Texas Part 2
We left Big Bend National Park on Wednesday 7th January. In truth we could have stayed a lot longer. But we had been told that the sunshine was going and that they were expecting storms again. We had had more than enough of snow and ice and freezing rain. So decided to quit while we were ahead. Or so we thought. We didn’t know that we wouldn’t see the sun shine again for a good few days.
Having arranged to visit our new friends at their ranch the following weekend we now had 10 days in which to leisurely make our way there. John had found a National Recreational Area called Amistad not far from Big Bend so we were heading there.
Amistad is apparently Spanish for friendship in acknowledgement of the co-operation in the building and consequent management of the water supply between the USA and Mexico. There is a dam here built in 1969 for flood control, water storage and power, which has created a huge reservoir. The reservoir has 540 miles of shoreline in Texas and the international boundary follows a line of mid channel buoys. (Interesting to imagine how they ‘police’ this considering the huge number of border controls and checks we have been through in the last few weeks being so close to Mexico). It now offers watersports, fishing canoeing etc. which given the dreadful weather we didn’t think we’d get to experience. We stayed only one night in one of their many campsites. At $4 it was probably our cheapest campsite so far!! We did a couple of hours of not very successful fishing but being a National Recreational Area, even here the boys could do a ranger program and get a badge!
Thursday we had a long drive to get to San Antonio. I’d read somewhere that Texas was called the ‘lone star state’ because it too so ‘long’ to get across it. Felt about right. Drove through a lot of towns with taxidermy offices and adverts for best bail bonds. At one stage we went past a jail and then saw a sign that said “Hitch hikers may be escaping inmates” which cracked us up!! We spotted an RV with an Ontario plate so stopped to chat. Turned out they were a family with 3 daughters, roughly the same age as ours, from Israel that had arrived in Ontario and bought a van. They were doing the same as us but in the opposite direction. It’s always lovely to meet people having a similar experience to us.
It was strange approaching the city lights, felt like a long time since we’d been in anywhere this built up. Apparently San Antonio is the 7th most populous city in US which we struggled to believe. It was however, a really lovely city and we really enjoyed our few days here, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing!!
We took the bus into town each day. Not sure we were necessarily staying in the nicest part of town. The bus route made a stop at the Juvenile justice centre. A copule of girls got on there wearing a sweat shirt with what looked like a Warner Bros logo. It actually read “If you see da police, warn a bruver’. Nice!
Wrapped in every bit of cold weather gear we possess (which as previously discussed is not much) we wandered along the beautiful River Walk through San Antonio. Lined with cafes, bars and restaurants it must be a lovely place to hang out on a summers evening. Not quite so pleasurable for us!
We made sure to ‘Remember The Alamo’ and dutifully visited this site of the ‘13 fateful days’ in 1836. An old missionary it is now remembered for the heroic struggle that took place here against Mexico and was a key part in the Texas Revolution. They call it ‘Hallowed ground’ and the ‘Shrine of Texas Liberty’. Amongst the many exhibits are a huge selection owned by Phil Collins. Yep he of Genesis fame! He apparently has a keen interest in the Alamo and so lends some of his collection of swords etc. to them. Very random!
We visited the Mexican Market and topped up our collection of Mexican tat. A lot of piñatas and most worryingly a huge selection of wrestling capes and masks. I don’t know what that is all about honestly and I’m not sure I want to! In a moment of insanity we bought the kids ‘bird whistles’. I remember those from when I was a kid (sentimentality can be the only reason I thought it was a good idea). A little clay bird that you fill with water and then blow through to make a cooing sound. Sweet but unbelievably annoying after about 2 minutes. 30 minutes later they had been buried at the bottom of a bag and in fact they’ve not been seen again since!
Best value for money has to be the Children’s Museum. We headed there to escape the cold and having had a look at the other visitors there decided our kids were probably about 5 years too old for it. However, we thought we might get half hours peace out of it in which to enjoy our take away coffees. 2 ½ hours later we had to drag them out kicking and screaming (much like the toddlers around us!). They’d had a great time. Result!
We didn’t visit this but I had to have a photo with Robert Wadlow outside the Guiness World of Records exhibition. A little known fact about me that I used to work at the London exhibition when I was at University. Please no jokes about me being the worlds smallest woman – I heard them all during my time there!!
