Every summer for the past few years, James and I have gotten together with our friends Sara and Brandon (and usually various others) to go tubing down the Guadalupe or Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas. We always have a good time, but we decided we wanted a change of scenery this year, so we opted for the Frio River, which is a couple of hours west of where we usually go.
We saw this not too far into our trip down I-35:
Once we started getting closer, the landscape changed drastically. It was lots of green rolling hills that were practically the size of small mountains.
We even drove through Utopia, where we stopped for gas on the way back home.
I didn't take many pictures while we were there, unfortunately, because we spent most of our time in the water and my camera is not water-proof. We stayed at Garner State Park, which is by far the largest and busiest state park I've ever been too. When we arrived, we had to take a number to wait to check in, and the door going into the part of the building with the check-in counters would only unlock briefly to let the next person in.
I cannot even begin to describe how very, very hot it was. It was easily over 100 degrees, and we quickly made the decision to walk down to the river to get in the water. The river was a short walk from our campsite, and though the river was pretty shallow, we found a spot deep enough to sit down and have the water up to our chests. We stayed there until dark, when it had cooled down enough to no longer be sweltering. That night we had the typical hot dogs, with the special treat of James' rum punch and Jason's peach cobbler made in a dutch oven. The cobbler was so good it has convinced me that a cast iron dutch oven is a camping necessity, and I hope to get one before we go camping again.
The next day, we drove to the tube rental place and were surprised to see that it was pretty empty. It was very unlike New Braunfels, but we didn't think much about it and proceeded to pay for our tube rentals. An employee asked Sara if we were tubing and told her that the river was very, very low. I questioned the cashier about it, and she responded, "yeah, it's pretty low...we're actually not recommending tubing right now." Hmmm, wouldn't it have been better for her to tell us before some of us had paid? She refunded Jason and Jill, who had just paid, and we discussed what to do instead.
We decided to look for a place along the river where we could just hang out in the water, and we ended up finding the perfect spot at the second river crossing we came to. The water was deep enough at some parts where we couldn't touch bottom (though we could easily see it in the very clear water) and shallow enough closer to the shore where we could just sit in the water. We stayed there for several hours before deciding we were ready to go, partly because some of us were getting cold. As we clearly discovered upon arriving back at our campsite, we were delusional--it was still blistering hot out of the water, and I think we all immediately wished we hadn't left.
It didn't take long for us to all walk back down to the river near our campsite and reclaim the spot we'd occupied the night before. It was amazing to me how secluded this particular part of the river was. Aside from a father and son rearranging rocks, we couldn't see any other people from where we were sitting. The Guadalupe and Comal Rivers are usually so crowded that you can't help but be completely surrounded by people at all times. And by "people," I mean mostly drunk college students.
We went out to eat dinner that night at a little place called The Feed Lot in Leakey. It was about as glamourous as it sounds, but the chicken fried steak was very, very good. In fact, it had been featured in Texas Monthly at some point as we saw the article from it inside on the wall. The owner was an older guy wearing denim overalls who walked around and chatted with everyone.
This is probably a good place to mention that James and I have been eating a lot of beef lately. We still haven't cooked any meat (other than seafood/fish) at home this year, but I have been craving hamburgers constantly. Whataburger, specifically, and I blame it on commercials. I never thought I cared much for hamburgers, but I am clearly convinced that I was very, very wrong. I love hamburgers. On the way home the next day, we all stopped and had
Mighty Fine burgers for lunch in Round Rock. The burgers fit their description pretty well, I think. Check them out if you're ever in the area.
Here is a picture from our campsite of some sap that had seeped out of one of the trees. Kinda pretty, huh?
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