Polewach On the Road 2011-2012: Outside Fredericksburg: LBJ Ranch and Luckenbach, TX

A real working farm, with no electricity.

Judy and I are back on the wagon..well not really

What a special, special treat to have our good friends Carl and Judy join up with us in Fredericksburg, TX. We had some wine up town and the next morning headed out to see the LBJ ranch and a working farm. This was very educational if you were a survivalist sort of person and wanted to learn to live off the grid without refrigeration, electricity, etc. The farm was staffed by people in period dress and those people actually slaughtered (yeck) the pigs, made the sausage, stored the sausage in lard for a year or more without any refrigeration.
They made their own cream, cheese, etc. and had several chickens on the farm.

The gates were a little tricky.
Ha! not for an old farm girl.

After the farm we went on down the road to see LBJ's ranch. I have to say that being in high school in the late 60's did not make him my favorite president, but it's always interesting to see how president's lived.

LBJ actually went to preschool here.

LBJ Ranch: I was amazed at what a modest life style they lived on this ranch. LBJ did not grow up with a lot of money. Actually, Lady Bird had more of the money, and that was made in radio and TV stations.

LBJ started the Head Start Program

Next stop was the family cemetery. We saw the headstones for LBJ and Lady Bird (her real first name was Claudia.) Lady Bird lived on the ranch until she died. During that time she planned what would happened with their home after death and how the house would be presented. She stored the 60's style furnishings as she updated the decorating. After her death, the house was returned to its former late 60's look. I especially liked the yellow formica counter tops in the kitchen No pics of the house inside were allowed.

He had his own landing strip.

LBJ would fly home frequently and did conduct official White House business from the ranch. He had something like 67 phone lines in the house, three phones or more in each room, 3 TVs in each room so he could watch the news on the three main stations at the same time. He did have phones in his bathroom. Lady Bird's formal dinners were often interrupted by his phone calls. He had a phone by his chair under the dining room table.

This was a fairly simple but nice house.

Pretty view. I loved this area.

He enjoyed many hours in the pool with his grandchildren.

Driving around the ranch, you could understand why he wanted to come home so often.

Luckenbach, TX: Listen to the song cause that's all there is to this place. It's a place to go with a gang of friends, drink beer and listen to country western music on Friday nights.