I live about ten minutes from the San Marcos River which is just South of Kyle Texas. Sometimes I'll finish work early and hop in the car for a quick swim in the clear and swift current which is also great exercise for me.
In this video we started at the Saltgrass Restaurant about one mile from the rapids where we decided to have some dinner and relax. Eve had just bought me an underwater housing the week before... so I told her to order her drink and relax a bit while I took a quick swim to test out the rig in the river.
After the swim I went to the parking lot, changed into a dry shirt and shoes... and went back for a great meal. I'm sure I'll be making more videos of the river as it is one of my favorite places to go.
If you get to visit the river please notice the wild rice grass flowing gracefully... it is endangered as this is the only place where it grows. It needs a steady, clear, constant temperature year round which the river provides. The river is between 68 to 70 degrees all year... people even swim here in the winter.
It was another hot June day here in the Austin area and we had a meeting downtown about 10:00, so we brought along our bathing suits "just in case" we decided to go for a swim. After the meeting we stopped by the local Goodwill to get some glassware and other odds-&-ends. Afterward we headed for Barton Springs Road between Congress and First Street where there is a really good snow-cone place. They also had some Sushi, Cajun, and Mexican food there, so we got a byte to eat, a nice cold snow-cone, and headed further down the road to Barton Springs.
Eve leisurely floated in the stream while I was busy playing with my new underwater housing for my camera. (A birthday present from Eve.) I met some guys who were moving rocks around and building a dam... so I joined in as I had the same idea last time when I was at the creek.
It's amazing what 20 guys, four hours, and 4000 rocks can do...
All in all... it was a lot of work, a great deal of fun, and it looks like it made a bunch of people happy. I'd love to go back and find out that others have added to the little dam and made it bigger and stronger. I wonder if it will be there next time... or if people and the currents will tear it down. I suppose I'll have to wait and see!
It's already June 15th for another half hour at least... and I still haven't posted about my birthday yet. This year was the BIG 50 for me... and it was bittersweet. I found out my divorce went through on my birthday... which means that all the effort I put in over the last decade with Carol (wife number 2) was for naught... all washed away with only rubble left behind. (Not something I wanted to dwell on during my "big day" you can imagine.)
On the other hand, I'm with Eve now, and things are at last starting to look up a bit... she passed her nursing exam... a real hard one too... she has been studying for months. This means that she now has her Texas license and can start to look for work... it also means that I'll be able to start catching up on the last of the debt acquired while with Carol... and hopefully be able to at long last have a happy life.
Eve really cares about me... and she wanted to do something special so she decided to take me to Port Aransis on the Gulf of Mexico (before BP screws that up too) for some swimming and fun. She also got me an underwater housing for my camera... which is WAY-KOOL because I can take pictures on the beach and under water now.
We made the 3 plus hour drive there... not bad really... and were able to park right on the beach. I used to go to the beach in Pensacola with Terryann (wife number 1) but we always had to park what seemed a mile from the beach. This was right there... I mean really... on the sand... walk into the water. It was great. There was a big pile of seaweed on the beach... about 6 inches deep... and there was plenty of it in the water as well. But it didn't really bother me... with all that "stuff" in the water there were no jellyfish, and it was not what sharks would swim in because it would likely clog up their gills. So for me... perfect.
The water was pretty wavy too... not huge "knock you down" waves... but about 3 foot so they packed a nice enough punch to go along on a boogie-board. (We ended up getting two... Eve bought them for us.) We spent a couple of hours in the surf... then went out shopping for an umbrella and the boogie boards... then went back in for another two or three hours. It was an all day affair... we got to Olive Garden about 10:00 and had a late dinner. (Not so good for my diet... oh well.)
After dinner we went home and pretty much wound down and headed for bed. All in all... I would call it a pretty good day.
