Life Goes On

We are back in Little Rock taking care of the things that can only be done in person.

One thing was rescheduling the appointment with my heart doctor I missed back in November. Heck, I was having too much fun in California recovering from a heat attack.

Well after my visit last week, I am scheduled for an Angiogram in the morning. No big deal, he just wants to check me out as my heart surgeon in California said I might need another stent. Is that like your mechanic saying, "Hey, your radiator is clogged but I think your engine will be ok"?

Why the hell didn't he do everything at the time. Guess he was spreading MY money around.

Seems my doctor is a little pissed that I was in California letting another doctor have some of my money. Damn doc, use some of your windfall on bedside manner lessons!!

LBJ Ranch

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States of America, is buried in his family's cemetery on the LBJ Ranch.

The Texas White House, so named because President Johnson spent about one third of his term at his farm in Stonewall, Texas.

The home is over 8000 sf. but does not look it.

The room on the left was used as "the oval office"

From the rear you can see a better view of the room that now appears on the right.

Any aircraft the president flies on is designated 'Air Force One".

LBJ liked to call this one "Air Force 1/2". The large Air Force One was flown to Austin and this smaller plane was used to reach the ranch.

A grass airstrip was already in place on the ranch and it was paved when LBJ became vice president.

Love him or hate him, LBJ was the president that shaped the nation during my teen years.

Willie, Waylon and the Boys

Lunkenbach, Texas is forever immortalized in the Waylon Jennings song.

We took the very short drive from Fredericksburg to visit the small town (about four building not counting the large dance hall) and this defunct post office being the most famous building.

The building is now a general store and beer bar. Shiner beer, brewed by the oldest brewery in Texas is the crowd favorite.

White Sands

Back in a previous life I was stationed at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas and we often trained at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico but I had never seen the White Sands National Monument and therefor never seen the "white sands".
















The White Sands Missile Range covers 3200 square miles and the White Sands of the National Park is the worlds largest deposit and covers 275 square miles.

The "white sands" are actually gypsum and have a consistency more like talc than sand.

A camel was being used for a photo shoot and looked right at home on the sand dunes.

The road starts as pavement but it is graded sand as one drives deeper into the park.

Being white gypsum (the stuff the sheet rock in your home is made of) the dunes does not attract or hold heat so the dunes can be enjoyed barefoot year round.