Lyndon B. Johnson once describes his favorite and luckiestnumber, "four." "That's what I want you to remember. If youdon't get your idea across in the first four minutes, you won't do it. Foursentences to a paragraph. Four letters to a word. The most important words inthe English language all have four letters. Home. Love. Food. Land. Peace. . .Iknow peace has five letters, but any damn fool knows it should have four."

Olaf, also likes the number four, it is better than threeand twice as good as two, but his favorite words would be bird, wife, cats,unlike three letter words like dip....

We headed in the direction of Johnson City Texas. Johnson City is the boyhood home of our 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson andhis home, the LBJ Ranch is just 15 miles west of town.

In many ways, LBJ's ranch is the coolest presidential homeever.  Besides having a 6,000 foot runway and being the home of prizedHereford cattle then and now, you can walk in the footsteps of a leader thatmany reviled at the end of his reign, however, like quite a few presidents, LBJshould be remembered better. 

LBJ was our first Western bred and born President. Unlike recent Presidents who attended IVY League schools, LBJ went to SW TexasState Teachers College, dropped out went to California, and returned asgraduated and then briefly taught as a teacher.  LBJ did attend GeorgetownLaw School for a time after he was elected to Congress, however the only thinghe got from that was a date with Lady Bird, who he asked to marry him, she puthim off for a few more dates, but finally agreed. In Congress, he was probablythe most savvy Majority leader in the US Senate until McConnell recently.

He has great quotes, possibly the best of the 20th Century,many almost beat Yogi quotes:

I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chickensalad.

On the media:  If one morning I walked on top of thewater across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read"President Can't Swim"

On Liberal Democrats (his own party):  Don't spitin the soup, we all have to eat.

On being President: Being president is like being ajackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

On the CIA: The CIA is made up of boys whose familiessent them to Princeton but wouldn't let them into the family brokeragebusiness.

Visiting Seaworld: Why does Sea World have a seafoodrestaurant I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize Oh man....I couldbe eating a slow learner.

 Unlike other President's graves, LBJ's looks just like anormal one.

Compare this to the worst President of the 20th Century, Warren G. Harding.  The ego of the bad man still lives on.

LBJ was somewhat larger than life, but anything fromperfect.  He was a lady's man and when he went to Congress, he was dirtpoor.  How the couple made their fortune was all (well if you ask LBJ, hesaid so) Lady Bird's doing.  In 1943, she spent $17,500 of herinheritance to purchase KTBC,an Austin radio station. In 1952, she added a television station, alwaysgetting favorable FCC rulings.  She invested $42,000 total, which by 1990became $150 million.  

Famously in 1968, he pulled out of reelection after a poorshowing in New Hampshire.  Hubert Humphry got a late start and then waspassed by Robert Kennedy, before he was assassinated and after a convention riot, HUMPHREY WON.  The Democrats wenton to lose to Nixon, and the rest is history.  In 1972, LBJ donated theRanch to the US Park Service and then a few months later, at only 64 years of age died three daysafter Nixon's second inauguration in January 1973.   

The LBJ Ranch house, however cool it is....has been CLOSEDsince 2018 due to structural issues. Maybe, maybe they say it will reopen in 2025, but in typicalgovernment fashion, everyone it appears to be working from home, including theconstruction workers. The new normal, everyone in the government works fromhome, and nothing gets done and the world is always the same.  The man givinginfo at the park?  A person from Ireland on a student visa to learn "tourism."  The cool old AirForce 1/2, Gulfstream, also closed.  You can see it but they have surrounded inwith fences and orange tape, what harm can you cause by walking around adecommissioned old airplane?  You drive 30 feet from it?

There were a lot of lark sparrows around.  Birding,near LBJ's grave was a little slow.

Scissortail flycatchers were around as well.
The countryside was in bloom, too.
We went to Perdernales State Park to see a bird.  It turns out we were turned away.  It was also closed, due to it being full, "Come back tomorrow."  The ranger told us.  You can tell that Texas has too many people and not enough parks....when they are full to day visitors.
I wanted to see Golden Cheeked warblers, but at this park, they would have to wait a day.  We went to lunch.
I tracked down the Blanco County Courthouse in Johnson City. It turns out they also had one a few years older (below), since after building a courthouse in Blanco, they voted to move the county seat to Johnson City.

We ate lunch and Silja wanted to take a motorcycle for a test ride, but again that would not be possible

After looking around for another place for the warbler, Idipped and went back to the RV.

The campground we were at is unique.  It not only hasone helipad, it has two.  Who brings their helicopter with their RV, orwho goes to a RV resort with their helicopter.  I guess this one does rentcabins.  Our RV is just behind the pad

We were back to the park this morning and on my fourth trip to get a photo of the Golden Cheeked warbler in my life, I hit paydirt. Having seen that birders I know were here recently, it would be bad if somehow, I had dipped on both LBJs ranch AND the warbler so at least I got the bird.  I am not missing photos of many breeding birds in the US, last year I FINALLY photographed the Colima warbler, and now this......




It was a pretty good haul of them, some pretty good pictures, despite being dark and overcast.

There was this "starcircle" at the park with purpose unknown.  
Driving around the Hill Country, many of the ranches and ranchers seem to have a lot of hat but no cattle, to steal words from LBJ.  Big prices for 20-50 acres of dry land--all because residents from Austin want to have some place to go.  We prefer west Texas.  I am glad we came, and if LBJs White House opens up, I would advise you all to come here and see it, but do not hold your breath.  Getting anyone to work seems unlikely. The Golden cheeked warblers are neat little birds with an isolated range.  Other than that, the Hill County seems to be a lot of hype, a lot of people, and well, probably not our scene.I looks a lot like Lawton Oklahoma without the crowds.
working our way north
Olaf