Adventure Monday #9 - Tubing the Comal

Well, that was an adventure alright. It's been years since I've tubed a Central Texas river. What I remember are slow-moving, bottom-dragging, lazy floats, where the biggest recreational activity was beer-drinking. Parts of the Comal are just so, but not all, as we learned today.





We tied our 6 tubes in a nice, big circle and headed out, lazily enjoying the ride. About a half hour into our trip, we noticed signs overhead directing non-swimmers to exit and walk. We're swimmers and the kids were in life jackets, so we trudged on. As we neared the chute, the two lifeguards stood up, watching us anxiously. Our tube configuration, though awesome, wasn't quite wide enough to get us through the narrow chute. The swift waters squeezed us together, causing Ben and his friend Rip's tubes to smoosh together on their sides, with both boys holding on for dear life. Seriously! I had my arm stretched out to hold Ben in as we shot through like a rocket. We cheered and laughed when it was over, thinking we'd survived the most eventful part of the river.

And then we saw more signs. And more lifeguards, this time four of them, who stood up on alert as soon as they saw us. We braced ourselves (for a waterfall this time) and managed to go over at the exact worst spot. My friend Traci and I were tossed from our tubes while our three children miraculously stayed afloat and continued down the river without us. We swam like mad and caught up with the kiddos, who laughed at us and cheered about how awesome it was. Thanks boys.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was uneventful. We floated for another hour or so without incident and the buddies declared it the best Adventure Monday ever.