Whilst our return flights were booked we hadn’t decided where we’d go after Corpus Christi prior to arriving in Texas. However, Anna had done some research in Austin and Fredericksburg in the Hill Country had come up as a great destination. Hill Country is the name for the area above Austin where the flatlands finish and rolling hills take over. After the fearful city centre concrete motorways the reversion to an A road that had bends, traffic lights and the odd brow of a hill had appeal. 

Anna had also knocked it out of the park with a terrific Airbnb near the centre of the town. From the point of view of design and appointment it was the finest we’ve ever stayed in.

On our first night we wandered up the Main Street; I liked the signage and cars we saw.

On our walk we discovered two things. The first was that the town had a German heritage from its earliest settlers (Native Americans to one side who’d been there centuries, obvs.) in 1846. The second was that the town was the birth place of Admiral Nimitz. He went onto be Commander In Chief of the Pacific War effort after the USA was dragged into WW2 after Pearl Harbor.

The town was quite an upmarket settlement with a thick veneer of affluence. Not all this was positive as when I got talking to a bike shop owner she lamented getting staff who could afford to live in the area was difficult. This seems a common problem in parts of England as well. Anna quite fancied sitting and relaxing but I always have the view that we’ve come a long way and we should get out and about. So the Pacific War Museum was visited, err… by myself! I had no idea there was a museum before we came but it seems their illustrious son, Nimitz, had led to a museum being sited here. It was like a tardis where from the Main Street a relatively small building didn’t reveal that in fact there was a massive museum with exhibits including a mini submarine, several aeroplanes and a boat etc. that illustrated the Pacific campaign against the Japanese. 

The graphics also told a comprehensive story of the rise of Japanese hegemony  in the region and the strains in the area from earlier centuries between China, Korea and Japan that led to the Japanese expansionist ambitions. I never quite appreciated that Roosevelt made the choice to put military resource into Europe first to defeat the Nazis before turning to the Pacific with the resources that eventually won the war.

Anyway three hours later I emerged a wiser man. When Anna did, herself the next day, deign to continue her education we found a Pioneer Museum that told the story of German migration, starting in 1846, to this part of Texas. The German language was still spoken here until the mid 20th Century but what seems to remain now are the restaurants, museums, surnames and an immense pride. Particularly interesting was that two of the volunteers at the museums were of German immigrant ancestry and rabbited away under questioning. I think if you’ve spent time with white Americans their European heritage is important to them for their identity (and tourism in Europe!) This is probably less so for other American ethnic groups. 

Frankly on our long drive around the State we saw few African Americans. Latinos were in great numbers in the large urban areas but in places like Fredericksburg you might only see Latinos working in construction or gardening. Other ethnicities in the State, whether, say, Asian or Chinese, were as common as blokes from Acaster Malbis. 

Lastly, always be suspicious of a country song. There’s a very pre-eminent artist called Miranda Lambert. Her last LP was called Postcards from Texas. I already had the album download but managed to buy the vinyl for $8 in San Antonio. A complete steal. It has a track on it called Looking Back on Luckenbach. Well blow me if that wasn’t a small town near Fredericksburg. Interested to see the town that spawned the song we saddled up and headed out to look around. We drove along a country lane and somehow missed the town despite earlier signage? Ultimately we came across about six elderly wooden buildings and a field that turned out to be a music venue where minor or aspiring country artists might appear on a low stage. Crushed we headed back to Fredericksburg with a story if not a visited landmark.