We are moving slowly through the Central Texas, and we have our eyes focused on a visit to Burnet. We found out that the locals pronounce the town name, "burn it," so now we are ready to live like the locals. We took advantage of the blue skies to explore our new home town of Burnet, not knowing that today would be filled with wild wildlife sightings. But first, the city visitor center suggested a stop at Fort Croghan. We enjoy free local museums, and this one has a great backyard filled with log cabins that have been moved into town.
When you add a few bluebonnets and a handsome man outside, Denisa thinks that makes a great picture!
We took the drive heading west out of town, and it was one of the best wildflower drives ever! We pulled into the national fish hatchery, hoping to see more flowers and we actually found hiking trails too.
We made it to the top of the viewpoint trail, where we could look down to see hatchery ponds that looked like jigsaw puzzle pieces from above.
This would be a day of wildlife and wildflowers. We took our first wildlife pictures among the pink rocks of the viewpoint trail. With his rough scaly body, we're going to call this lizard "the ugly" wildlife of the day.
Our next trail took us to the meadows, where the purple winecups are blooming among the bluebonnets.
We see evidence that the bluebonnets are nearing the end of their season. Some of the plants in the meadow have exchanged blooms for seed pods. Those fuzzy bean-like pods will burst open and spread ripe seeds, insuring that next year's crop will be just as abundant.
The warm days are hard on the bluebonnets, but they have brought the Indian blankets into bloom.
We took the meadow trail to the bird blind, where the hummers entertained us as they battled over the feeder.
We have to include at least two pictures of these tiny hummingbirds, since Denisa took more than two dozen pictures of them. We're going to call these graceful petite beauties the "good wildlife" of the day.
Our last hike was at Inks Lake State Park, and we were in search of Devil's Water Hole. We did some rock scrambling to follow the creek that runs through the park.
The creek widened, and we made it to the deeper section of the river known by its devilish name. It's hard to see her, but Denisa is enjoying the view sitting on the rocks on the right side of the picture.
On the walk back to the car, it was easy to get distracted by the fields of wildflower blooms like the one on the right side of the trail. But wait, what is that lying in the middle of the trail?
Mark was in the lead, and he was only two steps away when he looked away from the flowers. He almost looked down too late when he saw the snake.
That is a rattlesnake, and just like us, he was enjoying a beautiful day on the trail. We have no doubt that this guy is "the very bad" wildlife of the day.
We like finding little lizards and hummingbirds, but this is NOT the kind of wildlife we want to see. The snake showed no signs of moving, so Mark got a stick to urge him off the trail. The snake didn't like the prodding, and coiled into attack pose.
The rattlesnake did eventually take Mark's prodding and retreated to the grass so we could finish our hike. After that nasty wildlife picture, we need a few pretty wildflower pictures. We found our first brown bitterweed blooms today, and the butterflies have also found them.
But the butterflies' favorite meal comes from this interesting bloom.
Our final stop of the day was an unexpected find. When we approached the new cement bridge over the Colorado River, we noticed that the old metal bridge had been turned into a pedestrian walkway. Denisa likes old bridges, but this one had a really fun addition.
Someone had strung up a swing from the tall overhead braces.
We've had an eventful day of hikes with beautiful wildflowers and the good, the bad, and the ugly wildlife. It seems to be a fitting end to another day of wandering to be swinging on the centerline.
We have driven through Johnson City many times on our way to and from South Texas. But today we have decided to stop and spend the day learning all about LBJ. This is the home town of Lyndon Baines Johnson, our country's 36th president. Johnson City hosts one state park and two national historic park locations filled with information about their favorite son. Spring is a great time to see these locations, because the bluebonnets were at their prime while we were visiting.
We left the motor home parked at the national park location in town, and then drove the car 14 miles west to get to the second part of the park. It is here that baby Lyndon was born in 1908.
This is a "dog trot" house, with an open section in the middle that allows the summer breezes to blow through for some natural air-conditioning. We can confirm that these pioneers knew what they were doing, as that shaded section was more comfortable on this warm afternoon.
Just down the road is the "Texas White House" where President and Mrs. Johnson spent any free time they had during his presidency. This is also where they retired, and where LBJ died. They added on to the original rock house without regard to proper engineering. For that reason it is no longer open for tours inside because of safety issues.
President Johnson hosted world leaders and dignitaries at the ranch, and he often brought his work home with him. The large oak in the back yard was called the "cabinet tree" because he often held cabinet meetings outside on the lawn.
The grass airstrip on the ranch wasn't big enough to land Air Force One. So the larger plane landed in San Antonio, and then this smaller version took the president to the ranch. Named "Air Force One-Half," it is on display at the national park.
Also on display is the iconic white convertible Lincoln with tan leather interior. LBJ ordered a new identical car every year.
But his favorite automobile was this little blue car. He loved taking visitors for a drive to the local lake, and then yelling that the brakes had failed when they plowed right into the water. He would chuckle when his visitors realized that the Amphicar also floats.
We've visited national parks where we've seen traffic jams caused from wildlife like bison or bears. But today we experienced a national park jam caused from cattle. Ancestors of the registered herefords raised on the ranch during LBJ's presidency are still grazing in the pastures we saw today.
