Remember

We left Bastrop and headed into the "Hill Country" of Texas.  Now we start seeing more working ranches, Texas towns, and feed stores.  Our first stop was along the Pedernales River at LBJ's ranch for a driving tour.  His ranch is now a National Historic Park, but it is also still a working ranch.  We saw the one room schoolhouse he attended, his birthplace, the family cemetery where he and Lady Bird are buried, the show barn where his registered cattle were groomed and sold, and finally the "Texas White House."  During Johnson's five year presidency, he spent close to 500 days at his ranch.  He was a pilot and owned a plane, so as his positions of importance grew, so did the size of the private airstrip at his ranch.  The 6300 foot paved runway wasn't big enough for Air Force One, but smaller jets (including Air Force 1/2) could land there.  During the busiest days as President, (ferrying family, politicians, reporters, and secret service agents,) as many as 50 planes would land and take off on the ranch strip per day.
The house itself started as a small ranch house that the Johnson's added on to numerous times until it became a sprawling stone and wood 28 room home with 8 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and a commercial kitchen for entertaining.

 



 After we left the LBJ ranch, we headed west through hill country to visit Fredericksburg, a culturally German town settled by German immigrants in the 1840's.  It almost looked out of place in Texas ranch country.  We had a very German lunch at a local restaurant before continuing on our way.
As we were heading south on a winding two lane road we came across a sign pointing to the infamous and historic Luckenbach, Texas.  The town consists mainly of a post office/general store, a saloon, and a dance hall.  The town was made famous by Waylon Jennings' 1977 hit outlaw country song by the same name.  Now, they host picking circles, cowboy dances, and country music concerts there every weekend.  It takes about seven minutes to see it all, two more if you take pictures, and again we were on our way.

It was still cold and cloudy when we pulled into San Antonio.  First stop was at the Alamo to learn the history of this famous mission that played an important role in the independence of Texas from Mexico.  We also visited Mission San Jose and learned a lot about mission life and the purposes of the mission system that the Spanish set up in the southwest.  The two main purposes (simplified) were to make new taxpaying citizens to support the Spanish empire and to convert the natives to Catholicism.

  The River Walk in downtown San Antonio is a system of paths along the San Antonio River and landscaped canals below street level lined with shops, hotels, and restaurants that is a public park.  Originally planned for flood control, now it is a major and unique tourist attraction.  It was indeed beautiful, and would be a very romantic spot if it would not have been 35 degrees and drizzling while we walked it.  The food at the County Line BBQ was excellent.

We have many relatives and friends who during World War II, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War passed through Fort Sam Houston as part of their training.  We hear about their Fort Sam reunions regularly.  So since we were in San Antonio, we decided to check it out.  It was cold and dreary when we stopped, so we decided not to get the permit required to tour the base, but we did drive through the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.  It encompasses 155 acres and has over 120,000 internments, including POW's from WWII.  It is always a sobering sight to see the rows and rows, acres and acres of the tombstones in a military cemetery. 

 



In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
Judges 5:6