LYNDON JOHNSON - Johnson City, TX - LBJ Ranch
36th President
30th in my collection |
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My new job was with a major manufacturing company in Ogden, Utah, and
we were proceeding on many projects (tieing me to my desk) and
building a new home (tieing me to the land). Out of the blue, the
advertisement for the national conference for APICS
(the American Production and Inventory Control professional society)
arrived announcing the conference location to be in SAN ANTONIO. It
was obvious that I would need to convince my boss of my requirement
to attend, which he went along with unexpectedly easily. I scheduled
my plane ticket to have me arrive a day early, so I could make my way
out to Johnson City.
I arrived in San Antonio on a Sunday morning, and immediately pointed
the rental car northward. The central part of Texas was surprisingly
(to me) green, hilly, and tree covered. Everything I knew about Texas
geography were backdrops behind John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. I
expected brown, dusty, dry land, maybe with a tumbleweed blowing down
the street. Of course San Antonio itself is a beautiful metropolitan
city. Its "riverwalk" area is a treasure, and outstanding
by any standard. However, my surprise came once I left the city and
hit the back highways. Delightfully surprised by the lush green trees
(often times clinging to the banks of small creeks) and beautiful
rolling hills. Sometimes I took the hills a little too fast but the
overall driving experience was a delight.
 I
arrived at the LBJ ranch, and took the NPS tour like the other
hundred tourists. Why anybody would want to see a "working
ranch" eludes me. The anecdotal information about the house and
guest house and its various famous visitors was also of very small
entertainment value to me. The grave site was centrally located, in a
small family cemetery surrounded by a low rock wall. LBJ's grave was
marked with a black marble obelisk, and I took a few pictures. Nearby
was a twice lifesize statue of the President, striking a pose in his
business suit, representing the Washington "deal-maker"
that brought him fame. I drove onto Austin, Texas, to see the capitol
and the LBJ library on the UT campus. It was a modern building with
an interesting mural, but otherwise uninspiring to me personally.
From there it was back to San Antonio, arriving in the dark, onto my
conference, then finally flying home to Utah. Five presidents to go.
Copyright, 2000, all rights reserved |
