River Floating Done Right

Two weekends ago, Natalie and David came into town to visit. A lot of Natalie's high school friends were in town too. So Friday night, when they got into town, we went to Trudy's for dinner with all of them. Then just us three broke away for a bit to go to Emily's husband's band's (Haunting Oboe Music is their name) show at Emo's. It was also Emily's birthday and a lot of people made it out for that. It was one of their best shows I think I've ever seen!



After the show was over, we pedi-cabbed our way to West Sixth Street to meet back up with the rest of the Dallas group.





The next day we had plans to float the river with the entire group from Dallas. They do their river trips up big, that's for sure! They got a bus from Rockin' Rides in Austin to take us. They picked us up at the Hilton in Austin at 10am and took us down to the Rockin' R in Gruene, Texas. Of course, we drank the entire trip there and back.

Here's Tara and David on the bus.



When we got there we realized the portion of the Guadalupe River we were floating has restrictions (like how big your cooler can be). I have been aware of the restrictions since they came out. I have also always managed to avoid them by only floating the parts of the river that are outside of the city limits. Since I didn't know where we were being put out to float for this trip, I didn't know whether to plan for restrictions. So naturally, we show up and nobody has planned for the small coolers.

So immediately our group has to go and buy something like seven not-so-fairly priced coolers. Then not all of our old cooler items fit into the new coolers. So what got vetoed for the trip? The water, food and a lot of ice. No biggie, right?


That is until five minutes into the river trip I realize I didn't have enough water to drink that morning. I do have problems with getting dehydrated and I can feel when I am getting close. So for 30 minutes I tried to tough it out and see if it would go away by not drinking beer, talking or moving in general. But no such luck. Something about the human body just doesn't forget the essentials it needs.

After I conveyed my need for water to Natalie (who knows first hand I mean it when I say I need water) she sent David to get some from another group. He made a common trade (so funny how being on the river takes you back a few hundred years) of two beers for one water. Even with smaller coolers we had plenty of beer. We filled the trash bags with full beers too. I think we had bigger ambitions of drinking than what was possible. Anyways, it wasn't a big deal to make that trade. I slowly drank my water and felt the tingly arms and legs go away. It's amazing how fast I started to feel better!

But after that was worked out I had a great river float! No one nearly got into a fight on this river trip which is always a bonus. We did see a fawn drinking water on the edge of the river right next to us! I've never seen that before on the river.

There were other things that made me mad about the river restrictions and the lack of room for items other than beer. (And I know you might be thinking, why not pack less beer and more of those things. But lets be honest, most people aren't going to do that. Especially if they've paid extra to rent a bus so no one has to worry about driving home after drinking.) But by the end of the float I was starving and all of our ice had melted so we were left with warm beers. I get the point of the river restrictions (to not allow people to drink too much) but really, people are always going to find a way around that. And if it costs them getting to bring other things that would be good to have, then they will.

Of course the bus ride home was rather lively. Some people were worn-out from staying up late the night before, so they slept, but no so peacefully. The rest of us were partying full force! There were people singing over the intercom the entire time. Barely anyone stayed seated in their seats. It was a fun ride! (well for us, I am sure the bus driver HATED us)

Natalie, David and I went to a nice elegant dinner at Gattitown that evening. I sure do know how to show my guests the fanciest places in town. Haha...no, we weren't in any shape to be anywhere decent. And David wanted it pretty bad (not that I would argue with the decision). We took a nap when we got back to my apartment and then we got ready to go out again...for round three!


We went to The Madison on 5th. After such a long weekend it was hard to be too enthusiastic about being out again. But we did manage to have fun still! The entire weekend was a good one. I know because I couldn't move for pretty much the entire day Sunday (the sign of way too much fun)! I'd call it a successful river floating weekend!