San Marcos

I've always come home for a visit in early spring, when it's cool and damp. This year, now that I'm working online, I have more freedom in when and how long to visit! I came for Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, but this June was the first time for me to be back in Texas for the summer.

Summer in Texas is fun! I had forgotten what it's like.

Last week, my buddy James and I decided to take a day trip to go tubing on the San Marcos River.

time for kolaches!

We left Dallas early, and started off down I-35. We stopped in West for a kolache from the famous Czech Stop. I mean, you can't just drive directly through West without stopping!

the San Marcos River

Shortly after that, we made another quick stop in Waco for a coffee at Common Grounds before continuing on the way to San Marcos, which is just outside of Austin.

the water was clear, clean, and cold

After renting tubes from the Lion's Club, we took a few minutes struggling to tie our floating cooler and our inner tubes together, then began floating down the icy cold but crystal clear slow-moving San Marcos River.

trying to point ourselves the right direction

It's summer, which means that Texas State is closed for the season. Most of the college students were gone, and it was kind of quiet on the river! There were some families and a few groups of friends floating the river, but it wasn't crowded at all. At times, it felt like we were the only ones out on the water. The water was also really cold, so that definitely helped keep the crowds away too!

tubing down the river

We had picked up a beer at the HEB in San Marcos, the brand-new Shiner Cerveza de Verano, a Mexican-style lager brewed by Texas' most popular local brewery. You have to enjoy a cold beer while floating on the river!

enjoying the day

The section of the river that is best for tubing is fairly short; it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to float from the entry point at the Lion's Club to the exit point, where a shuttle bus waits to take tubers back to the front. Once you rent a tube, it's yours for the day. We ended up floating the river twice.

It was a great day, but it did start raining on us for a while in the afternoon.

it started raining...

After that, we really did have the river to ourselves!

very comfortable!