The question presented: How cool can a $200 a month RV park be?

The answer: Extremely.

What started as a week (or so) in New Braunfels, Texas, ended up as almost two months in one of the coolest towns we have stayed. Damien and Michelle called us up when we were leaving Florida and said they had payed for a month at an RV park in New Braunfels. It was close to several of their upcoming shows, so they thought they would just stay there for a month and commute to their weekend shows. Not having anything really planned out, we told them we would stop in and hang out with them for a bit. haha - yea, a bit. After almost two months, we had made some great friends, had great times, and found out that we loved the Comal River.

We have been to many places in our adventures, but never have we been to a place that we met so many cool people, and built friendships like we did in NewB. Having Damien and Michelle was key to this - they are just as outgoing and adventurous as we are (or try to be), and the town opened their arms wide to the four of us foreigners. Landa RV and Campground was not the "resort style" campground by any means. It featured rough gravel roads, wifi that worked periodically, and heavily used train tracks that ran straight through our living room. It spite of all of that, our campsite was inches from the Comal River, the park hosts were some of the nicest we have met, and the neighbors were top notch. We found nothing to complain about (well, other than the occasional train).

We found some cool things to do in the area. One of the first adventures was to some caves close by called Natural Bridges Caves. We went there with D&M and had a great time. We also ventured to some neighboring towns to see what they had to offer - Gruene, San Marcos, and San Antonio. We always seemed to find a cool pub to grab a cold drink, and great locals to hang out with.

Tourist Spelunking, Mitchell and Ang in San Antonio, The River Walk in San Antonio, The Alamo, and wake boarding, Texas style

New Braunfels was quite the little town. Landa RV is situated just a couple of blocks from downtown, which features a cool round-about in the center of town, with cool little restaurants and pubs all within walking distance. We found ourselves loving the Liberty Bistro, where owner Darren always made us feel like we were family. The normal after dinner drink location ended up being the Uptown Piano Bar, where old school velvet, smoky room, and a hipster tickling the keys on a Grand was the cool way to wrap up the evening. Honorable mentions go to Naegelin's Bakery (140 year old bakery), The Oyster Bar, Huisach Grill, The Black Whale, and the Gruene Onion Grill. All wonderful places that always served up some great food and drinks.

By far, the best thing about New Braunfels was the friends we made while there. From the first day there, we seemed to make easy work of meeting the coolest people the Hill Country had to offer. Two of the first people we met were Angel and Jason, who were working at the Liberty Bistro. We all hit it off, and they couldn't get rid of us for the rest of the time there. Angel was a great friend to us, and we really enjoyed hanging out with her.

Being parked on the river, we would have an influx of weekenders. One day, a family with three cute little girls set up next to us. I made contact while they were setting up, and kept finding excuses to visit while they were getting everything set up for their weekend of fun. Ended up that Kris and Mel and the girls were from New Braunfels, and enjoyed camping on the river. In no time, we found much to talk about, and after the weekend ended, we got together as often as we could. They are great people, and we look forward to seeing them again in the near future.

In our first location at Landa, we were "up top", which is an area that is a bit farther from the river. Our neighbor was a guy we would see once in a while, and we were constantly feeling sorry for him for having us as neighbors :) We quickly ended that by having some beers and great conversation. Josh is from south Texas originally, and is everything I thought a real Texas guy would be. Not only the owner of a huge heart, he actually got our sense of humor. Not an easy task :) Josh is soon heading towards College Station, and we have threatened him that we will be hunting him down. Josh - you have been warned. There were many others that we met during our stay, and I must say that our new group of Texas friends will stay with us for a long time. I can see us returning that that area just to see them again!

Angel and her buds, James at the Oyster, Kris and Mel, Josh with the group on St Patrick's Day, Josh and his girlfriend over for dinner

It wasn't easy to leave New Braunfels, but it was made slightly easier because we were heading up north to see the kids in Colorado. I can't hardly wait to see them, so it gives us a mission. We are on the road, and NewB is in our rear view now, but the friendships we made there will never be far away. Great town, awesome river, beautiful friends. This is why we are on the road.

As for the title of this post - translated from D-speak means "Her dizzy head is conscience-laden". But, that is a whole 'nother story...

--kev

Tags: Texas Goodtimes

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