexican army a short time later at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

A touching memorial to the defenders of the Alamo:

Just across the street from the Alamo lies the Emily Morgan Hotel.

Six weeks after the Battle of the Alamo, on April 6, 1836, Emily Morgan was captured along with other members of her household by the Mexican army and was forced to travel with the forces of General Santa Anna as they slowly advanced across the prairie toward San Jacinto.

On April 21, the Texan army, led by Sam Houston, ambushed the Mexican campgrounds, where no guards were posted, allowing Houston's forces to win the Battle of San Jacinto in less than an hour. It is rumored that General Santa Anna was preoccupied with Emily Morgan during the pivotal battle cries, missing them completely and not alerting his troops.

In 1924, the Emily Morgan was built as a hospital and doctors office building, and was in use until 1976. After a decade of dormancy, the building was renovated as a hotel and named for the woman perhaps known as the Yellow Rose of Texas.

Donna and I were privileged to stay at the Emily Morgan in 2010, but were unable to make contact with any of the Ghosts said to be living there!

Just up the road is the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. Reputed to be another one of the locations that Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders, the establishment has amassed some 40,000 square feet of museum space, including exhibits of thousands of trophy animals (can you believe a seventy-eight point buck?), firearms and memorabilia from the Texas Rangers.

After an afternoon of walking around downtown San Antonia and the River Walk, we drove a couple of miles north to Ma Harpers Creole Restaurant just off I35. Ma has run this place for seemingly forever and has won trophies from many, many competitions that she has entered. The building is not flashy, and the interior decor is modest. But the food is phenomenal.

Ma's place has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, where Ma slapped Guy Fieri's hand and admonished him to "fix it proper". Ma's daughter served us a bowl of Red Beans and Rice, with sausage, and a bowl of Gumbo with Corn Bread. Delicious! Ma was in the house, but she was negotiating a catered order of 120 meals, so we didn't interrupt, but Ma got up out of her chair and thanked Donna for "coming by". We would have liked to chat for a bit with her after seeing her on tv and laughing at her sense of humor! What a comfortable restaurant and wonderful people! Try it next time you're in SA!

As it was getting on toward evening, we shot back toward our "home" in Kerrville. The evening fog was beginning to settle in, and the temp was dropping.

So there you have another 140 mile day trip. Worth every mile!

Cowboys and......

We have been anticipating Saturday's events for weeks now, and finally the day arrived! It's time for the 14th Annual Cowboy Mardi Gras in Bandera, Texas! The festivities started last Thursday evening, but culminated today with a parade at noon and Cajun/Zydeco music all afternoon with several side streets blocked off to accommodate the party-goers! Our focus was the parade, so off we went to Bandera, just a 1/2 hour south, thinking that we would be among a small crowd of maybe a thousand or so...Wrong! With a normal population of 898 souls, I can comfortably say that Bandera hosted many, many thousands today! I can say that because parking was to be had only on the outskirts of town or in the front yards of unsuspecting homeowners when we arrived at eleven.

And it was a show!

I was honestly surprised that every person in our area stood as the flag passed by. God Bless America!

Followed by the state flag of Texas!

This event is sponsored by the 11th Street Cowboy Bar in Bandera, and over the years has grown into a great crowd pleasing event as well as a revenue producing shindig. The 11th Street Bar float had the honor of leading the parade:

This set the tone for the day.....all the parade entries threw candy or colorful beads to the crowd!

You don't see many of these anymore!

The Sisters On The Fly group were all decorated:

Rather out of place, but nice to see, a nicely restored vintage Airstream cruised by.

Green, purple, and gold were the colors du jour.

It wouldn't be Texas without horses! See the young ladies in the front? By the end of the parade they had fist sized bundles of beads around their necks!

Horses? We don't need no stinkin' horses...

There were a lot of nicely decorated trucks.

The girls are beginning to get the hang of the bead thing...

And the beads are stacking up...

This gentleman with his dancing horse caused quite a reaction...except from the young ladies...no beads, ya know. But an extraordinarily well trained horse...a beauty to watch it prance!

Nice car...get out of the way, girls!

With visions of Mardi Gras finery in our heads, we left Bandera with a smile on our faces!

Not wanting to go directly back home, we headed south toward Hondo, Texas. Ok, that took a minute, so we headed west on US 90 toward Uvalde, TX, passing through D'Hanis...

