Entry #91 – TEXAS – Part 2 – March 28- April 21, 2022

We traveled from Waco to near San Antonio, a little on I-35 (VERY BUSY) & then west in Temple to south toward Johnson City. The roads were mostly 4 lane highways once off the interstate & we have determined that EVERY road in Texas has construction going on at some point. With the motorcoach, we like to keep top speed at around 55 to 60. In Texas that is SLOW. Speed limits, even on 2 lane country roads is often marked at 75. Apparently, babies are trained as NASCAR drivers from birth. Lawdy!

The best part about driving across the country is the scenery & each state we have traversed is incredibly unique. Texas – at least in the central & eastern parts – is pretty flat with gentle hills, easy for the RV to roll at an even pace. Cresting a hill or a bridge is usually rewarded with spectacular vistas. We touched on the beautiful Texas Hill Country where the gentle mounds & valleys were scattered with scrub brush, rocks, small cacti & light sandy soil (being from Georgia where red clay earth is the norm, we refer to the Texas dirt as anemic soil). And there are cows – lots of cows. I kept an eye out for cowboys & horses & tumbleweed to complete the western movie visual but they failed me.

The campground we stayed in was sorta-kinda associated with Fort Sam Houston so it was open to military & Armed Service retirees only. The sites (there were only 13) were big & spacious, had lots of shady cover & had good water, electric & sewer connections. The rest of the park was visually beautiful with LOTS of cabins to rent, covered picnic areas, a beach & boat ramp. Unfortunately, the upkeep of the bath facilities was contracted out & is best described as awful. It’s a good thing we have a self contained motorhome. The neglect was bad enough that I wrote a very pointed email to the Public Affairs Officer while we were there. And it was ignored & not answered. Not surprised.

There we ducks, geese & other birds everywhere.

And the deer wandered through the campground without fear.

On our first full day in the area, we drove over to Stonewall, TX to see President Johnson’s Ranch. The Welcome Center had some wonderful displays & lots of written info. There was even a theater we were able to watch a short film on the former President’s life before, during & after his years in the White House.

There were several buildings around the Welcome Center that we wandered through – all with great displays, many designed for young visitors who are more engaged by hands on experiences. It was so well done!

Before we left the Welcome Center, I took a break at the bathroom. And when I came out, Perry was laughing at me. Seems I went into the men’s room instead of the ladies & he was just standing there making sure no one else went in. I was wondering why there were urinals in the ladies room. So funny!

We had a little visit with this Longhorn Bull as we were going to the car. Mean old guy, tried to poke me with his horns. Harrumph!

Most of the ranch was a self driving tour. It’s still a working ranch with a whole bunch of cattle everywhere so the road was wiggley.

The deer are very protected on this big slab of land so there we LOTS of them everywhere!

I’m always facinated by these watering machines! They look like prehistoric animals in a way.

This was the barn behind the original Johnson home.

The well pump is still there, seen in many pictures with the former President, even before he served in that office.

The “Little White House” was Johnson’s residence on his vast farm during his Presidency. He hosted many dignitaries there. It was, unfortunately, closed for tours on the day we visited with lots of maintenance going on, inside & out.

President Johnson’s Air Force 1/2, a smaller aircraft he used to travel “home” frequently. It’s parked right behind his house.

There were several buildings surrounding the President’s house with lots of his memorabilia throughout. One building housed several of his prized personal cars, bought by President Johnson or given to him as gifts.

This was a beutiful car he gifted to his daughter.

He had this old fire truck converted to carry passengers which he would use to take visitors on tours throughout the ranch.

A good looking car he cherished & a fine man pictured, too.

This was his all terrain hunting vehicle.

The blue car was a super cool amphibious car he enjoyed.

President Johnson had an obsession with jelly beans!

This old schoolhouse was located just outside the ranch. President Johnson stopped by frequently to visit the students.

President Johnson passed away in 1973 at his beloved ranch.

This is where the President is buried along with many of his family members. It’s incredibly peaceful under the big trees.

In one of the buildings near “The Little White House” is the rooms in which he made many speeches & had conferences with numerous world leaders. It was fun to have a picture taken with the Big Guy.

