Mason had a dentist appointment on Friday so I only worked half a day. We left later Friday afternoon after his appointment and made pretty good time! We detoured around Austin to miss all of the traffic in that area. Upon arrival, everything started looking really familiar. We soon realized we camped at this same park over 10+ years ago! It looks the exact same as it did back then and they've kept up with the grounds really well. On the way to our campsite, we started seeing a ton of vintage and teardrop style campers, which we love! It was so neat to look at all the different campers.
And our campsite:
We pretty much ditched the camper, turned on the AC and high-tailed it over to Gruene. We wanted to get to the Gristmill before it got too terribly crowded. The Gristmill and floating the river were the two highlights of our trip! If you've been around my blog for a minute you'd know that Gruene is one of my most favorite little towns in Texas! It's home of the famous Gruene Hall (oldest dancehall in Texas) and it's just a cute little picturesque Texas town right on the Guadalupe River. We made it to the Gristmill and it didn't look too promising as there were mounds of people walking in. But, much to our surprise, we were seated right away! No wait for the Gristmill on a Friday night? Score!
After supper, we grabbed a snowcone and headed back to our campgrounds. We were camping right on the San Marcos River so Nate and I walked over a couple of rows to check it out. It was pretty nice! There were people camped out in chairs just hanging out in the river. So cool that you can do that right from the campgrounds.
We hung out in the camper watching tv for the rest of the evening. We knew we wanted to get up early and on the river as soon as possible on Saturday! And that we did. We woke up around 8 am on Saturday morning, threw on our swimsuits and we were on our way to the Comal! But not before grabbing a little breakfast.
There are three rivers you can float in this area; the Guadalupe (which we've done tons of times), the San Marcos and the Comal. We chose the Comal because we read many reviews that it was kid-friendly and usually where families float. The Guadalupe is more for the drinking college-aged kids and the San Marcos River is a short float. This was Mason's very first river floating trip and we wanted it to be as mild and enjoyable as possible. We went through Texas Tubes and we are so glad we did! There are quite a few tubing companies to choose from, but I searched online and found this one to be promising. It had great reviews and looked fun! The people working there were so incredibly kind. And a complete bonus for me, their tubes were turquoise!! My favorite!
We put Mason on the river first with Nathan shortly behind him. Then the rest of us got in and we were on our way! This was the first time any of us had floated the Comal, so we didn't know what to expect. We did know there were a couple of chutes but didn't know how fun and adventurous they would be. It was like going down a waterslide. My tube was in the front, Nate was in the middle and Mason was in the back. We tried to stay together, but when we came out of the chute the current shot me clear across the river and the current pulled me in the opposite direction of Nate & Mase. There were about 10 of us that got shot in the opposite direction and away from our groups. There was no way of getting past that current without getting out of the water and walking down the river a bit. And that's what I had to do. I found Mason crying because he was so worried about me. Sweet boy! After that, we weren't split up anymore.
Mason had a complete blast his first floating trip! He especially loved getting off his tube and swimming in the river. Our only complaint was that the river trip was too short! We could have stayed on another 2 or so hours! It was so much fun.
After the river, we went back to the camper to get cleaned up for lunch. We knew that Lockhart, TX wasn't too far away and that we could knock a few things off our Texas bucket list by going there. We decided on Black's BBQ for lunch since Lockhart is the BBQ capital of Texas! It definitely did not disappoint. I had sausage and green beans and it was pretty dang good! Everyone enjoyed their meals and Mason claimed Black's to have the best mac and cheese he's ever had!
After supper, we went back to the RV resort to rest and relax! We were all completely exhausted from the heat and river trip! We watched TV and I fell asleep for a bit. It was glorious. Nate and Mason went to the pool for a bit, but didn't stay long because there were too many unsupervised splashing kids in the pool! We hung out until we all worked up another appetite and went for Mexican food back in Lockhart. It was pretty good! Then we went to check out Lockhart State Park. It was so quaint and nice! There were tons of walking trails and many that crossed rivers. We got out and explored a bit.
We are already ready for our next adventure!!
And for a short video:
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