TEXAS: LYNDON B. JOHNSON RANCH

 Tuesday, March 23, 2021

We began the next day with a three-hour drive to the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, which is due west of Austin.

I am always on the look-out for good murals, and I made Bob stop for this one in Eden. Is that Eve? (Note: We actually did pass the Garden of Eden, but unfortunately it was not on Bob's agenda.)

We visited the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin in 2012 (although for some reason I never got around to writing about it here). On this trip, nine years later, we decided to visit the ranch where LBJ was born, lived a good part of his life, and was buried.

The LBJ Ranch is in Stonewall (yes, named after Confederate General Stonewall Jackson who died as a result of friendly fire in 1863). After paying our fees at the Visitors Center, we walked out to a living history farm based on a 1918 German farm. (Apparently there were lots of German settlers in this area. In fact, 15 miles away is a town named Fredericksburg that is full of German shops.) The farm was one of the better living history places we have visited. The volunteers work the farm and literally eat the fruits of their own labors.

We walked through quite a nice home . . .  

. . . that supposedly belonged to this friendly couple:

I wish I knew the story of this beautiful framed wreath hanging on the wall.

TEXAS, MIDLAND AND ODESSA: THE PERMIAN BASIN PETROLEUM MUSEUM, GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME, THE MIDLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND THE ODESSA JACKRABBITS

 March 21, 2021

After enjoying our drive through Texas Tech, our delicious lunch, and our visit to the Buddy Holly Center, we headed to Midland, about 120 miles due south of Lubbock. Midland is not located in mid-Texas as its name implies, but rather in West Texas. It was named "Midland" because it was founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the railroad that connected those two cities. Its biggest claim to fame has to do with THE Bush family, but more on that later.

Midland is located in the Permian Basin, a large sedimentary basin  that includes a lot of oil fields, so it makes sense that Midland is the home of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, which didn't sound all that exciting, but we needed a break on a long drive, so we decided to stop there. 

Appropriately, the museum has an oil rig in its front yard.

Posts outside of the museum are topped with engraved granite markers that give a timeline of oil production from 400 BC to the present day.

OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK: SAGAMORE HILL, HOME OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT

While we were in New York City for our son's graduation, we planned a morning trip to Oyster Bay on Long Island, site of Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt's home from 1885 until his death in 1919. Oyster Bay is about 35 miles northeast of Upper Manhattan. In spite of what the map below says, it took us a good hour and a half to get there from our hotel in Fort Lee, New Jersey:

Long Island is 118 miles long and 23 miles wide at its widest point. The largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island has a population of almost 8 million people, or about 5,600 people per square mile. Once you get past Brooklyn and Queens, however, it maintains a chic, rural atmosphere. I'd love to go back and explore its small towns, like Hicksville, Hauppauge, and Stony Brook, or even go as far east as possible in Long Island's south fork to visit the famed (and very wealthy) Hamptons, also known as the East End and site of Southhampton, Sag Harbor, and Montauk:

But our trip to Sagamore Hill was more than enough for the morning we had free:

VIRGINIA: MOUNT VERNON

George Washington was the son of wealthy planters in Virginia, but his father died when George was only eleven, and as a result the family experienced some financial hardship (which meant George couldn't go to England for his education). However, his father had owned some property he had named "Mount Vernon," and he deeded it to his oldest living son Lawrence (by his first wife--George was the oldest son born to his second wife). When Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1752, 20-year-old George moved to the estate to help Lawrence's widow manage the place. When she died a few years later, George inherited it. Not long after that, he married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow one year older than he, in 1759.

We didn't waste any time waiting to get to know George, Martha, and their two grandchildren:

After all, they like visitors:

Mt. Vernon consists of 500 acres of prime real estate on the banks of the Potomac River.

The house was built in stages by George himself between 1758 and 1778 in the same spot where the previous home had been since 1735. I'm sure Martha must have bankrolled some of the expenses.

I always thought Mount Vernon was painted white.

We got in a LONG line behind about 1.5 million children on school field trips. Luckily, a colonist had been resurrected so that he could lecture the young 'uns on their behavior (which was, actually, amazingly good):

YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA: RICHARD NIXON BIRTHPLACE

The Nixon Library and Birthplace was dedicated in July 1990. We have lived just 50 miles away during the twenty-four years it's been open, but we had never gone to Yorba Linda for a visit. A few months ago, we finally rectified that problem, and now we are wondering what took us so long.

As indicated by the name, the museum is built on the property next to the home where Richard Nixon was born.

The walk up to the house passes by the very simple graves of Pat (1912-1993) and Richard (1913-1994):

"Even when people can't speak your language,
they can tell if you have love in your heart."

"The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker."

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: FIRST WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY

Just a few blocks from the Alabama State Capitol building is the First White House of the Confederacy. This house only served this purpose from February 1861 to May 1861, and then the capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. However, Jefferson Davis and his family made a significant mark on Montgomery in that short period of time.

