San Marcos & New Braunfels

It was still 105 degrees, but we only had 45 miles to ride down to the college town of San Marcos, home to Texas State (formally Southwest Texas State). We checked into the Days Inn and cooled off for a bit. We had been in contact with Jean and Gene, Brandt Wymond's folks. They are both art teachers at TSU and a trip. They came and picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the house. It was a very cool pad and we chatted it up for a while before heading downtown for dinner. We went to a nice little Italian place were you bring your own wine. Judah and I had to finish the whole bottle ourselves since Gene was driving. After the bottle our stories flowed a little easier than before dinner. After dinner they dropped us off and we caught the lastest episode of True Blood. With a short ride ahead of us, life was good.

We got up at our leisure and packed up to put in a long day in the saddle, a whole 20 miles. We rolled through Gruene, home to the oldest dancehall in Texas and on to New Braunfels. We were planning on spending a couple days here as we had some serious tubing to do on the Gaudalupe River, but we will get back to that in a second. New Braunfels is an old German settlement which still has a lot of German influence. We ended up at the Smokehouse and feasted on a fine selection of meats. Later that night we took a quick walk across the street to the Lone Star Saloon. As we arrived, lets just say not to much going on Monday night. But our luck was about to change. Two young ladies arrived and ordered a couple beers and burgers. However, the cook refused to make them their food. They had been on the river most of the day and may have been slightly overserved, needless to say they were a tad displeased Well, this little back and forth went on for a good 20 minutes and was our entertainment. We joined them for some beers. They were obiviously not 21, but it did seem to matter to the staff at the Lone Star. For us it was $1 High Life. The only thing was we had to get it oursevles from the fridge behind the bar and leave a dollar on the counter. Got to love the self-serve bar. The same cook also joined us for some beers out on the deck. The 5 of us chatted it up for a while. Obviously they were totally impressed by our feat. The cooks Dad ran the paper in town and he was going to try and get them to write an article about us. Judah gave him his number, but we never heard from him again.

The next day we were headed for the river. However, the tubing company was 2 miles away and we didn't want to have to leave the bikes out in a high traffic area. So we set out on a foot expedition, and expedition it was. As the crow flies, we could cut off about a half a mile. So we set out to ford the river and be there in now time. Before we got to the river crossing we were headed down the road to what looked like a school. As we got there we realized it was not a school, but a mental hospital, and the nutballs were all hanging out outside. We quickly made our way past. We got into a neighborhood and could see the river and the park on the other side. Only problem was we had to make a quick trespass through a backyard and decend at 15 foot slope/cliff into the river. We crossed the river which was about 1.5 feet deep and made our way to Rafter J's Toobs. Yes, that is really how they spell it.

One of my favorite songs has a line, "I like to spend my days, floatin' down the Gaudalupe River. With a cool case of Lone Star Beer, while my body shivers." I figured this would be similar to our experience. However, due to the serious drought in Texas meant the Gaudalupe was to low to float, which meant we had to settle for the Comal which runs through town. The river float right beside the "Greatest waterpark in the world" Schlitterbahn. The tubing run should have just been part of the water park. It was just like an amusement park ride, with shoots, screaming kids, a distinct sunblock aroma, and classy Texans. But it wasn't all bad, we had a few brews, took in the sights, and stayed cool. Really a day on the river is better than a day doing pretty much anything else.

We got back to the hotel and then went back to Lone Star's for the "2nd best hamburger in Texas" it was pretty damn good and fuel enough to get us to San Anotonio the next day.