The Birthday on the River Comal

I wanted to do something special for my thirtieth birthday this year, which is no small feat in itself as my luck with planning birthday parties has always gone awry in some fashion.

It was also that much more difficult that I now have two cities that I call home: the current home of San Antonio, and my home town of Houston. It appears that I may also be turning Austin into my “weekend home” as of lately, but that’s a whole other story.

Despite all odds against us–and that includes some of the worst weather in Texas in the past twenty years–fate and good fortune were to shine upon us that day.

The picture above is from the invitation/website I made announcing the party back in July, a play on the classic movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” The main objective of the party was to float down the beautiful Comal River in New Braunfels, TX, halfway between Austin and San Antonio.

The original destination was the Guadalupe River, but the Monday before the party Lake Canyon, the lake which the river empties into, had reached dangerous levels and needed some of the water pumped out. This also requires that they shut down any river sports for the next 10 days, because of the dangerous speed the river travels during the process. Luckily for us, the Comal river was still open and it’s located less than a mile away and not connected to the lake at all.

There were both repeat tubers and plenty of first timers in the party on the Comal that day. We linked up tubes and passed many beers and stories around. Old friends got reacquainted and many new friends were made. By the end of the trip, none of us wanted it to end and briefly considered going around again. Some just wanted to go back through the Tube Shoot.

Some parted ways while the rest of us reunited later that night in Austin for a few drinks, just to finish the day off right. By far it was the best birthday I’ve ever had, and it couldn’t have worked out any better.