Saturday, July 30, 2005

Yakkin' the South Llano near Junction, TX

Bring your own tube!

If you don't bring your own tubes, stop at Peacemaker River Adventures before you get to the park on 377 south of Junction. He's got better tubes (ones with net bottoms in them, and back rests!) than you'll find down near the park. The park has tubes, but they go quickly, and Pecan provision company or whatever it is called, south of the park's turn-off, they have tubes, but a limited supply of good ones.

Anyway, our bright idea was to lash a big river tube to the rear of our kayaks, and then put a little kid in the tube to see what would happen.


I'm still wondering if this is a good idea.


My kayak/tubing partner, Emily's buddy Madison.

The South Llano is a really pretty river by West Texas standards. It is spring fed, so it is infinitely clearer than mountain fed rivers and tributaries, like the Colorado, for example, or our own Concho near San Angelo. Sure, the South Llano still caries more sediment than, say, the Silver River, near Ocala, Florida, but all and all it is about a seven on a scale of ten for clarity.

To show you how good these Intec River Run tubes we rented ($7 for a day) are, here's a pic of Emily standing on the netting in the bottom of the tube. Hey! That's stable!


I know this is probably not a good idea...


The girls jump in the clear water for a midday swim. They're like Labrador Retrievers, if there is some water around, they have to jump in!


Since the photog never makes the blog, I thought it was time for a self-(effacing) portrait...Hello world!

The town of Junction, on interstate 10, is west of Kerrville, but has Texas Hill Country bonafides. My prediction is that people fleeing the growth in Kerrville will move to Junction. Right now, Junction is fairly untouched, although I'm sure millions of people a year drive right by it on IH-10. Junction is prime for development. It is situated about 100 miles west of San Antionio, and about 100 miles south of San Angelo. Here's a couple of shots:


How could any good Texan pass up doing business at this theater?


The Issack restaraunt in Junction. Fortunately for its customers, it is air-conditioned! That gives you a guess at the vintage. In Angelo, our Texas cinema is not air-conditioned, but refrigerated! That gives you an idea of its vintage!

Of course, most establishments today are air-conditioned, so you don't have to advertise it anymore. Since I'm such an old-stuff junkie, I keep my eyes peeled for those words, "air-conditioned". That means I'm on to something old!

Cheers until next time!

Mark

1 Comments:

Blogger Paul said...

Hi Mark,

Thanks for stopping by Hill Country Thoughts.

Visiting your blog has brought back a lot of memories. Lived in Junction, Texas for nearly 30 years and have been here in Kennesaw, Georgia since last Christmas.

I love the pictures, especially the ones of the South Llano River and my favorite resturant, Issacs. A lot of my writing was done there over a cup of coffee and some frie's. Next time your there tell eveyone Paul said howdy from Ga!

My family loves kayacking, tubing and have spent a lot of time on the North and South Llano.

Blessings and again thanks for blogging by. With your permission I would like to add ya to my favorite reads.

Have a super week,

Paul

5:43 AM  

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