Winding up and heading West...

 Saturday, October 12, 2024

Today we traveled 2 1/2 hours to Austin Texas to visit the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.  This museum is on the campus of the University of Texas. The building is 10 stories high, surrounded by a large plaza area, and is nestled in the campus in a busy urban area. 

The University of Texas football team, the Longhorns, is in first place, and there is a big football game today, the Red River Rivalry, between the Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners. We really lucked out that the game is being played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and not at the campus stadium.  Whew! If it was being played at home, we may not have been able to find a place for the Lundcruiser to stay, or even get to the museum. These Texans are crazy about football!  You can see the football field from the library.  (the Longhorns won the game 34-3)

LBJ was the 36th president and served from 1963-69.  He assumed the presidency after Kennedy was assassinated, and there was a period of 14 months where the country was without a vice president.  LBJ's vice president was Hubert Humphrey.

The building is 10 stories high, and had an impressive Grand Staircase, surrounded by four floors of boxes of archival documents. (45 million of them!)  This created a breathtaking greeting as we entered the museum.

Unfortunately the 10th floor is closed for renovation, and we were not able to see the replica of the Oval Office, or Lady Bird's office.   Seeing a picture just isn't the same...can't tell the color of the rug, but you can see the drapes are different!

I had forgotten (but maybe really never knew) all of the legislation that passed during LBJ's term.  It's quite impressive to see his list of accomplishments.   We can thank LBJ for Medicare (YES thank you!), the Civil Rights Act, more national park sites and so much more.  His legislation made a huge difference which is evident in our lives today.  

LBJ's term started with a tragedy (Kennedy's assassination) and he had a heavy shadow of the Vietnam War at the end of his term.  The war was the reason LBJ decided not to seek re-election...he felt he could not do anything to change things.

A special exhibition on the Vietnam War opened last week (to offset the 10th floor being closed). It was quite impactful.  There was a lot of footage from war time, interviews with servicemen describing their experience, their fear and their memories.  There were lots of uniforms and artifacts, including "survival cards" that showed the servicemen how to avoid certain illness.

There was a wall-sized photo of the memorial wall, and displays of items left at the wall. 

It was a solemn exhibit, but an important part of our history.

LBJ also dealt with the Cold War era.  This teletype machine was used to communicate with Russia!

There was an exhibit to illustrate LBJ's sense of humor.

The Presidents must get to keep their limos, because this library had one on display too.  (I guess there isn't a huge market for presidential limousines, except maybe for prom dates?)  Presidential travel changed after Kennedy's assassination, and the cars were no longer convertibles.

I think LBJ had the best signature of all of the presidents that we visited.  Clinton had good handwriting but the Bushes both needed to practice a bit more on theirs!

After our visit, we returned to the rv park and enjoyed the nice patio area next to the rv and sat outside and watched the end of the race.

It has been a great Fall Fling.  Visiting the Presidential Libraries has certainly given us a better appreciation for the office of the President, a better understanding of the men that held the office, and also highlighted parts of history we had forgotten or didn't know.  These libraries are a treasure for the people of our country, and others too.  We noticed several foreign groups touring today.   I only wish we had started a "passport" to record all of the libraries that we visited.  Now we're inspired to visit more...4 down, 11 to go!  But first, we continue our westward journey and should end up in Scottsdale on Tuesday.