The house was originally located about a mile from this site, but it was moved when its original neighborhood was undergoing renovation.

The house back-in-the-day. Looks like the white
siding we see today is not original.

Inside, we were allowed to take as many (flash-free) pictures as we wanted to. Finally. 

Jefferson Davis, U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, 1853

FLORIDA: THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE AND A LONG JOURNEY HOME

Our last significant stop in Florida was "The Little White House," a large home in Key West where Harry Truman spent his vacations.  We have enjoyed previous visits to several Presidential libraries, and this site, although not a Presidential library, was a similar look into some interesting American history.

We were there on the day of the Presidential Inauguration, and the staff of the Little White House was getting ready for an inauguration party.  Note the sign on the tree below:

We got there shortly before the last tour of the day began, and much to our amazement we were the only people on the tour.

Scan of the tourist brochure given to us at the site

No photography was allowed inside the house, but I found this picture of Harry's poker table on the internet.   Bess didn't like others to know about her husband's poker games, so she had a top made for the table that completely covered up all signs of fun and games. That's it leaning against the windows.

Photo from here

Harry and Bess had separate bedrooms.  I think this one is Harry's.  It doesn't really look like a Presidential suite, does it?

Photo from here

There was a little museum area with great information on Truman's Presidency:

There were also a few exhibits that encompassed other Presidencies, including this catalog of White House Christmas cards and another one of the annual White House Christmas ornaments:

I was excited to find the one that hangs on our own Christmas tree every year.  Andrew brought it home to me from his sixth grade trip to Washington, D.C.:

Florida may have voted for George Bush, but it is clear that Key West is all about Barack Obama:

Our wonderful trip to Florida ended with a less than wonderful trip home. We were scheduled to fly out of Miami on American Airlines on a Monday at 3:30 p.m.  We boarded the plane on time, left the gate on time, started our taxi down the runway on time, and then, just after the plane's nose came up, it went back down and the brakes were applied.  We taxied back to the gate, and after some time, we were told the flight speed indicator had not come on.  We sat on the plane for 2 1/2 hours before they finally told us we could get off for a stretch, but to come back in an hour. (Just as we were leaving the plane, we heard an announcement that everyone they had to get off because somehow the plane's passenger list had been erased and they would have to check everyone back in.) We checked back in an hour, then in another hour, then in another . . .

Eventually American brought in another plane and changed our gate, but by then the flight attendants had walked out in what the lady at the desk announced was a "contract dispute." I think that's a euphemism for "Hey, dummies, we aren't going to stay here all night like the rest of you."  At 11:00 p.m., 7 1/2 hours after we had started down the runway, we were finally told that our flight had been rescheduled for 6:00 a.m.  They sent us on a trek to the other side of the airport to get in line at the American Airlines Booking Center.  There were lots of people who had to rebook connecting flights, and since we had a direct flight to Los Angeles and didn't need to do that, we didn't push to get at the front of the line.
The airline was offering hotel accommodations, but they only had ONE LINE for over 400 passengers, and so it moved at a snail's pace. By the time we got to the front of the line, it was 1:30 a.m.  By the time we would have gotten to the hotel, we would have had only an hour or two before we would need to return. It seemed pointless, so we opted for alternative accommodations:

In their defense, American Airlines did one thing (kind of) right: They gave us one of their super lightweight blankets. It was really cold in the airport, and we had no access to our luggage. In addition, everything was shut down, so there was so way to get anything to eat. It was a pretty miserable night.

People began to report to the gate at 5:00 a.m., and boarding was complete by 5:45. Then we sat.  At 6:15, a flight attendant came on the intercom to tell us the pilots had not yet arrived. They finally showed up, and then we waited some more.  A disembodied voice finally told us that the routine safety check before take off showed that the plane had a leak.

SERIOUSLY?

Finally, after having sat on the plane for three hours, we began the journey home.  Our last meal had been at 6:00 the previous night, and nothing in the airport had opened before we boarded the plane at 5:15.  We were hungry, and the flight attendants were generous with what they had--sodas and dry granola bars.  About three hours into the flight, Bob asked if there wasn't something else on board to eat, and they comped him a pretty bad ham and cheese croissant that would have normally cost $9.  They had a very limited number of those and were only giving them out when someone asked for food.  We couldn't believe that they hadn't loaded extra food on the plane for the hungry passengers who couldn't possibly have found anything to eat before boarding the early flight.

We made it to Los Angeles at about 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday (4:00 p.m. Florida time; no wonder we were starving), 19 1/2 hours late.  I had to cancel a day's worth of classes, and Bob had to cancel several appointments.  In return, American gave each of us a $150 travel voucher and some frequent flyer miles.  We weren't impressed.

We do love to travel, but I think we'll be avoiding American Airlines--that is, after we use up our vouchers and free miles.