March 17, 2022

Map and dash cam video of today’s route

Today was Austin’s turn to show me it’s top features but the day was somewhat disappointing.

After a beautiful couple of days with sunshine and temperatures in the 60s and 70s (15-21 C) I awoke to a blustery, dismal day with the temperature just 42 F (6 C) as I left Waco to head 100 miles south to Austin. I got on the road early (for me) because I thought it could be a long day but that proved to be unnecessary.

Just after 10 I arrived at the Lydon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Library and Museum on the University of Texas campus in Austin. I enjoy visiting the presidential libraries and always learn a great deal about both the individual president and the presidency itself. The LBJ library was no exception but it was more museum than library which meant that there were lots of videos, photos, descriptions and quotes but little detail about his day to day activity while president. For comparison, the Clinton library has the official diary available for every day of his presidency whereas the LBJ library just had general descriptions of his goals and many achievements while in office.

The Great Hall of the library is a five story reception space with a mural on it’s level and, above it, the glass enclosed records floors which hold more than 45 million pages of documents.

A closer view of the mural.

Despite championing civil rights, voting rights, education, medical care for the old and poor, environment and space exploration, and achieving landmark advances in all those areas, he was haunted by the Vietnam War. He chose not to run for a second term, in part, because he hoped that he may be able to more effectively contribute to ending the war if he were not the president.

All the Presidential Libraries have a replica of the Oval Office during the administration.

Because of the general nature of the LBJ library my visit was only a little over an hour and, after seeing the uplifting achievements of LBJ, I hesitated to move on to the Texas State Capitol Building where current legislators and the administration are engaged in restricting women’s and voting rights. However, I like to visit state capitols as well.

This is an impressive building that, at the time of its construction, was the tallest capitol in the country (this is Texas) but has no ostentatious features, such as the gold covered domes seen elsewhere. I did not join a free guided tour as the groups were large and there was no requirement for members to wear masks so, again, the experience was pleasant but shorter than I expected.

The Texas Capitol is constructed from pink granite and was finished in 1888.

There was a senate committee hearing in session but, at the time I was there, they were in recess.

The house was not in session.

My final stop was at the southern end of Rainey Street which is one of the hot spots for Austin’s famed music night life and also convenient for the Lady Bird Hike and Bike Trail. This trail runs along the Colorado River (no, not the one you are thinking of, but a wholly in-Texas river of the same name) and provides good views of the downtown area. Unfortunately, when I was some two miles along the trail, it started drizzling so I checked my weather app to find rain was predicted in 10 minutes. Luckily, it did not materialize that quickly and I was able to spend a little time checking out Rainey Street in the dry.

Downtown Austin as seen on a dismal day from the Pfugler pedestrian bridge over the Colorado river.

A few seconds of the activity on Rainey Street at 2:15 in the afternoon.