Driving around Texas Hill Country

It's good to have friends with friends in high places. 

A friend took us out for a bite to eat yesterday and then to see some of the 'country.' Nine hours and 170 miles later we'd done it Texas style. Here are some notes and pix of that.

Here we are; Opie's!!! Just west of Oak Hill in western Austin.
M brought this espresso with her to finish off while John & I remembered the Air Force. 

First thing inside the door at Opie's you pick your meat.
M and I split a half rack. It was seven of the meatiest ribs we've ever seen. 

The dining room. No plates. You eat on sheets of butcher paper.
Pick your sides & deserts here. Small (tiny), Medium (more than needed) or Large (OMG).
In the back are great Butter Beans or Pinto Beans and bread. Included. 

Pink granite outcropping in the Llano River. Lots of pink granite quarried here.
Also crossed the Pedernales River and Barton Creek. (No pix)
Whole area has stone just below the top soil. Any rain runs off
and quickly gathers in the arroyos to flood.

You can barely see it, but this is a "new" castle
modeled after the original plans for Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria.
It was built by an Austin real estate developer
and his wife and is called Faulkenstein Castle.

We've seen these since we entered the area.
John says they are Ball Moss.  Despite its common name it's not a moss, but a true plant with seeds and flowers. iI's an epiphyte, an air-feeder. A member of the Bromeliad family,
with Spanish Moss and Pineapple(!?!?) it is not parasitic and will not hurt the tree.

We drove around and saw some more this's and that's, but the end of the afternoon was visiting LBJ's ranch outside Johnson City, Texas, just making it for the final 4PM tour. It was named Johnson City before Lyndon Baines Johnson was born. His Dad was a state senator for several terms. His Mom believed in education. Nothing that unusual about that. When he was still a preschooler he would go to the one-room schoolhouse near the family home where he was born. He'd sit on the teacher's lap when she read. When it was time for him to attend school for real they moved into town. Still a modest home. 

This is the one room schoolhouse a few hundred yards from where LBJ was born.
There is a photo of him with a table set up outside, in front of the third window back,
ready to sign one of many education laws he wrangled through Congress.
The outside seems to be block, but it is tin panels stamped to simulate block. 

Girls on one side. Boys on the other. 

This is a longer shot of the front of the "Texas White House."
He spent 490 days of his 5 years as President here. 

There's a Live Oak in the front yard estimated to be nearly 450 years old.
President Johnson would have visitors - whether foreign leaders or the Cabinet -
take folding chairs outside and meet under this great tree.

When guests would arrive the President had them sign their names in wet concrete pavers.
This was their "Guest Book"
I suspect he enjoyed making them a little awkward in their suits and expensive shoes.

Here's a shot of a big portrait of LBJ and LBJ.
He was a master strategist and effective politician who
came to the Presidency at a very tough time
and did, what he believed, were the right things.
Good people.

The little section that juts out on the left was the original house built
in 1894 by "Polecat" Meier of limestone fieldstone.
LBJ's Aunt and Uncle, from whom LBJ bought it in '51, had added on
and then the President and Lady Bird added on more.

Here is a view of the back of a model of the final home.
The President added a modest office with room for two secretaries.
Mrs. Johnson added a large bedroom so she could sleep while he
talked on the phone and met with people to all hours.
It was 8,000 square feet in total, but no room we saw was large enough
to impart a sense of that size.

Here's a shot of the model from the front.
Sorry I don't have any photos of the interior. No pix allowed inside.
It was all very 1960s to 1980s decor.  LBJ was 6-4 without his boots on. There were several doors in the old house he would not have cleared without serious ducking. 

Driving around the hill country we passed a lot of torn up ground, evidence of feral hogs, also pronghorns and some real, honest-to-Texas longhorns. (They grew Herefords on LBJ Ranch. They put devices on their horns when they are young to get the horns to curve in.)  We passed this good looking piece of art (below) that sits on the highway to attract you to a nearby development; The Preserve at Walnut Springs where they "invite retirees, second homeowners, and families to relocate to the relaxing, private ranch lifestyle with horseback riding, swimming, and tennis." Like you do.

After seeing the Texas White House and other parts of the LBJ memorial (LBJ and Lady Bird are buried there too) we went back to Johnson City and, though we all suspected it impossible, we ate again. This time at the Hill Country Cupboard. M and I reverted to our typical style and ordered veggie stuff. I made a great meal of sides: green beans (OK, with bacon), black-eyed peas, seasoned rice and half of Maureen's fried green tomatoes. Friend John shared bites of his massive Chicken Fried Steak, the house specialty, with us. It was excellent!
M and I brought home a portion each of peach cobbler and cherry pie. John, still recovering from our lunch at Opie's, had to take home half of that plate-sized chicken fried steak. Scrumptious as it was.