tubing the river

as the summer approaches its end and the kids have returned to school, there was still some unfinished business to attend to - tubing the san marcos river! of course, the only part watson was really interested in was going down the "tube chutes". i have had some bad experiences in the past with the falls - everything from falling out of my tube, losing my sunglasses and shoes, scraping my butt on the bottom of the graveling river bottom [not a pleasant feeling] and generally getting bumped and tossed up against rocks such as to awaken the next day bruised and very sore. so when i had to live up to my promise to take watson tubing, i employed some help - his dad, who by the way, is a much stronger and better swimmer than me. we showed up late on sunday afternoon, not evening getting into the water until close to 5:45, the temperature was still in the 90's but the angle of the sun and the many trees along the banks ensured that no on was sunburned. thanks to our friends paul and jenn, we had a life jacket and tube with a bottom to put the boy in. ken and i relaxed and watched the wildlife, just as it is, as we gently drifted down the river - watson of course was inpatient and kept asking when we would get to the chutes. i had made the mistake of saying that perhaps it would be better just to go down chutes 2 and 3, but watson would not hear of it! 1, 2, and 3 he insisted so i made his dad take him as i held on to the shoes and watched safely from the bank. the only thing is, there is no easy way out of the river once you go down the 3 little falls - i fell trying to help pull watson out of the river. the first "run" went just fine, i saw them go down, hearing watson yell with both fear and delight! the second run, well, watson flew out of the tube, went under the whitewater but thanks to the life jacket, popped up in a flash. a young boy who knew watson and had watched him fall out quickly dived into the water from his perch near the falls. luckily, ken was able to grab both boy and tube. i'm sure we will go again but its a workout and definitely not something watson and i could have done alone, thanks to his dad for making the trip possible.