Garner State Park | A Texas Family Tradition

This year is a special year for me and my wife; we’ll be taking a vacation outside of the United States for the first time in a long time. We’ve been planning for months with a friend of ours who is a Travel Agent from Houston Texas and we’re excited about the chance to head south of the border and visit Puerto Vallarta. Don’t get me wrong, we love Garner and we’ll be there in July, but there’s nothing better than a beautiful beach with my wife and an all-inclusive hotel. Any way, see you guys in late July.

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The National Weather Service in Austin/San Antonio issues a flood warning at 8:20 PM Thursday, August 16, 2007. The flood warning included the following: Frio River, Hondo Creek and Sabinal where scattered showers and thunderstorms are forecast for the next 24-48 hours. Additional rainfall will likely change these river forecast levels.

• Flood warning for the frio river near derby.
• From Saturday morning to Tuesday morning…or until the warning is canceled.
• At 7:30 pm Thursday the stage was 2.1 feet.
• Moderate flooding is forecast.
• Flood stage is 6.0 feet.
• Forecast…rise above flood stage by late Saturday morning and continue to rise to near 12.4 feet by Sunday early afternoon. the river will fall below flood stage by Monday evening.
• Impact…at 14.0 feet…significant crop and pasture land flooding below Uvalde to Choke Canyon Reservoir floods oil well pump jacks…irrigation pumps and any equipment in the flood plain. Numerous secondary roads and low bridges are flooded. Livestock are cut off and potentially drowned in low areas of the flood plain.

For more detailed information visit the National Weather Service website for Concan.

My neighbor who happens to be a manager out at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine was kind enough to pick up a couple of their Anti-Gravity Loungers (at 40% off). Starting August 23rd I’ll be spending 1/2 my time in one of these bad boys, and the other 1/2 in the Frio River.

Some of us don’t remember times like these as we weren’t alive to witness them; still others remember them very vividly and were we have come. As a nation we’ve come a long way over the past century, but have we truly made progress? You decide.

One of our readers was kind enough to send over some pictures they had of the recent floods out at Garner. I’ve been there when it was pretty bad, but I’ve never witnessed anything like this; however I do think my parents were there when a major flood washed out much of the park a few years back.

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I found some good videos today of Garner visitors swinging from a rope and jumping out of a tree from across from the rock beach. They reminded me of Brian, David and James who could always perform some nice rope acrobatics; then I thought about Kris Salas cursing in fear at the top of the tree for about 30 minutes when he was afraid to jump, that memory is as clear as if it happened yesterday. Have a look; you’ll get a laugh if you were there.

Campers all along stretches of the Frio River were advised by officials to find shelter on higher ground as a precaution for the threat of excessive rain and flooding.

Early reports indicate that around 75 people had to relocate from their campsites early Tuesday morning, and no one was allowed to access the river from inside the park. Officials anticipate that the river will return to an acceptable level later in the day and that campers would be able to return to their sites at that time.

Already this week weather related events have taken the lives of over 5 victims across the state.

Hooray! We’ve got our spots reserved and we’ll officially be heading out for some R&R starting on Wednesday August 22nd. Thanks to an extended vacation for my father (90 days to be exact), we’ll be spending more time than had originally been planned and fortunately there was room available for the additional days. I will say that I was at Lake Mineral Wells State Park last weekend, and while the scenery is similary the enviroments no where close and of course there’s no Frio River.

Growing up during our trips to Garner I never quite understood why my father would put so much time and energy into spending an entire week in a lawn chair. We’d gather up all our gear, load it into the trailer and then caravan over 6 hours to spend the night waiting outside the old entry gate. Once we got inside, all the kids would slowly climb out of the vehicles, grab their bikes and head down to the Frio River. The adults in the group would spend a few more hours in the main entry gates waiting to choose their camping sites and on a good year we’d be just a stones throw away from the water.

Once inside, we’d spend the better part of the morning setting up our camp site and when we were done everyone would take a quick trip down to the water for some relaxation time. Outside of the occasional slow-moving-river-float, my dad would spend most of his time napping in a lawn chair. At the time I never understood why he felt so compelled and enjoyed just sitting there; now that I’m older it all makes perfect sense - Rest and Relaxation.

When you spend 50+ hours a week sweating through the grind, tack on a couple off days of running errands and honey-dews and you look forward to a couple days of doing nothing. While I don’t think I’ll ever put in the hours my dad has, and still does, I’ve grown very fond of sit and do nothing days. Around our house it’s a weekend trip here, a tee-ball game there, tack on some birthday parties and holidays and you’ve got a never ending cycle of things to do. So if you’re like me and the old man, schedule in some time for Garner State Park and the Frio River it’s a great place to do nothing.

Ahhhh Garner State Park. Although time and floods have changed its appearance the feeling of it still remains the same. The ownership may have changed and the jukebox may be updated but you still get that same feel when you drive up to the pavilion and step out of the truck to hear those first few notes of “Garner State Park” or “Blackland Farmer”. And then the smell of burgers hits your nose and you can hear the Frio flowing in the background. It just doesn’t get any better than that. The sky is an endless blue with perfectly placed white clouds rolling by. And as you take a deep breathe all that hits your nostrils is the clean, crisp air and at that moment all the memories of summers spent at Garner come flooding back.

A time of family and friends floating the river, sitting around the campfire (b/c you know no matter what the temp outside no camping trip is complete without a campfire), and sharing meals served in paper plates. It’s one of those few places where old and young can have fun together doing the exact same things. Where the family is actually together instead of everybody running off to do their own things. And where the whole day can be summed up by “heat up - cool down”. A place that for those few days you can honestly and completely forget your busy life that you left behind and just float on the river, or lay in a chair, or skip rocks or whatever you feel like doing that day.