Lyndon B. Johnson tour of the Hill Country region

Cows in the road! They didn't even move!

On Wednesday, we drove west to Johnson City, Texas to visit the boyhood home of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. While he was actually born in Stonewall near the ranch he would later own, he was raised in this home in order to attend school.

His mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, born in 1881, was one of only two college-educated women in the entire county and moved the family to Johnson City so that 4 year old Lyndon (and the next 4 children) could eventually attend high school and then go on to college. In this small cottage, Mrs. Johnson taught elocution and debate. She would encourage her children to listen to the radio and then take a position on something they heard. She had them debate each other and then switch sides and debate the opposite

Lyndon B. Johnson's boyhood home

position. LBJ's father, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., married Rebekah in 1907 and provided for his family as a rancher and state legislator. He served in the legislature for 6 terms and authored several important bills including the purchase of the Alamo property. Mr. Johnson's political career and Mrs. Johnson's focus on education and debate all rubbed off on LBJ.

Despite his rising political star, no one realized LBJ would one day be elected president and so his boyhood home is decorated with furniture appropriate to the time he lived there, but not original pieces. The house had no electricity, but unusually, did have running water, fed by a large gravity cistern. Since LBJ's father was a politician, they also had a telephone, one of the very few in the city at the time. Like most families, the outhouse was located some 200 feet from the house. Yikes.

The kitchen, Mrs. Johnson's least favorite room (especially with all her education), had 2 stoves - a large wood stove used for winter cooking and a small gas stove for the summer cooking. Smart!

The Johnsons' Ranch in Stonewall, Texas

We next headed out to the ranch (aka The Texas White House), some 15 miles away, to catch the last tour of the day. Wow! What a spread! We were treated to a room-by-room tour of the main house, presented by several different National Park rangers with over 100 of our closest friends. With so many tourists in the house at once, we lagged behind a little to hear more of the story in each room. Evidently, LBJ's insistence on watching the news on TV led to the installation of quite a few TVs throughout the house. As he would have them ALL on at the same time and she didn't care for the constant noise, Lady Bird had a separate bedroom without one.

LBJ's Amphicar for road and stream

LBJ also had telephones installed all over the house and grounds and needed a directory to keep track of the 72 phone lines. There was even a telephone built underneath LBJ's end of the dining room table. In addition to all the telephones and televisions, LBJ also had an affinity for cars. We saw at least 7 cars on the property and an airplane. The most unique car was his German made Amphicar, in Lagoon Blue. The car was designed to drive on roads, but would also move in the water with the help of two propellers underneath. Apparently, LBJ liked to scare unsuspecting visitors with a trip in the Amphicar yelling that the brakes had gone out and they were going under (in the water)! Quite the kidder.

Buffalo!

The compound is still a working ranch and we found cows lazily sitting by the edge of the road. They didn't even bother to get up when we rolled by. There are also large enclosures for longhorn cattle and white-tailed deer, and another for American bison (buffaloes!).

Buffalo!! He's looking at me!

Naturally, I begged Ken to stop, and though they pretended not to notice or care, I'm convinced they were flattered that some silly lady was taking their picture and shouting 'HI BUFFALOES!' to them.

We proceeded to head back toward the RV, but stopped for dinner at the Catfish Parlour, with an obvious selection of food that was, thankfully, neither barbeque nor Mexican. The fish was good, the service great and the jalapeno tartar sauce outstanding. We enjoyed our meal and arrived at the RV just in time for the soaking rain that lasted through the night. What a fun day!