Also down the road is the Johnson family cemetery. LBJ's parents are buried by the two tomb stones on the far right, followed in line by the rest of their children. Since Lyndon was the oldest, he and Lady Bird have the next two spots (and the two biggest tombstones) followed by the rest of his siblings. In our mobile society, it is interesting that LBJ was born, died, and was buried just a few miles apart.
We crossed the road to get to the state park, which features some wonderful trails through fields of bluebonnets.
Those trails took us to the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm, where the Johnson's neighbors lived. In fact, Augusta Sauer was the midwife when LBJ was born.
The state of Texas has kept the original buildings, and it is a working farm for people to get a glimpse of life in the hill country in the early 1900's.
There are still cows that are milked by hand every day,
sheep that need to be hand-sheared of their winter wool,
and this rooster might be crowing to remind the staff that today's eggs need to be gathered.
Rangers wearing period costumes are busy around the farm doing chores. We saw evidence that the vegetables from the garden had been canned, and the wool in the silver tubs is ready for spinning and weaving.
We could still smell the remains of lunch that had been cooked in the kitchen on the same stove that was used over one hundred years ago. Free lunches are part of the perks of working here at the state park. On the table now is that fresh milk turning into clabber to feed the chickens, as well as cheese for the humans.
We really enjoyed seeing the working farm at work! On our walk back to the visitor's center, we also got to see the state's herd of longhorns enjoying this beautiful day.
That brought us through another field of bluebonnets, where Denisa could sit on the bench surrounded by all that blue bounty.
A presidential state park wouldn't be complete without a statue of the president. This pose has him (and Denisa) pointing at something. What could it be?
It's the Pedernales River that flows between the national park and state park. This is the view from the Texas White House, and one that the President loved. We see that our travels some times cross paths, as we were camped on the Pedernales River at its falls state park just three months ago.
Mark mistook the presidential pose as a "guess what happens when you pull my finger" statue.
We finished our long day of sight seeing back in Johnson City, where the visitor center in town runs tours of LBJ's boyhood home. Even though he was born and died on the ranch, he spent most of his growing-up years in town closer to the high school. But times were tough, and this home was some times rented out when the family needed money. During those times, the Johnsons stayed with relatives back on the ranch.
The national park in Johnson City had a film about the first lady-- Lady Bird Johnson. Her love of nature started early when she was a child in east Texas. We found the home where she was born in our travels last year--another example of how our travel experiences interlace. We finished up our day of touring all things LBJ by moving on down the road 30 miles to the fine city of Marble Falls. On the north edge of town, we camped beside a little pond surrounded by grass and trees.
This idyllic spot is on the rim of the Walmart parking lot in Marble Falls, as we take advantage of another night of free camping. It didn't seem quite so idyllic at 1 a.m. when the sprinklers went off, showering the side of our motor home. Mark got up to move us over to the next row, thinking that some times free camping has its price.
After deciding to "stay one more day" yesterday, again we decided to "stay one more day" today. We're enjoying our time around Canyon Lake, and we have a few more things to do here. We're always looking for a good hike, and today we found three. We started at the Guadalupe River Park just a few miles from our campground.
A nice hike with views of the river, we also got some nice views of more local wildflowers like this primrose.
After the recent rains, it feels good to be back on the trail, wandering through more of God's wonders.
Our second hike of the day started at Overlook Park, where we found a trail that took us over the rocks and right down to Canyon Lake. We're camped on the other side, so we've seen this big lake from both sides now.
Hidden among the rocky climb back to the overlook point was--you guessed it--more wildflowers like this purple verbena!
We're finding that the Indian Paintbrushes are at the end of their blooming season here, but we're still seeing a few pretty specimens.
Our next hike took us even higher into hill country to the James C. Curry Nature Center. You don't often see a highway with a 22% grade, and we were glad to be in the car instead of the motor home today.
From our view at the top, we could look down over the hills below. The new green leaves of the deciduous trees are peeking out around the deep green of the junipers. This make a checkerboard green splash of color that Denisa really likes.
We got to experience more of that 22% grade on the hike as we walked straight down and then slogged our way straight up again. It's hard to capture steepness in a picture, but our fitbit confirmed that we climbed the equivalent of 32 flights of stairs today.
We're guessing that you won't be surprised that Denisa took more pictures of wildflowers. We are just now beginning to see the reds of the Indian Blankets.
After all that hiking, we rewarded ourselves with a nice lunch. Mark's brother and sister-in-law recommended a local place that did not disappoint. We're sad that we forgot to take a picture of all the antlers at Richter's Antler Cafe, and of our lunch guests. If there would have been wildflowers involved, Denisa would have remembered the camera.
From there, we made the circle back to Gruene Hall. We found out that the live band tonight was playing "Texas Country" music, and we were ready for some dancing! This is the oldest dance floor in Texas, and they have spared no expense with their interior decorating. From the single bulbs lighting up the dance floor to the chicken wire over the glass-less windows, it's all original. We made enough trips around the dance floor to also note that old wood floor has a few warped places.
We danced to most of the songs for the next two hours. That added to our step count considerably for the day, as we're up to 14,270 steps (or 6.4 miles) now. Considering all the elevation change of our hiking, we got a pretty good work-out today. We should sleep well tonight, as we're making the best of our last day here at Lake Pointe Campground near Canyon Lake, Texas.
