LBJ country

January 29th: Awaking to another cold and brilliantly sunny Texas day, we start to head toward Dallas where we are planning to stay with friends for the weekend. With our penchant for back roads and 2-lane highways, we travel through rural west Texas, then on the I10 for as short of a time as possible. Sometimes on these long highways in Texas, gas stations are few and far between. When we did pull off the I10 when it seemed we were running on fumes, we found this great local eatery - the wording over the door cracked us up. Love the Texan sense of humor. Double click on the photo if you're having trouble reading it.

After a few more miles, we turned off the highway into LBJ country - heading for a campsite in Fredericksburg.
We are now traveling through what is known as Hill Country in Texas. The surrounding countryside is low to medium rolling hills, covered with live oaks and scrub. Just beyond Fredericksburg is Johnson City which is the center of the ranching area in which Lyndon B Johnson grew up and lived. His and Ladybird's ranch is just outside Johnson City, has now been taken over by the National Parks Service and is in process of being prepared for opening to the public. Fredericksburg has a very interesting history - it was settled by Germans in the 19th century, as evidenced by the very German business and street names. The whole area is very spick and span and well maintained. We camp east of the main town in a very neat and well looked after campsite, where the owners cannot do enough for us.

January 30th: Another brilliant morning. After a short shopping foray into Fredericksburg, we head off east again, through Johnson City, joining the north/south State Road 281 and heading north for Dallas.

Could not resist taking a photo of the dog - anyone who knows the stories about LBJ and his bassett hounds will understand.

This road takes us through Marble Falls, a small town that we had visited on a Rialta rally several years ago. It was our first trip to this part of Texas, and we are very fond of it and have great memories of the hospitality of the local folks. This part of the hill country is very popular with residents of Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth for vacation properties and resorts. Judicious damming of the Colorada River has resulted in a number of lakes, providing very beautiful lakefront properties. As we head up the 281, we pass close to the ranch of another famous Texan - George W, at Crawford. Word is that he and Laura are now safely residing in Dallas.

And now we're heading into Dallas. Traffic begins to get city-ish - it's late afternoon on a beautiful Friday and everyone is rushing home to get a head start on the weekend. Having joined the I35, we find a very bad back-up, caused by an accident involving a very large truck. Good old Georgi (GPS) and her instant traffic information plots out a new route for us and, hey presto! we make it to the door of friends Wayne and Diane. The start of our great weekend! More later.