A Day in Johnson City

The day was not an especially nice weather day, as it was cloudy and seemed like it could rain or mist, but it did not.
Johnson City is on the way from Austin to parts unknown, and seems to try to get to be like Fredricksburg, but it probably won't make it.
The area is where President Johnson grew up, his family had a large ranch here and thus the name of Johnson City was hung on it many years ago.
First stop, of course was lunch.  A search of the web showed that the Country Cupboard was a popular spot, and it is located right at the intersection of westbound US290 and US 281.  We did not know it at the time, but on Friday, the catfish lunch is their highlight.  We luckily chose that.  Good fish, hush puppies, French fries and coleslaw.
We drove westward to the old part of town, where the county courthouse is located.  Now, Blanco County likes to confuse folks as it has two county courthouses, one in Blanco, and this one in Johnson City.  Both are equally stalwart and look the part of old Texas Courthouses.  But the county seat is here and the Blanco courthouse is for posterity as the county seat was moved more than a hundred years ago.
In the courthouse lobby we chatted with two older gents about the history. Both seemed to be here for some role in a court case being held on the second floor.  Both looked the part of small town lawyer and rancher.  The lobby had a Christmas tree decorated with hand made ornaments.  Here is a picture of it:

On the far left of the photo is an old telephone switch board on display.

From here, we walked a short distance to a coffee shop.  We went past three men who were chatting to the front door and found it locked even though it was supposed to be open.  One of the men asked if we were interested in coffee and we said yes.  He then said " well, if you wait a minute I will finish my conversation and let you in".   His version of modern customer care.

Inside, we got our coffee and looked at the scenery across from the coffee shop.  It was once a feed mill, with metal buildings and silos, then it was a shopping mall, now it is a non-profit science mill where people can pay an admission and marvel at all the scientific applications.  Probably a good thing that it is a non-profit.

We then walked across the street to a mid century antique store.  Because all our home furnishings are mid century, it looked just like home.  But they did have a lot of interesting stuff, but somewhat overpriced.

Then to the library and their used book sale.  Apparently many had visited the used book sale before us.  Its a small but well organized library, not part of the county government.  Bought three paperback books, all were free with an instruction not to bring any back to the library.

Travelling home, we took the main road to the east out of Johnson City and as we were flying past Yeager Creek Road to the south, we noted on the map that it would be an interesting road to the south.  It was remote, high country.  We then jogged to the west and caught Middle Creek Road down to the road out of Blanco.  From there, we knew our way to the Blue Barn where we stopped and chatted with Arlis, who is running the Blue Barn Sales of vegetables and flowers grown right there on site.  We have known Arlis and the Blue Barn for some years.

From there, we knew our way home.