April 21: Home

We are home in Wichita again - as much back home as you can be and not have one. On our journey home, we stopped by Wayne and Sharol's for some good home cooking and, of course, margaritas and ice cream (not together).


The camp ground and lake were really pretty with the calm winds (for a change).







And, here's a picture of Sharol's Abby and her deer herd that she feeds each night.












The wildflowers along the way were really beautiful. They've had more rain in this part of Texas than in the hill country.








Then we headed to see Don and Dean and family. Don was back in the hospital with an infection. We met Dean and Lethia for dinner two nights in a row and really enjoyed the conversation and food.


Back home on the 19th just in time for Samson's spring clipping. Thank you Trina for waiting until we got here so we could enjoy that moment in Samson's life.






We also had a great, fun time when we once again met up with all of our P.T. Cruiser friends at Walt's Diner. It was a beautiful evening to be sitting outside in the parking lot visiting and catching up. It is always nice to be considered part of a community which I think is one of the things I miss on the road. You make friends along the way but not like the friends from home.



Nathen had two sports to cover just today. A tennis tournament at school, where he and his partner took 4th in doubles.......









and then a baseball scrimmage game this evening.

I got one doctor out of the way today - my regular MD. Between Larry and me, we have 8 more appointments. Dentists for both of us, an optometrist and allergist for Larry and a regular VA check up. A foot, heart and female doctor for me. Good thing we're both healthy.

April 13: Churches and geo's

Yesterday, we also finished geo-caching in this area. We got our 100th one of the Pedernales River. One is of Larry putting a cache back and you can see the river in the background. The one of me on the bridge was at a rest area and was a historical marker nearby explaining the kiln that was in the area and helped to build the Johnson Ranch. The geo is hidden behind the rock at the bottom of the bridge on the right hand side. You can easily see the rock. It was in a film canister. The last one was our 100th and it was just across the bridge from our highway. Larry found it - no way I'm running my hand up under there to see what you can find. I did put it back - it was a magnetic key holder. My wonderful expression is trying to explain to Larry what I wanted in the background and why the camera wasn't coming on.







The churches of Fredericksburg were inspirational. This first one was a newer version of the second one. St. Mary's Parish dates back to 1846 when the German settlers constructed this building to replace a log structure. This one was completed in 1863. In 1906 it was replaced with the church next to it (the one on the left). The older church sits on the other side behind the tree shown in the first photo.









This church was the Holy Ghost (Heilige Geist) Evangelical Protestant Church. Members of this church started worship services at the old Vereins Kirch in 1846. In 1888 they received a donation of land to start a new church. The tower houses an original bell from the Vereins Kirche. In 1948 they remodeled and enlarged and became the Holy Ghost Lutheran Church.

Both of these churches are on the Texas Historic Landmark listings.

Tomorrow we leave for our journey towards Wichita. We'll be staying one night NE of Waco, TX at Lake Navarro. Tuesday, we'll arrive in Mt. Vernon to visit with Larry's brother, Wayne, and his wife Sharol. The camp ground we'll be at has terrible reception for the computer so I don't know how much more I'll be posting until we get back to Wichita.

The camp ground in Wagoner, OK at Ft. Gibson Lake called and cancelled our reservations because the camp is flooded. We'll have to work out something different there. We'll be visiting Larry's other brothers, Dean & Don, and their wives.

Bottom line (literally) is that this may be my last post until we get back to Wichita on the 19th.

April 12: LBJ Ranch

Left this morning for the LBJ Ranch. Stopped by the Airport Diner for lunch before heading out of town. To our surprise, there were several high end dollar cars sitting between the restaurant and the hotel. They were a Lamborghini (orange), a Corvette (yellow), a Bentley (white), a Ferrari (yellow) and a Viper (maroon). I couldn't believe that the Viper was dirty. All the others were spotless. The engine to the Ferrari could be seen in the rear window. Apparently they liked the VW style of rear engine. Who knew!!






Then we headed for the LBJ ranch. It is both a Federal and a State Park. I was anxious to see all the wildflowers in bloom. Big disappointment there. With little or no rain this spring, the flowers were not in full bloom. There were a few hardy ones but not like I've seen in the pictures of the place. We took the tour bus around the ranch for about 2 hours. Our first stop was the reconstructed home of his birth place. We got out and walked up to the house and saw the rooms from the door ways. It had a dogtrot between rooms as most houses did in this period. The family moved to Johnson City where he went to school and grew up. A short walk from the home is the family cemetary. All of his family is buried there. A beautiful bouquet of silk wildflowers was on Lady Bird Johnson's grave. A formal headstone is suppose to be set this summer. In the far background, you can see the church that the President and his family attended, the Trinity Lutheran Church. I took a closer picture of it because it is so pretty. Services are still held there.





