Texas - The Lone Star State
Archers Holidays, June 2014
We started our day with the hotel's included breakfast. Time was short so we only had scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal, coffee and apple juice. There was other stuff, but we were in a rush!
We met with Patrick in the lobby at 7.50am for our two hour drive out to Fredericksburg. We were going to visit President Lyndon Baines Johnson's house, as well as a seed farm and winery.
As we drove along the sky got darker and darker. It was one of those days that gets darker the more it gets light! It was starting to look pretty grim out there but at least this time the assistants had brought their raincoats (and, more importantly, mine!)
Soon it was raining! Eek! Darn it clouds, did you not read the weather report today? Sigh.
We arrived at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch
, now designated the LBJ State Park and National HIstoric Site. President Johnson took over from John F Kennedy after the assassination. We stopped briefly at the Visitor Center for a restroom break (for the humans) before pulling up at the ranch at around 10am. We dashed off the bus (not least because my dumb assistants chose not to wear their raincoats) and into the Airport Hangar where the Rangers were waiting to meet us. I spotted this presidential podium so thought I'd take it out for a spin. We also had a chance to look at some of LBJ's cars, like this All Terrain Vehicle, a 1934 Ford Phaeton.
He had a couple of Lincoln Continentals and even a Model T Ford that was given to Johnson by Henry Ford II, a reminder of the family car of his youth.
Check this out! A 1962 Amphicar! Seriously. It seems he would take unsuspecting passengers out for a drive before pointing it at the water and calling out, "The brakes have failed, we're going in!" It was okay though, because the car worked just as well as a boat.
It was really throwing the rain down hard as we had to cross the yard to get to the Texas White House, as their home was called. He shared it with his wife, who everyone knew as Lady Bird. We were split into two groups to tour the house, starting in the former President's Office, with his desk and three secretaries (Presidential, Press and Ranch).
We were able to get a couple of photographs in there before the Ranger said photographs weren't allowed. Boooooo! I don't know why but as you know by now, it's a sure-fire Ted-dropper, hence the four Teds. We moved on to the sitting room, with sofas in front of a large fireplace, which was original to the house. One thing we found throughout the house was telephones - at least one in every room, sometimes more - it seems Johnson liked to stay in touch!
The next room was the Yellow Room which used to be the Master bedroom for the couple but Lady Bird was regularly disturbed by Johnson so she made them extend the house, giving them separate bedrooms. This room had a couple of chairs and the walls were painted yellow. It seems there are only so many times a lady can put up with waking up to a roomful of folks having a meeting!
We went through the kitchen and into yet another sitting room. Johnson could change the purpose of this room to an office at any given time so there was yet another phone in here, just in case.
We moved through into LBJ's master bedroom. This was fairly functional, with pictures the grandchildren on the walls but with additional space to conduct a meeting. Since he had his first heart attack, he would have a daily massage and so the massage table was set up in here.
Lady Bird's bedroom was much more flouncy with ornate chests of draws and a desk in the window overlooking the fruit and vegetable gardens.
Once we were done with the house, we headed back across the yard. I found this in a garage. It's a 1965 Corvette Sting Ray, nice huh? It was a gift from LBJ to his daughter, Luci. We also took a look at Johnson's Friendship Stones - LBJ made his guests autograph and date these stones when they visited - well, anyone can have a guestbook!
We headed back to the Airplane Hanger, where there were a few items for sale, bookmarks, postcards and a few books. We'd already looked around the exhibit and the rain was easing off so we headed across the tarmac to look at the Aeroplane underneath an awning. This is a Lockheed JetStar VC-140 and was assigned to Johnson - he was the first Vice President to be assigned a plane. Once President, he continued to use the plane to fly to and from his ranch. He jokingly called it Air Force One Half but it did have the call sign Air Force One.
We got back on the bus ready for our next stop, which was just up the road at the family cemetery. By the time we got off the bus the sun was out! Woohoo! I was getting some stick (grief? mocking - do you people speak English?) on Twitter as the weather was good and hot back in England and that rarely happens!
