Anyone remember Lyndon Baines
Johnson, 36th President of the USA?
I can remember him from when he was inaugurated after the assassination of John F.
Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The
announcement of Kennedy’s death came over the PA system at the school I was
attending near Pittsburgh, PA. But you
may ask: “Exactly how and why does this topic apply in this blog?”
Well, proximity of LBJ’s “Western White House”
to San Antonio, where we were visiting, is the reason. As we had access to a rental car, and as we
both were interested in visiting the ranch (which is now the Lyndon B. Johnson
National Historic Park), off we went!
It’s out in Texas Hill
Country, and currently covers about 1600 acres, of which about 700 are
officially part of the park. On
the bank of the Pedernales River, it's is a lovely setting.
The ranch, from the entrance drive.
The Western White House
There is an airfield on the
property, and on display is “Air Force One-Half,” the jet used to transport LBJ
to and from the Western White House.
The 707 in use as Air Force One back then couldn’t land on the ranch’s short runway. We parked our rental car on the “taxi-way”
marked by yellow lights with blue lenses.
From the American-Statesman
comes the following info:
The National Park Service
rescued the 50-year-old JetStar from the Pentagon's "bone yard," an
open-air retirement home for more than 4,400 old planes in the dry, desert air
of Tucson, Ariz. The government paid $261,000 to bring the plane to Texas, to
provide shelter and to restore the exterior of the VC-140 Lockheed aircraft
with a sparkling new paint job that replicates the outside of Air Force One.
LBJ traveled on a Boeing 707
for most trips when he was president, but he also had a fleet of smaller planes
available to him, including several JetStars. The larger plane could not land
at the ranch because the 6,300-foot asphalt airstrip was not long enough.
However, a JetStar could land and taxi to within 200 yards of LBJ's so-called
Western White House along the Pedernales River.
"They could conduct the
business of the country right here," said Russ Whitlock, superintendent of
the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park near Stonewall. "But
without aircraft like the JetStar, it wouldn't have been possible."
This JetStar, tail number
612490, made numerous trips for the Johnson White House, including taking
staffers and aides on flights to Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and the
Dominican Republic during the Johnson White House years. It also flew to Puerto
Rico.
The plane was a flying ambulance
at times. It was dispatched by LBJ at least twice in the middle of the night
for emergency medical missions. Johnson sent his doctors in the JetStar to
assist former President Dwight Eisenhower, who had suffered heart pains in
Georgia in November 1965. Cardiologists also scrambled to board the plane in
August 1966 to treat the gravely ill president of Nicaragua, René Schick. The
Central American leader died while the JetStar was still in the air.
Air Force One-Half
Remember the Amphicar? That amphibious car from the era 1961 to 1968
(about 3800 built) which could function as a boat? There was a 1962 model at the LBJ Ranch. Still is there!!
Amphicar
After we finished up at the LBJ
ranch, we headed to a couple more sights – one was the Fat Ass Ranch and
Winery…yep, that’s its real name.
Couldn’t miss that photo op, which on my list of strange names ranks
right up there with Toad Suck, Arkansas (discovered in my trip last January.)
We didn't have time to go in and sample the libations (happy hour is 5PM), but some folks were there enjoying the atmosphere at about 1) - and our share of the booze! (Apparently they figure it's Happy Hour "somewhere.")
Remember Waylon Jennings
singing “Back to the Basics of Love,” which was released in April 1977? I really like that song, even though I
didn’t listen to it much back then.
The lyrics say “Lets go to Luckenbach, Texas…” It was only a couple miles off our route, so we did.
Unfortunately, due to an event going on at
the town dance hall (possibly a reason for the town's continued existence), we couldn’t drive down its main street. But on Google Maps it appears to be a rickety,
very old western town (allegedly now a population of 3), on a short loop road, and from the perimeter
parking lot, we couldn’t see anything to alter that impression. The only good pic I could get was of the
sign…and a "bucket of bolts" pickup sunk in the mud out front.
Waylon Jennings had a
fabulous voice.
I say “had” because he
reportedly passed on from this world in 2002, at about 65 years of age, due to
diabetes-related complications. Maybe I’ll try
listening to some of his other music. Like a replay of the theme from the Dukes of Hazzard! Some of us in the right age category remember that show...if not by name, then by the Dukes' famous General Lee (a copy of which I visited in Nashville in 2015).
It certainly was a copy-car...the driver's door opened. I didn't have to climb through the window!
More later…
Mandy
