Maiden voyage on a crowded sea

Well, it wasn't exactly a sea, but it definitely was crowded!

At the bottom of this post you will see the giant raft that we took our road trip to Tennessee to retrieve. Aching to get it into the water, we chose Father's Day in San Marcos, riding through Rio Vista Park, which would be crowded enough on a normal Sunday. But this week it was especially packed since the popular tubing river in New Braunfels was still closed for cleaning up from a terrible, localized flood they had there a couple of weeks ago.

I'm sure the toobers that saw our behemoth bearing down on them, once we got it launched, thought they'd wandered into the north Atlantic and come face to face with the Bismarck. Fortunately, we didn't run anyone over, at least no one that we know about...

Henry was quite pleased with the craft's performance on the three chute-like rapids that are the main features of the park, and the kids, who accompanied us on the maiden voyage, were pleased that there was still plenty of room for a cooler of adult beverages that aided in our enjoyment of the afternoon. [Beer snobs that they are, we did have to suffer some distress at the quality of the beverages that we were allowed to have with us, given the city's no-glass policy on the river. They accept the reasons for the policy, but that doesn't mean they can't complain about it.]

Here are the merry paddlers, snapped during a lull in the excitement:

Carey, in stylish bandana and shades...

Hal, somewhat sarcastically, enjoying his adult beverage...

Sally with the water cannon that was soon to be discovered to be non-functional...

... and our bold captain in the stern, trying to live down his Ahab reputation.

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My posts will be few and hopefully not too far between for the few weeks as I make plans for, and undertake, yet another epic road trip. This one I'll be making with my sister, as we drive up to Colorado, where I'll be spending a couple of weeks in the mountains, far away from hot, muggy, south Texas. But unfortunately without easy internet connectivity. I'll try to post as often as I can, though, amid my relaxed enjoyment of the Rockies.