The graveyard is in a pretty spot, under trees, with LBJ and Lady Bird together. In the distance we could see a church steeple.
As we left we spotted Johnson's birthplace across the road. Then we came across the church we'd seen earlier, which is of the Lutheran denomination.
Our next stop was at Wildseed Farms,
where they sell flowers and seeds as well as flowery gifts. They had one of those cool cacti like they have in the movies. Of course, being Texas, they also sell these metal cows. I'm told these were not allowed on the plane. Hmph!
Out the back of the shops there is a Butterfly Walk with planted gardens so we took a walk through there.
Way out back we reached the fields of flowers, grown to produce the seeds they sell. As for attracting butterflies, it certainly did. There were loads of them.
Inside, they had all kinds of produce but it was the same stuff we'd seen around Florida, and quite expensive too. They had a few items available for tasting - by heck, one of them really blew your head off. If I was an organised tour guide, I'd be able to tell you what it was. I have no clue! My assistants are supposed to take notes, but you know how rubbish they are.
We had a look around the seeds shop and I found some seeds for the Teddy Bear plant (who knew?) so obviously I had to buy some of those! I'd checked before we left the hotel - I could bring back five packets of seeds through Customs.
Soon it was time to head back to the bus - we were off to Fredericksburg (the Texas one) for lunch. We had a ninety minute lunch stop so we decided to head over to the National Museum of the Pacific War
instead. The chap on the door said it would take at least two hours - or longer - to do the museum properly, but we said we'd got an hour! He told us to skip the first four rooms and not read too much, so that's what we did.
We skipped the 150 years prior to Pearl Harbor (so you'll never know what happened!) and got stuck into the attack on the Hawaiian port that we visited last year. We saw a model of the USS Arizona, one of the ships that were sunk. We visited the Memorial last year. Below centre is a Boeing B-25 "Mitchell", used in early raids on Japan from aircraft carriers. Below right are artifacts from the Battle of Midway.
The Grumman F4F Wildcat was flown primarily by the Navy and Marine Corps. While not as agile as the Japanese Zero, it was ruggedly built and had more firepower - the aeroplane, below left is actually an FM2 Wildcat built by General Motors, when Grumman couldn't keep up with demand. We found this armoured vehicle too, but I can't remember what it is!
Below centre is a three-inch Japanese gun. It was designed for anti-aircraft and coastal defence, but could be lowered to 5 inches, making it a good anti-tank gun also. It took out three Stuart tanks before it was knocked out. The Army ordered eight modified jeeps with four-wheel drive, then sixty more from American Bantam. When they couldn't keep up with supply the Army ordered another 1500 from Willy's Overland Motors and the Ford Motor Company. Nearly 2.4 million Jeeps were created for military use.
A model of the USS New Mexico is below centre. Fortunately, it wasn't at Pearl Harbor during the attack. It was struck twice by kamikazes during the War. Below right are uniforms from US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coastguard, Army Air Force and Merchant Marine.
Japanese 37mm Gun Emplacement (below left), General MacArthur returns to the Phillippines, as promised (below centre) and (below right) a hatch from a US submarine.
They have a full-size mock up of a submarine Dive! Dive! Dive!. Below centre is the Japanese Kawanishi N1K Floatplane. An offensive fighter, only 89 were introduced in 1943 as by this time Japan was on the defensive and this plane didn't fit. Fleet Admiral Nimitz had a Higgins boat converted to a barge while running operations in Guam. This boat, below right, is a 35-foot US Navy motor boat restored to the appearance of that barge.
The museum closes with the dropping of the Nuclear Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pictures below show how Fat Man would have looked (the second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki).
We just had time to run around the gift shop. They had a lot of stuff - some military bears but their uniforms just wouldn't fit me! Some t-shirts were not badly priced at $16 too. They had some made in Hawaii Hawaiian Shirts too that we liked but they were way too expensive. Soon it was time to walk briskly (rush) back to our meeting point, which was - of course - at the other end of town! The bus was parked alongside a small park and in the distance we spotted this waterwheel, but we didn't have time for a closer look.
