Day 10 April 21 Wednesday

We are in Fredericksburg TX after a very full day. We started out with breakfast at the Chrome Cactus in Johnson City. It’s a very small place with only 4 tables in one room and about the same in an adjoining room. We think we disrupted the morning routine of the regulars that included the sheriff. Believe it or not, the women who came in, went into the adjoining room although there were seats available. In other words I was the only woman in the “men’s” dining room. Each guy had a pickup of course and two with dogs in the back.
Onward from there to the national park for the LBJ Texas Whitehouse about 15 miles west. He was born here, lived for a while in Johnson City, and then bought the adjoining property of one of his relatives while he was in Congress. The self-guided tour takes you across the ranch, along the Perdanales River, etc. Just beautiful hill country. It is still a working ranch with Hereford cattle and some mohair sheep. The profits go to the National Park Service to manage the site. Huge oaks as you see in the picture. By the way, we saw in the Austin paper that Luci Baines, LBJ’s younger daughter was struck with Guillian Barre Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder. The ranger said she had been transferred to the Mayo Clinic. Too bad. Apparently she is very active in the LBJ Foundation, etc. I think it is another one of those cases where Lady Bird’s family had the bucks and LBJ married into money. The ranger also said that the Baines family supports Baylor U.
On our way to Fredericksburg, we came across the Wildflower Farms. Huge spread with garden shops, winery, live music etc. I enjoyed browsing.
We have a great rv spot in Fredericksburg. I walked and Jack rode the scooter the 1.25 miles to the main street. We just window shopped most of the afternoon. Everything seems very pricey. We are surprised that there were so many people at the LBJ ranch, the wildflower stop, and in town for a Wednesday. We don’t know if it is normal or not. We are going to spend tomorrow at the new, apparently huge, Museum of the Pacific WW II which is an expansion of the Nemetz museum. Admiral Nemetz was from Fredericksburg.
It is one historic building after another along Main St here. The farmers/ranchers from the surrounding area used to have houses in town for the weekends. These are now converted into shops, wineries, restaurants. My sister and I were here a few years ago and if I remember correctly, there has been a great deal of development in a positive way. So we ate in a German restaurant, what else. The hill country was settled by German immigrants in the mid 1800s.