Floating the River or Getting Lost in the Back Country

The camping crew got together and decided to go on another trip, this time to float the river in New Braunfels. All was going well – until about hour three, when I realized that Google Maps is not all knowing, after all. I think I nearly lost it after driving down back roads for an hour with everyone thinking, “Where the heck are we!?” but politely not saying anything – and then we hit a gate saying private property. I was close to being apoplectic, mixed with the guilt of dragging everyone around like one big lost caravan. We finally found our way to the raft place, thank goodness.

So in to the river we went! And there we stayed, because there was absolutely no current. We even had to pick up our tubes and walk at some points. In one picture you can see me holding up my sandals up – I used them as paddles to get around. I still had a good time, because we went there to hang out with one another, and we still did that – we had a lot of time to do that, with us moving about 20 feet every 30 minutes for a while. The only problem was due to our slow speed, we were easy targets for small children. At one point, said small children had water guns, and were attempting to hit passersby. I heard some encouraging coaching from a parent – “Aim higher!” – right before getting sprayed with a water cannon. Ah, the Hope For Tomorrow.

Out of the river, we piled back in to the cars and attempted to find our hotel – or motel, as it turned out. By the time we booked, there were only 2 hotels left with three rooms available. Upon arriving, I was informed that one of our rooms had flooded, and they had no vacancies. Great. So we went schlepping around, trying to find some solution – in the end we just got a room at the La Quinta next door, instead. After meeting back up with the boys, we were informed that their room smelled like rotten melon – at this point I just had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Forsaking our rooms, we headed out to the Grist Mill for dinner – along with the entire population of Greene. For the next three hours while we waited for a table, we played football, walked through the shops, and stared at the magic chalkboard that was for people who were about to get tables, waiting for our name to pop up in vain. Right as I thought I might have to rob a waiter passing by, the Glorious Moment occurred. Finally seated, we got our dinner around 10:30. It was a beautifully designed restaurant, and I encourage everyone to go eat there – just try to pick a less busy time, such as 3 am or Christmas Day. Everyone was exhausted, so we retired to our hotel rooms to sleep – or in Rachel and Amanda’s case, to cuddle on their tiny cot. They we good sports about the whole thing. In the morning we headed home, and I got my country music lesson, as they tried to teach me to recognize various artists. It was definitely an act of futility.