January 15: Visiting Will and the LBJ Ranch in Texas
Every once in awhile we get the itch to see our son Will. Or Paul. We called him that for about 20 years before he took the first part of his name instead. Of course that required a visit to San Antonio, Texas, where he now lives. It also seemed like a great lark to fly to Texas with my 97 year old dad. He's alert, likes to travel, and put down the dollars, so we were on our way.
When I think of flying, I discovered that dad flies easily, but getting the wheel chair, lugging and stowing away my luggage and dad's luggage, the coats, etc. is a pretty tiring process. Anyway, we arrived here all together, with all of our luggage. A good thing.
We had three days at a Wyndham vacation resort on the Riverwalk. It was a great deal smaller than other resorts we had visited, had no on site parking, no wheelchairs to loan, a stove burner that required maintenance, Internet with "weak connectivity" (that means it never worked), and a sleep sofa that I wouldn't have taken home from the store. But the people were friendly and helpful and we were comfortable enough.
Chuck and I have spent a bit of time in San Antonio, and found it still had some surprises for us. First, the San Antonio Riverwalk is drained every year in January, dredged, cleaned and maintained. We arrived just as that process finished. They had restored the river, but because of the severe weather forecasts, the cruise boats were on "standby." (A lot of the storekeepers admitted that these vendors seldom run their boats in the rain.) At any rate we were not able to get dad his boat ride.
We did do several things that he enjoyed. Dad is kind of a Western fan. He loves to watch reruns of Bonanza and Gunsmoke, and if I give him a supply of large print Westerns, he'll read one a day. Dad's first question when we flew into Texas was, "Okay, where are the cowboys and horses?" So we drove up to Johnson City, and took him through LBJ's raanch. We hadn't visited there since we came this way to visit our friends Bill and Mary Brown in Fredericksburg, and found that after Ladybird Johnson passed away, they made some big changes to the property. There is a brand new visitor's center. We saw the film and looked at the exhibits. There was no mention of his great contribution in getting the Headstart program. It was still a nice exhibit. The little bus tour across the waterbridge was gone. Instead we were provided with a CD to put in the car for the tour around the ranch. Two new additions were very interesting to Chuck and me: there was a living history ranch, and it is now possible to tour the LBJ ranch.
Dad loved the living history ranch pictured above. The docent-cook had just finished cooking lunch. Every year they can produce grown on the ranch, and the shelves of the kitchen were full of canned vegetables, meat, and fruit. There was a separator, cream clotting, a wood stove, lots of antique gadgets. Dad wanted to talk about them all We toured the homes and the barns. Yesterday a sow had piglets, so she was over in a far safe corner. The wild turkeys and the roosters didn't pay us any mind. After a car tour, we ended at the ranger led tour of the house. LBJ's office was first--huge--with room for several secretaries. LBJ loved to watch the news on 3 different televisions at once. There was a set in his office, and a set in his living room. The furniture is small by today's standards, and for a 6'4" President, but looked comfy to me. The dining room had landscape wallpaper; however, Ladybird did not want any cowboy and Indian scenes. The kitchen was huge. So we saw part of the 8000 sq ft. home. My favorite part was the huge porch and the rockers viewing the Pertonales River and the huge Live Oak in the front yard.
It rained on our way back to Will's, but it was a good day.
