River Rats

Two weekends ago Mark and I went with my Dad, stepmom, Uncle Stephen and several of his friends to New Braunfels to float the Guadalupe. We left on Friday morning after rigorous negotiations with the realtor over our new house (more info later) and arrived at our hotel slightly after 3 pm. The original plan was to go to Schlitterbahn, but that didn't pan out as most of our party was running late.

So we later decided to hang out and chill on the patio. The hotel we stayed at overlooks the Comal River, which is apparently a shorter ride than the Guadalupe. It was nice to sit and watch the river go by, though. I never cease to be amazed at how unbelievably clear the water in Central Texas is. I miss it.

Later that night, after everyone had gotten there and settled into their hotel rooms, we went to Gruene to eat at the Gristmill and visit Gruene Hall, which is reported to be the oldest dance hall in Texas. The wait at the Gristmill was an hour, but we passed the time by drinking margaritas as listening to some guy play guitar in an outdoor waiting area while hostesses milled about, frantically writing names on a chalkboard and shuttling people in and out of the waiting area.

Dinner was, as expected, interesting. Of course with Dad and Stephen, one cannot expect it to be boring. Stephen even introduced my dad to his friend Josh as Henry, also known as "bitch". You can infer from the comment how the rest of the night went. Mark had a 'wurst burger and I had a grist burger, which is their basic hamburger smothered in queso. Both were exceptionally good.

After dinner we shuffled over to Gruene Hall, which is in the same outdoor complex as the restaurant, where Zona Jones and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash were playing. Now, I'm not much of a country music fan, but I did appreciate most of the music and even danced a few times with my dad. I couldn't, however, get Mark to dance. The atmosphere was nice despite the heat (it wasn't air conditioned but boasted several large fans). We stayed there for several hours and drove back to our hotel, whereupon Stephen, Dad, and several others went swimming in the river at about 1 am. I crashed.

And now for the river. We got out on the river sometime between 10 and 11 am. The day started out with confusion caused by someone getting one too many extra tubes for coolers. Somehow, we ended up with four extras despite having only three coolers. It ended up for the best, however, as one of our party members lost their tube on the second set of rapids.

And so we set out on our six hour adventure trip down the river. The river was pretty low, only flowing at 200 cubic feet per minute (anything below 100 results in river closure) so the trip ended up taking longer despite our best efforts to paddle a good part of the way. In some places, we were even pushed backward by vengeful wind gusts coupled with nearly stagnant water. The pileups that resulted were horrendous. It was a good thing I was in a good mood, or I would have been quite agitated at being so close to so many strange people. The trip was mostly nice and calm with few mishaps.

There is one particularly unfortunate incident that occurred as the result of inebriation. Toward the end of the river Mark went down a group of rapids rather drunk and ended up rolling down the rocks and coming out at the other end sans (400 dollar) sunglasses. He was quite upset. I was just glad he was okay. I tried somewhat desperately to pull him along with me so that he wouldn't drown, but succeeded only in tumbling into the river myself. I now have a large and painful bruise on my ass from literally bouncing down the river.

In any case, we finished the excursion with only a few minor scrapes and bruises and no one drowning. I am still blistered from the sunburn. Go me for being stupid and wearing a two-piece despite the fact that I am too fat.