In nearby Johnson City, there is a museum honoring the late President. This is just one of the wonderfully preserved vehicles located there.

This house around the corner from the museum was President Johnson’s Boyhood Home.

We stopped in Blanco, Tx for an early dinner & snapped a couple pictures of buildings in their downtown. I love small old towns!

The old courthouse is now a museum. We would have loved to have visited but we came too late in the day.

This cute shop along the square made me miss my dear friend Jean Murray who is a very talented quilter back home. I know she would have loved to have visited there with us!

I love taking pictures of fun finds along the road!

Texan’s take their Lone Star logo seriously. This was part of the glass on the door into a cute little restaurant we visited on the way back to the campground.

Sometimes one has to stay in camp & do “maintenance” type stuff. On this day it was all about the dogs who were in desperate need of haircuts & baths.

Freshly groomed Spice. Note she is sticking her tounge out at me.

And Spice all dried & brushed out. MUCH better.

Sugar had the same treatment but I failed to get her picture during the process.

On another day, we stumbled upon this Pioneer Village during our drive up to Austin. It’s a recreaction but it was pretty cool. On a Sunday, it was nearly empty of visitors & we love it that way. Fun times finding treasures like this!

Continuing north on this day’s adventure we arrived at the Texas State Capital in Austin just as demonstrators were being filmed at the front gate. And we stopped to pray specifically for Ukraine & it’s people.

We have made it a habit of visiting state capitals & larger cities on Sunday’s when traffic, both pedestrian & automotive, are down to a minimum. But Austin’s Capital building was BUSY. The grounds & interior were open to the public! And it was stunning to see! Here are some photos of this most impressive treasure.

The dome – with the Lone Star emblem, of course.

From a higher level, I took a picture of the floor below the dome. Equally impressive!

Look at that beautiful marble with intricate designs & the ornate woodwork surrounding each door. WOW!

I’m a sucker for clocks & this one even had some beauitul fret work around it.

The pictures above & below are of the brass hardware we saw on every door. Texan’s are very proud of their state!

This was the Texas Supreme Court – imagine the history which unfolded there!

From the second & third floors one could look down into the Capital Library. Massive amounts of law books, journals, documents & the like rest there for lawmakers to read. I took pictures & noted the sign in the one below saying photography was prohibited. OPPS!

George W. Bush, a former state Governor who became the 43rd President of the United Staes.

Governor Ann Richards who served as the Governor of this great state. A strong & courageous woman who was known to “get the job done.”

The sculpture above & the two oil painting below are that of Miriam Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas who served a second term a few years after her first. Her husband had also served as governor prior to her first tenor. While visiting the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, we came across a display & documents that were not all that favorable of the two of them. Oh at the webs we weave …

David Crocket had much to do with the formation of Texas & had a most impressive oil painting in the lobby. He died at The Alamo.

This is a beautiful statue of Sam Houston, another of the leaders who formed Texas.

Stephen Austin, an equally important leader of Texas, had a beautiful statue in the foyer as well.

The statuary & beautiful displays outside the Capital building were incredible. Here are many but certainly not all.

This is the backside of this incredible Capital with the high rises jutting up beyond.

There is a sunken courtyard about a block’s distance to the back of the Capital. Three stories deep. Which is also the depth of the office suites under the main structure. So, it’s obvious, the Capital spreads much wider beneath the grounds than we could imagine! This place is HUGE!

The massive display below was at the front sidewalk of the Capital grounds & had many markers explaining it’s significance. I’ve shown them below.

The front of the grounds minus the demonstrators from earlier in the day.

On the way back to our campground I snapped a few pictures of interesting things along the road. This Flood Gauge was one of them. I’d suggest not driving through water there during a rain storm!

Our campground was actually just north of San Antonio in the city of Canyon Lake. There wasn’t much to do there which was good – we needed the rest from over touring. Some things still required photos though. Like this Hippie Place along the road. The Dam Hippie Shack.

Had to take a picture of WALDO in the front passenger seat. He was keeping an eye on fellow campers.

I took a few pictures around the campground as well. It was a very pretty park, part of Fort Sam Houston’s Base. On the surface it was nice but it was poorly maintained through a contracted arrangement. I would certainly never stay there again & I’ll just leave it at that with no further details.

