George H. W. Bush Library

Situation Room at George Bush Library

We headed east from Austin to reach College Station, Texas and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. George served as a pilot in World War II, was shot down, and rescued at sea. He came home to marry Barbara, and moved to Texas, where he eventually founded a petroleum company and made his fortune. His father had been a congressman, so he tried his hand there. Failing a Senate bid, he ran 2 years later for a congressional seat. He would again try for a Senate seat and lose in a close election. President Nixon asked him to become the Republican National Committee chair, just after Nixon's second election and the Watergate affair. He would later become Ambassador to China, the U.N. and was head of the CIA for a year. He ran for President in 1980, but Reagan won the nomination and then asked him to become Vice-President. He finally won the Presidency in 1988. But with a Congress led by the Democrats, he didn’t actually get much legislation passed. His big moment was Desert Storm, after Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait. He did get the U.N. to apply sanctions and then ratify a multinational force to free Kuwait. Of course, this became the shortest war in American History. The museum had a great multimedia presentation on the war, giving you the feel of a soldier in the war. The rest of the museum tended to emphasize the importance of family in his life, his long marriage to Barbara, and the success of his sons in politics.

Desert Storm Simulation

We headed for our campsite in Huntsville State Park, but the GPS system sent us in the wrong direction. The weather is quickly worsening, so we happened upon a camp resort next to a lake and found a campsite just before the lightning storm began. We managed to get set up just in time before it began pouring. It may be a long night.