Riverside Park: The Guadeloupe River winds its way through over 500 acres of park and the neighboring golf course so there is lots of space to stroll and bird.  The rose garden is beautiful and amazingly fragrant even this late in the year.  The city runs a little RV park that is laid out between a tree lined canal and an open field that the deer just love.  It is quiet and clean and just $12/night for full hookup.

We checked out a bit of local flavor

Halepaska’s   Bakery: we stopped there twice!

Farmers market: I went for fruit and veggies but came home with homemade cinnamon raisin bread and local blackberry jelly.

The Victoria County Courthouse; built in 1892 it harkens from a time when courthouses made a real statement! It is magnificent.

Celebrating sausages, beer, and German music at the Wurstfest in New Braunfels, Texas.  Oh, the food.  Five wursts on a stick…2” mini links make for a great way to sample them all without exploding.  Delicious.  Wurst Goulash, that was a new one for us and also quite spectacular.  I had to try the apple strudel of course and a giant pretzel, this one was sweet with icing and almonds.  The mini donuts on a stick were a little disappointing but still worth the experience.  There was no shortage of beer of course and I felt a short pang of regret that I have never cultivated a taste for it.

What fun music. Three stages emitted non-stop “German” music.  The main stage in the Wursthalle featured a couple of wonderful polka/oompa bands that sang and spoke almost entirely in German and drew the older set for listening, laughing, eating, and dancing.  The younger crowd gathered under the big tent where bands featured drinking songs and some great accordion playing.  Near the craft beer booth crossover bands played and one could hear anything from Van Halin tribute songs to the clarinet polka.

If food and music weren’t enough, one could attend the “Phantom of the Wurst” melodrama put on by the local theatre group or spin ‘til you’re dizzy on the carnival rides.

Beer was freely flowing and crowds were still thickening as we were leaving the grounds. It is a fun evening.  Don’t miss it if you are in this neck of the woods in early November.

This is the epicenter of early Texas oil discovery.  Photos in the local museum capture the dirty, bleak looking view down old Main Street lined with derricks.  As we drive through town we spot many of the more than 184 wells that still operate within the city limits.  They still smell and are a bit of an eyesore but check out how they have “dressed them up”.  The see-saw kids and grasshopper are probably my favorite.  The boy eating watermelon is an ongoing tribute to their Spring festival, The Watermelon Thump.  They have a permanent, regulation, seed spitting gallery right downtown.

Actually, I think there is considerable debate as to whether Luling or Lochart own that honor but the little place we tried in Luling, City Market, was very tasty. This region does dry rub, slow cook, smoky, no sauce BBQ and we tried all they had to offer: brisket, pork ribs, and sausage.  Walk into the pit room in the back of the restaurant and the pit master whacks of a slab of whatever you order.  He plops it down of a piece of brown paper, turns up the corners so it won’t slide off, and sends you on your way.  Pretty simple.  Very delicious.

It felt about like all the other Birthdays

We are still at Inks Lake and this is one more place that owes Kent a big thank you for furthering their relief from the long drought.    We have had a couple complete washout days but did manage to squeeze in a little more fishing.  Our catch was a hodgepodge of catfish, bass, and panfish.  We didn’t keep any but the catching was fun.

A series of dams on the Texas Colorado River creates a string of lakes on the edge of hill country about 70 miles NW of Austin. Our current home is camp on the shore of one of this string, Inks Lake near Burnet, TX.  Temperatures are unseasonably high, the high 80s, so we headed out on the lake fairly early today.  I didn’t get a single bite but Kent caught a couple nice bass.  Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow.

Our 36^th president worked hard to manage the message and public perception.  By donating the ranch and boyhood home to the National Parks Service he has managed to control that message even after his death.  Well done.

Johnson spent more that 400 days relaxing, strategizing, and entertaining at the ranch during his time in the White House. He was the first VP to be assigned an aircraft and made good use of it throughout his presidency.  He dubbed his Jet Star Air Force one-half.  The 6000 ft runway on the ranch couldn’t handle the “real” Air Force 1 of the 1960s, a 707.

As you stroll the grounds and visit the Texas White House it is easy to see why he might have felt more at ease and more in control in this environment.

He raised registered white face Hereford cattle here on the ranch.  A few of that herd’s offspring still walk these pastures.  Adorable twin calves (one of them very persistently hungry) and their mama are on display in the show barn.

His young life was spent in Johnson City where they have recreated Johnson Settlement to better showcase that period of his life.  I met two of the longhorns that reside in that settlement.

The LBJ Texas State park is the portal to the National Park JBJ Ranch but also houses the official Texas Long Horn Herd and operates an 1890’s Texas-German working farm.  We learn all about fresh milk in a world without iceboxes or refrigeration.  Fresh-sour-clabbored-cottage cheese- dry table cheese-moldy/bluecheese like spread cheese.  The table on the porch holds fragrant home made soap.  Sheep, chickens and a turkey roam the farmyard and the garden still holds tomatoes and winter veggies.