Austin , April 19-21

We left the Eagles parking area and headed for Austin.  We had been to Austin several times over the past few weeks but missed the river walk and the LBJ library.  After having been to the LBJ Ranch earlier, I wanted to see the library and I also wanted to bike the river trail.  We stopped at Buda, Texas and parked at the Cabela parking lot.  I had read you park overnight even though there are signs stating no overnight parking.   We checked with the  management and they confirmed it was O.K. to park overnight.  There is a special designated spot for RV and trucks but got permission to park away from the trucks.  Its pretty noisy as it is right off I-35 but...free.

Nancy and Maynard joined us and the next morning Nancy, Joel and I headed down to the river for a nice bike ride.

The bike path crosses the river and provides from some gorgeous views.

There is a large winding circular pathway up to the bridge for riding you bike or riding.  This eliminated hundreds of steps.  Pretty impressive.

We saw several paddle boards.  This seems to be a new sport catching on rapidly.  I noticed these gals did not have life jackets.

Sunken garden.  One of the land marks along the bike path.

Taken from the Congress Street Bridge looking towards the Capitol.

I say this "boat/swan" floating along with out a care.

We returned to the Cabela parking lot and decided it was too noisy and moved over to the Moose Lodge near downtown.  The next day, we went down town and toured the LBJ Library.  What a great way to spend a very hot afternoon (90 plus with high humidity)!  The library is free and so is the parking. However, the parking lot was full and we had to park in the pay parking structure.  The  library and museum was a walk back into the 60's, totally different from the Regan Library we previously toured in California. There isn't as many people or as much security.  There are tours given, but infrequently, and the museum is small enough you can't get lost.

The structure is located on the University campus .

This is a replica of the oval office during LBJs presidency.

 Note the most up to date phone on the table.

Not the three TVs for watching the major networks.  The same were found in LBJs home.

The museum also featured memorabilia of Lady Bird and show cased her passion for the environment.  I found the above passage interesting. She did take advantage of her position to persue some of her passions.  There was also exhibit of one of the gowns that she wore for several state functions.  Have you ever seen any of the current First Lady's wear anything twice?

This little guy posed for me for a long time until he finally found a place to bury his acorn.