Our first night in San Marcos, Randy and I went out to try barbecue at Black's, a famous Texas style barbecue joint in Lockhart. The barbecue was delicious, and we especially loved the beef ribs. We were hoping that the smoked brisket would make us say "AAAhh, this is what all the fuss is about" but I guess we are just not brisket lovers.
San Marcos is a sizable enough town, having a population of about 60,000 people. It has all the shopping and conveniences most Americans require, two huge outlet malls, and is the home of Texas State University. The downside is that the RV park where we are staying is along the banks of the San Marcos river. Why is that a downside you ask???? Well, the park flooded last Memorial Day, Halloween of last year, and guess what...it flooded this Halloween eve, too.
Of course, we didn't find out about all the flooding until we got here. Right before Ranman left for his assignments to the cold and frozen north, there was a close call with a weekend of rain. Luckily, the river never breached the banks and all was well. However, the following weekend (Halloween) more rain was expected and I didn't think much of it because in my mind, thunderstorms don't have much rain. Ha ha ha! I remember the rain starting very early in the morning on Friday the 30th, around 2 am and it didn't quit for several hours.
Once the sun came up, there was a lot of commotion outside. Someone was driving around in their car and honking the horn repeatedly. I didn't want to believe it was because of a flood warning, so I got dressed and walked the dogs. Many people were standing around outside, discussing the weather and wondering if it was premature to start thinking about evacuating. The rain finally stopped and the river hadn't crested the banks yet, so I thought everything was fine. A few minutes later, the fire department is walking around banging on everyone's door and telling us we needed to leave ASAP. There was flooding upstream from us and it was expected to happen to our park shortly.
An older couple that I talked to while walking the dogs sent a park employee over to help me get our rig ready to go. By the time he arrived, I already had everything packed up inside the trailer and was working on disconnecting our water and sewer lines. I told him that I have never towed the Airstream before and he gave me a 5 minute tutorial on towing and a "good luck". I was in shock and scared to death and I still didn't know what to do with Austin, my Mini Cooper. He suggested I drive it over to the office, but I didn't think that was far enough away from the river.
I noticed two women that were traveling together and I stopped to ask if either of them knew how to drive a manual transmission. Thankfully, they agreed to help me. I was able to drive the rig (Randy coached me over the telephone the whole way), Angie drove Austin, and Shirley drove their motorhome that was also towing a vehicle. We decided that the local Walmart was a safe destination and it was just a few miles down the road. Once we arrived, a local told us that the Blanco River we just crossed to get there, was close to breaching its banks. In other words, we would be flooded in the parking lot if we stayed.
The three of us conferred with another camper who said that he was going to Target, another 6 miles down the road. Our little caravan finally made it to Target and that is where we rode out the storm. I found out later from a staff member from the park that it had flooded 5 feet in some places and up to 15 in other areas. As a result of the significant flooding, the park would not reopen for another 1-2 weeks. We were refugees in the Target shopping center with nowhere to go.
Carnage left after the flood waters receded at the RV park. I am sooo happy Austin wasn't left behind!!!!
Shirley wanted to eat at Panda Express after we all got situated at Target, so we trudged in the rain across the parking lot to find that it wasn't even open because of the weather. We came back to the RVs and after I tried to unlock the trailer, it wouldn't open! Somehow in all the commotion of the stormy weather, the upper lock on the door became engaged before I closed it and I was locked out. I said out loud "What else can go wrong?" Shirley and Angie quickly told me that I should never utter those words, plenty of bad things can happen! Thankfully for us, nothing else did.
Again, my Louisiana friends save the day because Shirley looked at one of the open windows and declared that she could climb in if I didn't mind having the screen removed. Having taken "Locked Out of the Trailer, 101" previously in Navarre, Florida with Ranman, I said "Go for it"! That previous lesson cost us $150 for the locksmith, this one will just require us to replace the screen ourselves for less than $20.
The next day on Halloween, the three of us went on a field trip to New Braunfels to check out a potential park. It turned out to not be so nice, but we did have an enjoyable lunch at a German restaurant. We came back to our temporary home at Target and called nearly a dozen parks.... no one had room for us. Apparently, the parks were overflowing with other displaced campers in addition to having their own regular Winter Texans.
I was finally able to locate a park that was on the way to my new friend's next destination and the Austin airport where I would be picking up Randy in a few days. It is in a little town near Bastrop and is 45 minutes from San Marco. The three of us banded together again and drove to the park, site unseen, that reserved spots for us. I am happy to say that we all arrived safely and no RVs, cars or people were harmed during the journey. Unfortunately, the park is not that great but it is high and dry!
My new friends left the next day after making sure that I was safe in the new hood. They were so much fun despite all the adversity we were up against. I couldn't have found nicer people than those two, it was definitely serendipity that I had the courage to ask for their help. I hope to see them again when Ranman and I relocate to Shreveport, Lousiana next week.
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