The local grocery store had this huge painted rock at their entrance. Just an oddity that caught my eye. Good chain store in the area – Brookshire Brothers.

This metal horse was at the campground at Ft Sam Houston. We drove down there to see if they had any availability – hoping to jump ship from the less than stellar campground we were at. No such luck. <sigh>

Back at Canyon Lake Campground we came across these grazing deer one morning. The sweet little one in the second picture actually made her was to my window & licked my fingers. Made me giggle.

While at Canyon Lake we watched the news anxiously as reports of a couple near our age was missing during an RV trip in Nevada. They took a wrong turn & bottommed out their Class C motorhome on a remote mountain. Snow was still in the area & the road they found themselves on was gravel/mud. Sadly, search parties did not find them until 8 days after they were lost & Ron Barker was deceased. His wife Beverly was in bad shape but did survive.

Perry & I had deep discussions about our GPS systems in light of this sad story. We do have the GARMIN RV 890 – specifically for rigs such as ours. But we need to learn how to program it correctly. Our trip down from Waco to San Antonio was taking us straight through Austin initially which I did not want to do (fastest route). Somehow I got it to direct us to the west & then south but I need to know how I managed that so I can repeat the procedure for future trips. We are taking a close look at all of our emergency electronics. The experience those people went through deeply concerned us! FYI: We got lost in Kansas last year, on a dirt road, with no cell signal. And when we finally got turned around, eventually finding the place we were scheduled to stay, it had been a 10 hour travel day instead of the estimated 4 hour day. I NEVER want that to happen again! We DO have a current Truckers Rand McNally Road Atlas book. And we do refer to it before we move from place to place in reference to where our GARMIN is taking us. But I can’t keep looking at it as I’m driving so having an electronic map to view is preferable.

After two weeks, we headed southwest & landed in another military FamCamp in Del Rio, TX. The row of campsites were on an open ridge overlooking the RioGrande River. And it was a VERY short distance to the Mexican Border. I’m not sure how people wanting to cross into the USA were kept at bay with the open water & frequent boats we saw speeding about day in & day out. The ridge we were parked on had a great big metal awning to block sun & wind. But that wind was something else! It was powerful & rocked the RV almost constantly.

This was the camper sitting next to the metal awning.

And the sunsets over the lake! Just stunning. EVERY evening!

There was lots of low scrub bushes & lots of prickly cactus all around the perimeter of the campground.

On the road leading into the campground there was a fenced guard station where all coming across the bridge from Mexico would have to stop for searches & such.

We visited the downtown area of Del Rio to see some of the neat things we found on our Roadside America app.

The giant gun was next to a liquor store where there just so happened to be a few LEOs conducting a search inside. I didn’t know what was going on when I walked to the side of the building to snap the picture, but I sure did vacate the area in a hurry when I figured it out!

The buildings in the downtown area were well looked after.

This was an old storefront/hotel in the Burrio San Filipe District I thought was interesting.

The simple beauty of this church caught my eye.

The courthouse was stunning – history of it above.

This was another church downtown that was stunning.

An old Victorian house sitting squarely in the business district had the most interesting ironwork.

On our first day in the city we found the museum but it was closed for the day. But I took a picture of part of it anyway. We returned to tour the museum on another day.

I love random art & signs. This small wall mural was on one of the downtown city buildings.

And the blacksmith depicted in this large mural must have had some significance in the city’s history.

We found the below city within the city of Del Rio on our Roadside America app. It was so special with it’s art, park & tiny community – we loved spending a little time on it’s square.

After we left the Burrio, we came across this historic marker. There was no house there but the history written was kind of neat.

Leaving the city & heading east to find another treasure, we came across this city park. It was so HOT that day but the coolness of the small stream & colorful murals were refreshing. I did forget to get the name of the park though.

And this historic marker was so cool! US Army Camel Corp? Who knew!

We drove a good 40 miles east to find the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery mentioned on our Roadside America app. It was almost 100 degrees that day so we didn’t stay long. For a pair of history buffs, it was still a treasure!

Along the way we spotted several “dust devils” in the dry fields. So cool!

There were a few elaborate graves & many stones had dates well over 150 years old. It was quiet & remote out there.

