Hi Ann, thanks for asking! Yes, we did go... although, at first it seemed that circumstances were against us making the trip. Donald had lots of customers call him the morning that we were supposed to leave, and due to the nature of his business, it was imperative that he stay and work part of the day. I also needed to finish wrapping some gifts, as we stayed in N.B. until Christmas Eve. We also had trouble with the trailer lights on our new (old but new to us) travel trailer, just prior to leaving.
Soooo, it was very late when we arrived in N.B., and we were both happy to just stay at the hotel and sleep most of the first day (!) Exhaustion had gotten the better of us, so we had a nice day of rest before going out to a nice dinner in S.M. at Outback, then some shopping in the outlet mall. Our son-in-law teased us about sleeping while on vacation, but we wouldn't have rested like that at home and we really needed it.
Second day, we got up to a beautiful, sunny day, loaded up the gear and headed to the river. We had a picnic lunch in Landa Park, then went to the Prince Solms Park and geared up by the car, after I put some towels and jackets down on a picnic table at the exit point.
Walked down the ramp to the river and we enjoyed a great little drift dive, swimming back up, against the current in places so we could drift back down longer. We would find a particularly large group of fish in an area, and would swim back against the current, which is not a frightening current at all, but an extremely pleasant cruise along the river. The Comal is so shallow (I logged 16', but I thought it was only 15'), you could stay almost forever and enjoy the fun. Visibility was awesome, around 20'. We had the river to ourselves, so there was no siltage unless we unwedged a pair of sunglasses or other such treasure.
After a nice long surface interval, during which we met a nice couple who were fishing with their daughter. They had moved from Las Vegas to N.B. and were loving it there. We hung out with them after our second dive, too, and they want us to come stay with them some time in the future. Nice couple, we're hoping yall will meet them some time, after we convince them that diving is awesome.
The dives were full of life, lots of bass, perch and even some Texas cichlids. (Not angelfish, Archman.
) We even saw this huge plecostemous, he was at least 2 ft long. That was cool. We saw another that was around 1 ft.
It was such a nice day, that I never really felt cold until it started getting dark, after we loaded the gear and were ready to leave. We had BBQ at Rudy's- very nice people, those... gave me a free stuffed baked potato, just for admiring one! Made complete hogs out of ourselves, there. We had planned to go party that night, but- we felt kinda old when we opted to stay in, instead. But, I was ready for my bed!
The next morning was Christmas Eve, and we stopped for a few gift cards on the way to Tyler, to Christmas at my sisters. Tyler is my hometown, so it always feels like going home. We had a great time, with my kids and their families coming also.
I hope you all had as nice a time as I did over the holidays, this year. We have had a verrrrrry stressful 2005, and it was nice to end it in such a peaceful way. Although, I will ask for those of you who want to, to pray for my son in law (married to my oldest daughter- he is a diver.) He is sick, and we are waiting for test results now, hoping and praying for the best.
