Pastor Skar

 We slept in at a small motel in Johnson City. Then we visited the LBJ stuff in Johnson City.  That took about an hour. Then we drove west to the LBJ ranch, where we visited the gravesite and the ranch complex. It was quite an extensive thing,  hundreds of acres.  We followed that up with a visit to a peach stand. Peach pie, cobbler, and ice cream, which we ate at the LBJ roadside rest Then we drove to the Cedar Lodge Resort on Lake Buchanan for the Skar reunion. We were the first ones there. The test of the Rolf Skar branch trickled in and we had a delicious pasta supper. The younger, more handsome Brian Skar’s wife, Tonya, is super organized and did a great job with the meal.  100 degrees temperature.  The ranger in Johnson City informed me that the name of the lake is pronounced “Buckanan”. I told him I taught history for 30 years and if the lake was named after the 15th President it was pronounced Byoochanan.  He informed me that “Texans like to do things different.”  I considered

Part of the LBJ National/State Park is in Johnson City where he grew up. Part of it is 15 miles west of Johnson City where he was born and where he had his ranch and  where he had his home while he was a Congressman and VP and President. He and Lady Bird are buried in the family cemetery out on the ranch. This is the home in Johnson City where he was raised from the time he was six. Nearby is the shed he fell off of as a kid and broke his leg.  While LBJ was serving in Congress and as VP and President he travelled back and forth from Texas a lot. 20 percent of his time when he was President was spent at his ranch.  He built a runway on the ranch so he could fly there easily.  Air Force 1 was too big to land so he bought a smaller plane to shuttle him from the Austin airport where AF1 could land to his ranch. This is that plane. This was his house at the ranch. The secret Service had a smaller house out back. He held many high level meetings in the shade of the large tree in the front y

 Will Adams and I served together in Mortar Platoon, Charlie Company, 1/11th Infantry Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Ft. Carson, Colorado, in 1975-1976. He was in charge of the Fire Direction Center and I commanded the squad of the number two gun. He and I climbed Mount Elbert, the highest mountain in Colorado. We also played on our platoons football team which was not only unbeaten in about eight games, but was in scored on. Wil was one of my closest friends. We shared a lot of good times. In this picture we are standing on the corner of Houston and Elm, directly below the window Oswald fired from.  Will waited for Ruth and me to do the museum. Then we went out to Denny’s for lunch.  It was great to see him again. 

  We parked on the west side of the Bush library in College Station, TX, the home of Texas A&M.  Then we walked around to the east side of the library to this beautiful pond.  The grave site is through the trees on the other side of the pond. Ruth looking across the pond toward the gate and path to the grave site.  Next to the library stood this statue of these horses jumping over a wall. The wall was an actual section of the Berlin Wall that came down during Bush’s term.  Bush’s grave in center. Barbara’s is on the right.  Their daughter Robin is buried to the left out of the picture. The grounds are large and beautiful.  It was a picturesque half mile walk from the car to the grave site.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves except for a kid on an electric skateboard.

I am standing on the sidewalk reading the historical marker.  Out in the street behind me is a white X painted where the Presidential limo was when Kennedy eat hit with the fatal head shot (the third shot).  Farther up the street to my right an X marks the spot where the second shot hit him high on his back. This was the “magic bullet” that went through JFK’s back and then hit Connelly.  That billet actually caused seven wounds.  Beyond me is the Texas Book Drpository.  Oswald shot from the far right window on the sixth floor. That window is behind the tree. Only the seventh floor can be seen from this angle.  Ruth is standing next to the stone pedestal in which Zapruder stood and made his famous video of the assassination.  Dealy Plaza is across the street behind her. This was taken up in the Sixth Floor Museum. This is the window Oswald shot three shots from.  The boxes are arrranged just as they were on 11/22/63.  This is the X on the street where the fatal shot hit JFK. Elm Street

 Spent the night in motel at Purcell, OK.  The low tire pressure light came on as soon as we got on the road. A flat on a Sunday morning.  “Perfect!”  Turned out it just needed some air, a dollars worth.  Nothing is free down here.   We met Wil Adams, my army buddy I haven’t seen in 45 years, at Dealy Plaza where JFK was shot.  Then we drove down to College Station where George HW Bush is buried.  Tonight in a motel in Johnson City.