I mentioned the campground was on a ridge overlooking the Rio Grande River. It was WINDY! This is Spice, sitting perfectly still, on top of the picnic table. Made me laugh.

Our campsite had a really neat firepit with Texas cutouts. There was no way we would burn a fire though with the wind as strong as it was.

Before we left home (Georgia) we had our annual visits to our doctor & got our prescriptions set up with Walgreens. This allows us to renew meds anywhere we go across the USA. It was time for refills so we stopped at the smallest Walgreens we have ever seen. It was only about pharmacy goods – nothing else. They filled the prescriptions in minutes & the cost was a whopping $10 to us. We are sooooo lucky to be part of TriCare through the military!

We returned to downtown Rio Grand to tour the museum a few days later. It was interesting & enticed us to seek out more info on the infamous Judge Roy Bean.

Below are several pictures of dioramas in one of the buildings at the museum.

This was a rendition of The Jersey Lilly. Later, having seen the REAL Jersey Lilly, this rendition is not the best.

Inside The Jersey Lilly, Perry sat down for a word with The Judge.

The actual graves of Judge Roy Bean & his son, Sam, are located under these stones on the side of one of the buildings.

The grave markers of two of the Indian Scouts were moved to the museum grounds. We had seen the secondary stones placed on each of these Scout’s graves while out at the Indian Cemetary a few days before.

An interesting fridge displayed at the museum.

A child’s bed & chair in the “home” building.

And a HUGE moonshine still! Pretty neat!

Do you see the old guy in the window of that train?

A BIG fountain in the museum courtyard is identical to the one we found out at the REAL Jersey Lilly Saloon.

For lunch we stopped at a very authentic Mexican Restaurant & had a great meal. Then we headed west into to find Roy Bean’s place.

Driving west, the landscape changed drastically. It was stunning with rock walls along the highway & beautiful blue skies above.

We finally arrived in Langtry where Judge Roy Bean presided as the Law West of the Pecos. The government has created a most impressive museum & beautiful grounds surrounding his home & business. The buildings are incredibly well preserved & the written history is astounding. The Jersey Lilly & the pool hall attached, as well as the judge’s home – The Opera House – are the real deal! There is no charge for entrance & they don’t take donations. The docents are most knowledgeable with information & the groundskeeper is a master at the art of desert gardens. It was beautiful!

And what great looking picnic tables & pergola !

We drove around the tiny city of Langtry to see the literal ruins of what is mostly an abandoned town. There are actually 2 or 3 houses – a bit run down but livable – that are still occupied. But everything else is way beyond repair.

I took this picture of caves on the opposite side of a shallow area of water. It wasn’t until later while looking at a map that we realized they were on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River. One could literally wade across that river with no detection! Amazing!

On our last day in Del Rio we drove about & snapped a few pictures of things we found interesting. Such a colorful, enlightening city!

A clothing store with our pups name on it!

And a last picture of the incredible sunset from our campsite.

We were up & out early, on our way to Pecos. We drove by Langtry again but much further this time. We headed northeast at one point & found a little picnic area for a lunch break.

The picnic area was nice & the landscape from there was breathtaking!

We found our campground pretty easily & got set up for a three day stay. It was basically a big gravel parking lot but it was adequate & had nice bathrooms.

The first day, we decided to take a long drive out of the flatlands, up a mountain to the McDonald Observatory. It was a curvy, steep climb, not difficult in the car but we sure wouldn’t have made the trip in the RV.

Please note: the speed limit was 80mph! What is the hurry!

We found it interesting to see signs saying “Loose Livestock” all along the road into the mountains. Made me think of the “Free Range Chickens” back home. I understand that if you hit & kill one of the cows wandering into the roads, you will have to pay the rancher who owns it upwards of $10K. What the what????

The observatory was not fully open to the public on the day we visited – revamping displays was the explanation. But we were able to sit in on a lecture about the solar system & the sun. It was interesting but long winded & my butt cheek grew numb.

The sundial was HUGE out in front & remarkably accurate.

The Yuca plant has a great flower & a creature staying shaded.

After the lecture we were able to drive up the mountain even further to see the observatories & the massive equipment they housed. Again, parts that were usually open were closed that day. A bit disappointing.