I have to say, Texas, that this is the way to do a museum. To be fair there were a lot of boards with information and various cabinets with smaller artifacts, but maybe it was just the subject matter was more engaging than the Bob Bullock State History Museum. We could easily have spent another hour here, maybe longer. It's a shame it's not really on the itinerary. Dave went after his lunch but with only an hour to go they recommended he didn't pay to go in as he wouldn't get his money's worth, which I thought was nice of them. Some folks would have just grabbed his money. Certainly worth a visit.
There is also an Admiral Nimitz Museum in there, but we ran out of time before we could get in there.
Our final stop of the day was at Becker Vineyards, where a wine tasting had been arranged (you know I like those!)
We got to try six of their wines - a Viognier (dry white), a Provençal (slightly less dry white), a Grenache Reserve (dry red), a Claret (slightly better red), a red Zinfandel and a Muscat Canelli Amabile rosé. To be honest, they were all a little too dry for my liking. I do like a balanced diet though - a glass of wine in each paw.
After the tasting, we staggered...er set off for a tour of the facility. Last year they bottled a million bottles of wine made with their own grapes and others from the surrounding areas. Each of the tanks can hold 30-50,000 bottles.
Below centre is the automated grape-picking machine. The narrow truck passes between the rows of vines and bands vibrate, causing the grapes to fall off the vines and into the truck. It's a lot quicker than doing it by paw.
This chap was washing out the barrels. This is a barrel where they squish the grapes and below right is their logo on a barrel.
Some bottles stacked up in the warehouse, the picking machine from the side and more big metal vats.
Done with the tour and having had a fruitless wander around the shop - I didn't like the wine enough to buy any - we had more time to wander around the grounds. We didn't leave empty-handed though - we each got to take home our wine-tasting glass. What are the chances of getting them home intact? (It turns out, we got them home just fine - even though they are huge!)
We got back onto the bus, made a quick stop to buy some peaches and returned to the hotel. We made it back in time for the freebie Kickbacks but before that we had to dash back down to the Alamo gift shop - the badge I bought didn't have a back on it. Half an hour later we were back at the hotel, in time for our drinks. Phew.
We enjoyed our kickbacks drinks and some nachos before heading to the Mexican restaurant that Terry, the guide from a couple days ago recommended. However, we figured we should check out the roof of the hotel first - and what a view!
They had a hot tub up here and also a swimming pool, but the roof area is enclosed in a glass wall (phew!) so it's safe up there. Eek! Good job too - it's a long way down!
On our way out of the hotel we spotted this cutie.
We headed to the Mexican Manhattan Restaurant
which really was across the river and over the road from our hotel. It didn't look that great from the outside, but based on the recommendation we went in anyway. It was a little utilitarian but there were several locals eating inside, which is usually a good sign, so we got a table. This was Mexico so I got a strawberry margarita.
They brought us a plate of tostada chips and salsa. We've had these at Chili's and I prefer those, these were a little hard for me, but we ate a few while we were waiting on dinner.
Paul had some chicken tacos while Dave and I shared this bell pepper stuffed with minced beef and coated in an egg batter, with rice. It was humungous! There wasn't much on the menu for veggie Di, so she ordered cheese quesedillas (they charged the same as the chicken ones!) and when they brought it out they had forgotten to make sure there was no slime (sour cream and guacamole). By the time she brought it back they were a bit cool. The food wasn't bad, and ours was hot when it arrived, except for Di's.
The overall bill, including three beers, a margarita and a Coke, and a tip came to $52! Good deal. The service was friendly and it was a good meal. The mistakes meant I had to drop them just the one Ted, but it was good. We were pretty stuffed by the end of the meal, so we headed back to the hotel to pack as we were moving on tomorrow.
We stopped off in the lobby of our hotel to take some pictures of the art deco bank decorations.
They also have a 1930 Ford from the Drury Family collection. It was restored in 1958 and has just under 47,000 miles on the clock.
Then we were off to our rooms for an early night.