The Rest of Texas I--Bluebonnets and LBJ

While waiting for Daniel Moreland's wedding on late Friday afternoon, April 21, we explored the Texas Hill Country.  We started our day at the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, named for the Texas state flower and renowned for its pies.

For breakfast, Dave had peanut butter pie and I had pecan pie.

The good ole boys pulled up to the cafe bar and the waitresses drawling "honey" reminded us that rural Texas is both Middle America and country music/rodeo/barbecue South.

The pie safe was enormous and well-stocked.

Right outside the Blue Bonnet cafe, the blue bonnets were in bloom.

Wildflowers covered the roadside.

We mentioned, at the Visitors Center in Marble Falls, that we were from Utah.  "This country was settled by the Mormons," the clerk reminded us.  "You can learn all about those Mormon polygamists at our museum."  We stopped by the museum, made of the Texas limestone we saw all over the hill towns.

We learned about Lyman Wight, "Wild Ram of the Mountains," who was an apostle to Joseph Smith. He had a falling out with Brigham Young and took 150 followers to settle the Texas Hill Country.  I bought a book, "Polygamists of the Pedernales" and learned all about that Church offshoot.  After Wight died in 1848, many of his followers joined the RLDS in Missouri.

My favorite photos are portraits of the people "along the way."  This lady was committed to preserving the history of Marble Falls and its county.

Symbols of Texas were everywhere, including this wreath of  "lone stars" in the museum lady's room.

The flag of Texas was painted onto the wall of one of the homes in Marble Falls.

Next stop was LBJ State Park, containing LBJ's "White House on the Pedernales" and acres of ranch land.

LBJ held work sessions for his Cabinet at the ranch, planning the flood of legislation that marked his presidency.  He also entertained national and world leaders, driving them around himself, at high speed, in his Lincoln Continental convertible.

We visited the home, made of Texas limestone, in which Lady Bird lived until her death in 2009.  LBJ died within a couple of years of leaving office in 1968.