We had a proper Texas steak dinner. The most tender, delicious and obviously enormous steaks we’ve ever had. Our waiter was lovely and we ended up sat in there chatting to him for ages. An avid sports fan, John and the boys exchanged tales about rugby v. American football. His stories about his 5 year who plays ‘football’ (still can’t get used to describing a sport where they throw the ball as FOOT ball) and his 2 daughters who are both cheerleaders made us grateful to have a year at least away from the touchlines.
The campsite we stayed in called itself a resort. After the success of the Rec. Room in the site in Alpine (where we met the Jones family and sheltered from the cold) we tried out the facilities here. Even better. A gym. 3 TV’s. Table tennis. Library. Computer. We had a couple of evenings OUT of the van which was lovely. Made a nice change from sitting on top of each other and climbing over each others legs to move around! And better still the resident snow birds ‘host’ a breakfast every Saturday. So we had bacon and eggs while they all fussed around us and exclaimed at how wonderful we were for being ‘so brave’ and adventurous! (Pretty sure most of them were pretty fed up having chosen icy Texas in which to ‘escape’ Winter!!).
We left on Sunday 11th to head into Hill Country. But first made a stop at the San Jose Mission. It is one of a chain of Missions established along San Antonio River in the 1700’s (one being The Alamo). A reminder of one of Spain’s most successful attempts to extend its’ dominion from New Spain (Mexico). We thought we should at least see one of them. It was established in 1720. We saw the National Parks Service very poignant film about the natives that were driven into the missionaries by disease and Apache attack. At one time 350 people lived in the mission here. It struck me that having lived free on and from the land for the natives it must have been a not too pleasant experience to be ruled by the tyrany of the mission bell. Calling them to prayer three times per day then punctuating each part of their day. Farming agriculture instead of the hunter-gatherer life they’d been living. It indeed must have felt like a prison. Apparently 70% of them were dead within 10 years, which is sad as well as not very surprising. Run by the National Parks Service the kids qualified for yet another Ranger Badge. Even that didn’t improve the day for Will. I read over his shoulder while he was writing up the visit in his journal “Today we visited a really boring Mission”. Good to know the kids are really benefitting from the trip!
That afternoon we visited a mall to get my laptop sorted out at the Apple Store. Appears the Lego Store was more interesting and inspiring a destination for Will. Especially the ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ style section where you can fill a tub of lego bits. Hmmm time to leave the city and get back to nature perhaps…
We had a few days in which to make the short distance up to Lampasas to the Jones’ Ranch so we had a leisurely few days driving around Hill Country, the area in the centre of Texas known for it’s wildflowers and laid back rural life that we heard described as the heart and soul of Texas! As well as it’s strong Mexican influence (as in the rest of Texas) the Hill Country also has an overlay of German (due to the Old World immigrants who settled here starting in the 1830s). So a real mixture of a place.
We stayed 2 nights in Kerrville and visited the towns Museum of Western art formerly know as the Cowboy Artists of America (the CAA) which was started in Sedona, Arizona in 1965 and now has a permanent home here. It is “Dedicated to the appreciation, presentation and promotion of Western American Heritage.” Even the building itself was fascinating. With handmade mesquite parquet flooring and the roof consisting of 23 ‘boveda’ domes. Constructed by a Mexican family (3 men from Guanajuato) the bricks contain pumice that makes them lighter and with a special mortar the domes are built without use of any braces or forms. Beautiful!
We saw our fair share of paintings and brass sculptures all depicting the Wild West, as well as an incredible collection of saddles and wagons. We had our own private guide, Jim, who talked us through most of the pieces as well as letting the kids climb into the wagon!! He had worked in the oil industry and had travelled the world. But now retired he volunteers at the museum and shares his vast knowledge of all things Western. He told us great stories about the Cattle Trail, including the origin of the expression to ‘eat my dust’. So spotting a potential market for their cattle up in Kansas where the railroads were being laid and there were lots of hungry workers to feed they would drive up to 5000 cattle at a time. The ‘older’ and ‘younger’ men would make the journey. The older chaps rode up front and the young’uns would have to take the rear in the dust cloud. Literally eating the dust generated by all those hooves! So there you go.
We headed next to Fredericksburg. Another campsite with ‘facilities’. This time the kids and I headed to the Rec. Room to do some school work and found ourselves in the middle of a Boxercise class. The telly was blaring with some ‘Mad Lizzie’ instructor taking them through their moves. The room was filled with tables and chairs and about 20 OAP’s all doing side kicks and punches. It was hilarious. We threatened to sign the kids up for some activities later in the week – thought Clogging looked fun!
