We're in LBJ Country

We departed Fredericksburg shortly before noon for the 60 mile drive to Austin. But on the way there was a stop we had to make, the Lyndon Baines Johnson home just outside of Stonewall.

We exited highway 290 to get to the LBJ ranch which is run by the National Park folks. We thought it would be an easy jaunt off the road to the visitor's center to see the ranch house.

But no.

Sure there's a visitor center, but it's not that well marked and by the looks of things there weren't too many cars in the parking lot, and definitely no RV's. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a sign with an arrow pointing toward the LBJ ranch house tour. Hey, why not, it shouldn't be too far down the road.

This little jaunt ended up taking us through the entire ranch, from one end to the other and back before we got to the actual ranch house. We drove by the "new show barn" (the old one was right next to the house and Lady Bird hated the smells and flies so she made Lyndon construct a new one practically at the furthest point away from the house on the spread), a 5000+ foot runway, cattle grazing, horses, and even antelope. I was leery of driving our big rig through this meandering one-way asphalt road with low overhanging branches. Of course we were still the only RV for miles around.

We finally found ourselves next to LBJ's private jet and since we were an RV we got to park right next to the jet, closer to the home entrance than any other vehicle! What a deal!

After some pictures we entered the hangar which had been turned into the welcome/reception center for the house tours. We paid our $3 each for the tour that would start in just a couple of minutes, where we joined about a half dozen other folks to follow a ranger on the tour of the grounds and home.

My new favorite photo of LBJ, long hair and all taken in August 1972
just five months before he died at just 64.
click photo to enlarge

The poor ranger was not match for me on presidential history, little did he know we've made it a point to visit as many presidential homes as we stumbled upon on our previous RV journeys - I think we're up to a dozen already. . .I wonder if we'll find any more on this trip.

Marianne and I were amazed how humble the home really was. It started as a small ranch home that LBJ bought from his aunt in 1951 and he just kept adding to it whenever he needed more room. So the house was somewhat of a mismatch architecturally and in design layout. No, it wasn't fancy at all, it's claim to fame was the number of telephones throughout the house over 70 in all, even one attached to the leg of the dining room table. Remember this was an era before wireless and cell phones. LBJ just had to be connected. Heck, his living room had three side-by-side TV's that were continually on the only three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, all day long.

LBJ was born on the ranch but in a different house, about a mile away. Also on the ranch is another home built by his father, Sam, and there's even LBJ's school house. Today there additional caretakers homes, a Secret Service trailer ensemble (used when he served as vice president and president), and now facilities for the rangers.

After LBJ died in January 1973, Claudia Taylor (aka Lady Bird Johnson) continued to live at the ranch for another 34 years until she died in 2007 at age 94. Both of them are buried about a half mile from the home in the Johnson family cemetery on the ranch. There are no large mausoleums or monuments, but only headstones. For all of their wealth, they didn't live opulently nor were they interred that way.

After a couple of hours on the property we motored on to Austin to the La Hacienda RV Resort, the same place we stayed on our around the U.S. odyssey in three years ago with our previous trailer. To refresh your memory, here's the link to that blog: Coming to Austin in 2010. The place looks pretty much like we remembered it except that the trees have gotten bigger.

And for the first time I had to back our fifth wheel into a site. Up until now, every site we've camped at was a pull-through site, make things as easy as mud. But backing our beast into a site was a bit of a challenge but with over seven years of experience backing in our previous two trailers, I've quickly adapted.

And hooking up and unhooking the truck from the trailer is no longer giving me wet palms. I think it's actually easier than with a bumper pull travel trailer and all the additional torsion bars and their associated chain links and anti-sway bars. When we camped with Paul and Deb Cervone throughout California and Oregon last summer I always wonder how he got done so much faster than I did even if we started simultaneously. Now I know. Live and learn.

And if I've said it once, I'll say it again, pulling a fifth wheel is a much nicer experience that with bumper pull travel trailer. This is due to the fact that close to 20% of the trailer weight is supported in the bed of the pick-up, Although our fifth well is technically 38' long, it's only about 4' longer than our previous travel trailer because of this overhang. In other words all is good (so far!).

The LBJ Ranch House Tour

click on collage to enlarge

Maximum temperature: 99°
Miles driven: 82