LBJ Library & Museum & Johnson City

Sat, March 12th - Mon, March 14th

Leaving Fredericksburg, we stopped in Johnson City. President Johnson was born near here in the home of his grandparents near the Pedernales River. This is the first home of his grandparents. They later sold this home to his uncle who gave the land to start Johnson Settlement. The Johnson family has lived here in Texas Hill Country since the 1870s.

When he was five his family moved to this home in town and he spent the next ten years in Johnson City.


This is part of the original homestead. This guy looked really big and kind of mean and the fence didn't look that strong.




We are spending a few days with John's cousin near Austin. After relaxing for a day, we headed into Austin on Monday to see the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum on the University of Texas campus. It is 10 stories high. The entrance is on the third floor. The third, fourth and tenth floors have exhibits for the public.


Going from the third floor to the fourth, you can look up and see some of the stored papers. There are 45 million pages of historical documents, 650,000 photos, one million feet of motion picture film and 5,000 hours of recordings from his public career and those of his associates. He was 12 years in the House, 12 years in the Senate, Vice President, tragically took over as President and served another term of his own.

This is a view from the 10th floor. There are 12 presidential libraries and Johnson's is the only one that is free, per his wishes.



I didn't know the first ladies were not always referred to as first ladies. Johnson started out as a teacher in a poor Mexican school. He never forgot the poverty and spent his whole public life trying to pass bills to help people of lesser means.


Next year we will stop at the ranch and cemetery and Lady Bird's wildflowers at the LBJ National Historical Park between Fredericksburg and Johnson City. Before sunset we walked along the river in downtown Austin. We saw several groups of team rowers and lots of other canoers, joggers and bikers.


Under the Congress Ave. Bridge tourists were gathering to watch the bats as they fly out from there home under the bridge for their nightly feeding. In the summer there are over a million every night.




Another beautiful day!







Austin City sky line. You can see the Capitol on the far left.


Tarra