One of the highlights of our time here was a visit to the National Museum of the Pacific War. Bit surprised to find it here in landlocked Texas! Fredericksburg native Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz was born here and lived in the steamboat shaped hotel in the centre of town that now is the base for the museum. He commanded more than 2 million men and women in the Pacific during World War 2 controlling over 5000 ships and 20,000 planes. He was it seems an inspiring leader but modest about his position; “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”. It was he who signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the USA on board Battleship Missouri on September 2nd 1945. He was decorated by 14 nations and was a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations, so was kind of a big deal!
The museum obviuslly presents the Pacific front of WW11 from an American perspective but in a very throough and I thougth balacnced manner. The displays were incredible with encless pohotographs, films, documents and artifacts (indlucing planes and boats) nad loads of interactive stuff the kids liked. We were there for hours!! Highlihgt for the kids waws the stick belonging to Mutsuhiro Watanabe (aka “The Bird”) who was Louis Zamperini’s tormentor, as desceibed in the book Unbroken which I had just finished reading. Having seen the trailers for the film on TV (when we were in Tubac with an actual real life working telly instead of merely a DVD player like we have in the van) the kids are now harbouring a morbid curiousity about POW’s and Zamperini in particular. Also interesting was the Plaza of Presidents which pays tribute to the 10 consecutive US Presidents who all served in WW11, from Franklin D Roosevelt to George W Bush – quite remarkable I thought!
Thursday 15th January we visited the Lyndon B Johnson Ranch. The 36th president of the USA was born here in a little house owned by his parents. Years later he bought the ‘big house’ off his aunt on the 6000 acre ranch and lived here all his life – well when he wasn’t in that big house in Washington DC! The house and ranch were gifted to the National Parks service after his wife, Lady Bird died at the age of 93 in 2008.
Set on the River Padrrnales it remains a working ranch, which was a condition of it being run by the NPS. There is a very small herd here. The kids spent some time learning to lasso (a skill that will serve them well when we get home I’m sure!!) and it turns out William is a natural!!
You then get to tour inside what they called the ‘Texas White House’, which is set up as it would have been during his time as President. A man after my own heart Johnson is said to have spent up to 17 hours a day on the phone and had something like 72 phone lines into this house. As well as having one next to every toilet he had one screwed to the beautiful walnut dining table!
Johnson apparently spent as much time as possible here and so the house played host to all manner of political figures from his time as President. Lady Bird supposedly tired of the endless phone calls and people wandering into their ground floor bedroom at all times of day and night and had her own room at the back of the house. I spotted an embroidered cushion that read “I slept and dreamed that life was beauty. I woke and found that life was duty.” Hmmmm, maybe being the wife of a US President isn’t all that great, despite the rather nice Air Force One plane parked on the runway outside.
Anyone who knows my tendency to bulk buy and to stockpile gifts will understand why I especially loved Johnson’s Gift Room. He apparently loved to give wildly generous gifts to his staff and guests. The room is bursting with 100’s of a variety of gifts from Stetsons, to monogramed pens and watches, electric razors (which I’m guessing were a new and exciting invention back in the 60’s) and much more.
It was interesting to see it all and I’m guessing this is about as ‘close’ to a US President as we are going to get on this trip. They made much there of how his vision and values were shaped by the land he came from. But I can’t help but think it a bit odd to gift your family home and land which was supposedly so very important to him to the state not your family. But there you go…
That night we ate at the World Famous (not completely sure about ‘World’ famous, maybe ‘Nation’ famous) Salt Lick BBQ restaurant at Driftwood. The history of it is that fed up with having to travel for work Thurman Roberts wrote down 54 things that the family might be able to do to allow them to stary in Driftwood full time. The idea for Salt Lick was number 14. So he and his 2 sons built a huge barbeque pit and each week on a Thursday night they would start slow cooking the meat and he would stay there, sleeping on a camping bed, until it had sold out. It got so he was getting away earlier and earlier so they built a small porch around the pit and the restaurant grew from there. That was in 1967 and the original pit is still there but they now serve literally thousands of people each week. We opted for a family platter that they kept refilling until we admitted defeat. Charlie was the last to stop chewing his way trhough the ribs and brisket beef on aobut plate 5. Even then they filled up a ‘To Go’ box for us which we used to stock our freezer. Delicious!
We stayed that night at Pedernales Falls State Park, getting there long after dark. Due at the ranch on Friday afternoon we just had time for a short hike through this beautiful park. Including having to wade across the Pedernales River in feet numbing water. Shame we couldn’t have stayed longer but we had a date with the Jones family in Lampasas.
Wickenswanderings 