Then Sabina and Knippa before arriving in Uvalde, where we ate a nice lunch at MacGillicudys. This is a combo BBQ, Mexican, Burger, and Steak restaurant. Hey, in a small town...

So now we had a choice: Go home via Leakey, TX, or Utopia, TX. Both towns sounded like they had something to offer, but considering our age we figured we already had experienced Utopia and that Leakey better suited our physical state these days...

US 83 took us to Leakey through the resort community of Rio Frio, situated along the river of the same name. We saw Big Horn Sheep, wild Boar, and hundreds of deer along the way. We also saw this big boy watching over his harem.

Donna managed to catch a handful of beads and a Moon Pie as souvenirs of the Cowboy Mardi Gras parade:

And a Texas sunset to end a great 205 mile day trip!

What, Exactly, Have We Been Doing?

Like the 7-year-old said: "I dunno...."

Since the last post, some twelve days ago, we've done a lot, but not much. Huh? Well, we have been busy....

The day before Valentine's Day we took a short thirty mile trip southeast into the town of Boerne, pronounced "Burn-ey" hereabouts. Boerne is a big suburb of San Antonio, with hundreds of businesses stretched along the I10 corridor. Once you get off the main highway, however, there is a cute downtown area with a number of shops and restaurants. The weather had turned cold and windy again, so we scooted right along with Sasha pulling at her leach, wanting to get back in the car. We left her to be warm and had lunch at the Dodging Duck, along the Cibolo River. What a nice lunch and the view from the wind-proof patio was very peaceful.

On Valentine's Day, Thursday, Donna gave me a particularly sweet gift: she allowed me to wash and detail a very dirty car! That might sound a bit odd, but things like a car that hasn't been washed in a month bug me, so it was a great low-pressure day with late coffee and a sense of accomplishment at the end.

Having gotten a taste of how nice a vehicle can look with a little TLC, on Friday I climbed up on the roof of the motorhome and washed and waxed it. Whew! There is a lot of stuff up there! So, now I'm on a roll.....Saturday saw the front of the motorhome and a few feet down each side being washed and waxed!

Sunday, the 17th, was a day to collapse...well, sort of. Instead of working outside, we spent most of the day gathering our tax info and getting it off to the "tax man". Not as physically demanding, perhaps, but harder work mentally for sure!

Still not recovered from three days of vehicle care, we took off Monday for a day trip to New Braunfels, TX, just a few miles north of San Antonio. At one point we had to make a decision where we wanted to go...

But we managed to find the town. A drive through downtown showed us that while the town has a long and storied German heritage, there wasn't much to intrigue us. Just outside of New Braunfels is another old German town named Gruene, where many European immigrants settled and began to farm. Monday was a holiday, so the town of Gruene was mobbed with families out for a day of fun. We allowed as how we had been having way to much "fun" and decided to cruise on through with only a short stop for Sasha to leave her DNA on the lawn at City Hall....Sorry about that.

There is a chain of convenience stores in Texas called Buc-ee's. These are not your local 7-Eleven.

Looking over Donna's shoulder, you can get a hint of the size of the building. Assuming each light fixture is four feet long, with four feet in between fixtures....do the math...it's huge!

One can purchase everything from Jerky to Bison Burgers to snacks here.

And, of course, a visitor must say hello to Bucky!

Two rows of gas and diesel fuel pumps parallel the building. We guess-t-mate upwards of sixty pumps! What a store!

And back to Buckhorn Lake RV in Kerrville, completing a 170 mile day trip! This was almost as much work as waxing the motorhome...

After a nice long rest, we got back to cleaning the motorhome on Wednesday and Thursday. Almost done! I think one more day....

But that will be later!

On Friday we shot into San Antonio to check out the northwest corner of town. This is a newer part of a fast growing city, and has many shopping opportunities (oh, joy...) We were able to find another location of our favorite seafood restaurant, Pappadoux's. The decor, presentation, and service here is phenomenal, and while not inexpensive, is worth every bite.

We enjoyed servings of Texas red snapper with grilled shrimp, with salad, and the single largest baked potato I've ever seen! Roughly half of the meal came home with us!

Pappadoux's offers fresh beef as well. These cuts were on display near the entrance. The Ribeye steaks in the center row were....I kid you not....a full 2" thick! So do the math on the filets on the right side!

So, that took us up to Friday. Then what?