We boarded the bus and traveled to the Texas White House (of the 60's). They were celebrating the 60's this weekend with a fashion show (which I missed because it was Friday with high school kids), speakers and cars of that era. The home was beautiful with georgeous oak trees surrounding it. The picture with the tree swing is the veiw out the front of this house and it overlooks the Pedernales River that the president dearly loved. Reverend Billy Graham said in his eulogy to President Johnson, "No one could ever understand Lyndon Johnson unless they understood the land and the people from which he came." From all the we heard on audio tapes on the bus and we read in his exhibit center, the land truly rejuvenated him when he came home to it.


These cars from the 60's were really neat cars and very clean looking. I'm sure you're all as curious as I was about the Studebaker. It was a '61 Hawk. Pretty cool.









From here we toured around the rest of the ranch. As part of the agreement to donate this land for a park, the President requested that it remain a working ranch. There are about 120 to 140 head of cattle, Herefords, on the ranch most of the time. They have maintained the 60's style of cattle which to my untrained eye, meant short horns and stocky cattle. Not sure how you do this without a lot of inbreeding, but I'm sure there's a way.

The last stop was the Sauer-Beckmann Farm. This is a fully functioning farm from the 1915 to 1918 era. Lyndon Johnson would have been about 7 or 9 at this time and these would be his memories. These were, in fact, his neighbors at the time of his birth. This farm provides all of it's food. There is a vegitable garden, chickens, hogs and a milk cow. The employees wear period clothes and eat lunch from what ever the farm is producing at the time. There is a smoke house and it still has food in it from this last fall. We got there around 4 and milking time (and closing time) was around 4:30 so I got there in time to get a photo of the milking.

We did some geo caching on the way back, but I'll save that for tomorrow's posting.


When we got back to town, we decided to eat at the Silver Creek Restaurant. It has an open area right on the street. Larry finally got a Snitzel but, once again, I ventured out. I had an 8 oz free range chicken breast marinated in maple syrup and a pecan brown butter sauce poured over it. Very, very good. I would order that again in a heart beat. Then for dessert, we jaywalked across the street to the Blue Bell Ice Cream store.

April 10: Luckenbach Revisited

This morning we did laundry and then went into town to the Fredericksburg Brewery. The geo coin that we have wants to see all the breweries it can. So we took it to the one here and will take it to the one in Wichita before we stash it away in a cache somewhere around Wichita. The brew, by the way, was a red ale. A step up from the pale ales that I generally prefer.





Went back to Luckenbach because we wanted to see the evening show and maybe dancing. When we got there, the locals were jaming. They did get the stage set up for Kathleen Braun who opened for Robyn Ludwick. Didn't care for either one but I don't think it was our kind of music. It was the CD release party for Robyn. Only about 30 or 40 people standing around. We left around 9:30 and there were even fewer then. Chickens run rampant at this place but they don't even eat the bag worms that were there by the hundreds. They drop out of the big oak trees that surround the place. You had to brush them off to sit down and then check yourself constantly to get them off your clothes. We were both still swatting at stuff after we got home. What a mess. The dance hall didn't open so we didn't get to see that in action.

April 10: More of the war museum

We went back this morning to the Pacific War static display. Again, it was really unique. As we waited outside for the tour to start, Larry took my picture beside this atomic bomb. I call this photo "Fat Woman with Fat Man" because that's what they called this short, fat bomb, Fat Man. Had Japan not surrendered when they did, this was one of several more they had made to keep dropping on Japan. I've included the write up on why they justified dropping the bomb.

We went into a building and there was the front half of a large one engine plane that was involved in dropping bombs over Germany. Maybe one of you military types can identify it. Then we went into another building that housed an actual PT boat. It was the PT309. She saw action in the Mediterranean. There was a veteran in our group that had served on the PT34. Didn't get a chance to visit with him about it but I'm sure that would have been interesting.


Then we moved on to the bunkers with actual working guns. They do live demos several times a year. They also have a flame thrower they demo on those days. Then into a Quonset hut for a look at a precursor to the Korean War MASH unit. At the end was what the guide called "the representative crosses of every war museum". They showed each branch of the service including the Merchant Marine and the Coast Guard which some museums don't include. Their theory was that many of the sailors of the war started out in the Merchant Marine and the Coast Guard. Not to mention that they patrolled the American coast lines during the war. Each cross listed the number of wounded and killed for each branch. Pretty sobering.


