I forgot to eat my black-eyed peas for luck on New Year's day. (This is apparently a custom in the southeastern US, and since I grew up in Houston, which is in many ways more akin to the Old South than the rest of Texas, I have always observed this rite. Until this year, that is.)
We were at Canyon Lake for the weekend, eating too much non-pea food, hosting friends, and shooting off the kind of fireworks that are not legal inside the San Antonio city limits but that Henry is quite fond of.
I also had a very nice walk around our CL neighborhood on New Year's Eve; here's one of the nice views I snapped while strolling:
Doesn't that look nice and peaceful?
However, since I usually don't think about the peas until NYE at the earliest, it never occurred to me to put a can in with the stuff we took to the lake on NYEE. (Plus, I don't even have any cans of peas on hand; I've been lately transitioning away, pretty successfully, from canned veggies and soups to the fresh and homemade variety.)
Anyway, this is all a round-about way of expressing my concerns about luck in the upcoming year, due to the lack of peas in our diet on the appropriate day.
However, we did go paddling on NYD (this has been a tradition among our paddling friends), and the lovely feature where we stopped for lunch is shown at the top of the post: Horseshoe Falls. Most of us, myself included, not at all surprisingly, portaged this rather tricky falls, but Henry went over it as smooth as silk:
So I'm holding out hope that this will suffice for our family's luck guarantee for 2017.
It was a beautiful day for a paddle, not nearly as cold as we had been fearing. And the scenery was terrific. We were on the lower Guadalupe, below Canyon Dam (we can't go here in the summer because the river's choked with toobers), and the banks here are much more developed.
But there are some stretches where the topography ensures a more wilderness-like experience:
And the river itself is just as beautiful here as upstream:
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| Horseshoe Falls side channels |
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| the Falls from almost rock-level |
8 comments:
I too eat mostly fresh or frozen foods these days but love Kuners canned black eyed peas and snaps. I ate plenty for all of us on new year's day. And you covered the horseshoe angle! Let's be optimistic about 2017. And you are quite lucky to have year round paddling recreation within such easy reach!
Yes, we are. Although we are NOT paddling today; it got down to the low 20's last night, which is VERY cold for us.
Carol cooked ours with some ham scraps saved for the purpose, and they were delicious. Paddling here would require ice skates and parkas. It is 9 degrees below 0 at 9 am with the sun shining brightly.
Whoa! That's cold!
So glad you were back to the New Year's Day Paddle Section. I always portaged too. I remember one year when the weather was almost balmy and we toasted with champagne.
Your cold weather attacked us last night and I'm not leaving the house.
The Jerries brought champagne! I meant to mention that in the post. I'm venturing out for a walk, since it's warmed up a little bit.
We, too, forgot our black eyes, and I even had a nice piece of ham I had also saved...hoping 2017 brings you and yours good health and happiness. One day we hope to join you on one of your paddling adventures!
Best wishes back at you! See you next week!
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