After that, it was time to eat lunch. We had decided on going to Hondo's this time because they had a really neat sounding menu we found on-line. And it was good. Larry, again, got the Reuben but this time he left some of the kraut on. It was a Reuben gone south version with BBQ sauce. I had the chili cheese burger with onion strings. The burgers are made with egg and served on a sourdough bun. Would go back in a heart attack minute. Hondo is the guy who kinda started the current trends in Luckenbach - a very big person in this part of the country. To learn more about him go to http://www.hondosonmain.com/hondo.html. I think you can also get the menu from here.

Then we decided to go looking for the last remaining ice cream store we hadn't hit yet. It served Blue Bell but that's OK - it was ice cream. And then, as we were walking back to the truck, we found another bakery - dang. Larry reminded me that he'd gone thru his Danish (I still had half of my banana nut muffin left) so we went in to check it out. Came away with a small key lime pie for me and Larry got a banana nut muffin. Good thing we're walking about 30 minutes each evening. Not enough but about all I can do right now with my toe problem.

Did I mention that we live under a pecan tree. Actually, the whole camp is one big pecan grove. It's been pretty cool because we can sit in our lawn chairs and crack and eat pecans all day long. Early this morning a storm blew thru here - lots of wind and some rain. The camper sounded like it was being hailed on when the pecans dropped on the roof. We had lots of good eating today. These trees weren't leafed out when we got here. Seems like they just popped out over night.

Tomorrow is laundry and maybe geo'ing.

April 9: Two museums

Yesterday, we went to the Vereins Kirche. This is the eight-sided replica of the original one built in the 1850's. Back in it's day, it was used as a church, fort, storehouse and community meeting hall. This building is located in the Marketplatz. There is a beautiful garden behind it, a May Pole, a bronze statue of the peace between the German residents and the Comanche Indians. There are several shelters for large picnics. Roses are in full bloom down here and there were lots of them around this area. You could smell them as you walked up to the back gardens.





Then went to eat late lunch at the Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn. Because I know that you all know what a picky eater I am, I wrote down what I ate. I felt that I should be getting the full effect of eating in this type of atmosphere so I had the Holstein Schnitzel (in honor of my sister-in-law, Cindy). It really had nothing to do with cows so not sure how it got its' name. It was a pork cutlet, breaded, sauteed and topped with Jager Schnitzel Sauce (which apparently means tons of mushrooms in a sauce) with two eggs sunny-side-up on top. After scraping off all the musrooms, it was really pretty good. Larry ate half of it becuase I was full after the bread and soup. The side was Spatzle which looks like rice but are noodles in a butter sauce. The meal came with warm Pumpernickel bread with fennel seed and vegetable broth - which included cabbage (I sucked down the broth). I wanted another Shiner Blonde but ended up with a Miller Lite. Didn't see that they had German imports until I got the menu back to write down all this stuff. Larry had a Reuben without the kraut.

Today we went to the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Museum which is also connected to the George Bush Gallery. The Nimitz Museum is dedicated to the history of the Nimitz family in Fredericksburg and their hotel. It also covers Admiral Nimitz's life as a child and his entry into Annapolis and then into the war. The George Bush Gallery covers WWII from events leading up to the war through to the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. Every engagement of the war is covered in this museum. A very impressive display. We didn't get to the static display a couple of blocks away but we will tomorrow--our tickets are good for two days.

I took a picture of this setting because I liked the middle, lower plaque and to give an idea of what some of the plaques were like. This was one of the big ones. Most were about 5x7 plaques of the men and women who served there.








This particular plaque is dedicated to the Seabee Battalion that was on Iwo Jima. My dad was in the Seabees and landed there the second day of the invasion. He had written a journal all thru boot camp clear up to that day, saying that he didn't know what would happen but that they would be building landing strips and roads. He never added any more entries into his journal after that landing and like most veterans, he never talked about it. Of course, I was too young to care, so I didn't even ask about it. He died in 1966, at 39, from lung cancer, so even in my infinite old age when I do care, I can't talk to him about his experiences.



Also at the museum, is the Veterans' Walk, the Japanese Garden of Peace and the Plaza of the Presidents. The Veterans' Walk has plaques of every ship that served in the Pacific theater and was under Fleet Admiral Nimitz's command. Plus many, many plaques of the men who served in the Pacific theater - the ones who gave their lives then and the ones who have since died. The Plaza of the Presidents shows the 10 presidents who served during the war. Ten presidents in a row, starting with FDR and ending with George Bush the elder.



The Japanese Garden of Peace was given to the museum by the Japanese people as an expression of their gratitude and respect.







We finished the day off with "homemade" ice cream at the Clear River Pecan Company. Even Larry's Rocky Road had pecans in it. I had a scoop of pecan pie and one of banana pecan. This place was also a bakery - dang it. Came home with an oat bran muffin for Larry and a banana pecan muffin for me. We have got to quit going to town.

By the way, just for you who don't follow these things, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers did their job and won an 8th national championship. My week is complete.