Enough Activity to Fill Two Days (Part 2) - Sunday, July 12, 2015

The second half of Sunday, we drove to Wimberley, Texas on the Blanco River and Cypress Creek. You may remember all the flooding in our part of Texas on Memorial Day weekend 2015. Wimberley got the worst of it. A 40' tall wave of water slammed into a bridge, destroying it. Over 300 homes were either pushed off their foundations, floated downstream or had flood water flowing through their homes. Twelve lives were lost.

What led to this horrible destruction? Upstream from Wimberley, six inches of rain fell in three hours. That was in addition to rain that had already fallen, leaving the ground saturated. All that water had to go somewhere. It went downstream, picking up speed and debris as it swept downhill. Mashable.com has the best description of the chronology of events.

We love Wimberley and have done Volksmarches there, hiked with friends to the top of Prayer Mountain, explored Jacobs Well and The Blue Hole, and shopped and dined in this "little bit of heaven," as described by Wimberley residents. The "downtown" is just plain cute with good eateries.

But I'm getting ahead of our day's chronology. For our drive north to Wimberley, Bob wanted to show me the beautiful area he runs in when he's in the final days of training for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November.

The road took us along the Guadalupe River (which had no damage), through gorgeous Texas Hill Country, past many businesses where you can rent "toobs" to go down the river, and lots of RV parks. The route is lovely.

Tree tunnel along the Guadalupe River

Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake

You can get it all here!

RV park on the riverbank

American flag flying over the road

Lone kayaker on the Guadalupe River

A vintage Airstream food truck in Sattler, Texas

We drove through the town of Canyon Lake and meandered over hill and dale to get to Wimberley via a back way. The first sign of damage from the flood was the guardrail on the bridge over the Blanco River. You can see how the trees and debris bent the metal. Look how low the river is now. The main part of Wimberley's shopping/dining area was not damaged by the flooding.

Damaged guardrail on Blanco River Bridge

Wimberley storefront

By the time we made it to Wimberly, our tummies were growling, so we parked and headed to Cypress Creek Cafe for lunch. The cafe is decorated inside with guitars that have been turned into works of art and are available for purchase.

Cypress Creek Cafe

Two artsy guitars above our table

For lunch, I had the best Cobb salad ever (in my opinion). It was loaded with chicken, black beans, avocado, tomato, hard boiled egg slices and I ordered it with honey mustard dressing on the side. It was definitely yum-tastic! Bob had a mahi mahi sandwich which he gave two thumbs up. He helped me eat my salad. We resisted the urge to have a slice of their Italian Cream Cake (so excellent!).

After lunch we walked down to Cypress Creek (no major damage) and hoofed it around town looking at all the six-foot tall painted boots (Bootiful Wimberley). We loved them!

"Homegrown Music," by David Richardson

Cypress Creek

Turtles on the rocks - Cypress Creek

"Boot Hill," by Dan Moore

Boot painting by Bejat McCracken

"East Meets West," by Rozi Turnbull

Once back in the car, we headed out to River Road along the Blanco River. What we saw saddened us deeply. People's homes were gone or ruined. Bald cypress trees that started growing in the 1400s, were snapped, uprooted, laid waste...or not touched at all.

This beautiful home is ruined. You can see
the right side wall is no longer attached at the bottom.

Close up of the roof collapse

Side view of roof collapse

A whole row of old bald cypress trees downed

Once stately trees used to provide much-needed shade

Part of a house in the debris along the riverbank

Some trees seemed untouched, while others next to
them were down.

Stairs to the river were washed away - now
perilous ladders line the bank.

More devastation

A number of houses were gutted

The foundation is here...the house is gone.

We then drove back to the untouched part of Wimberley, past the Hotel Flora and Fauna. That's a place I'd love to stay.

Hotel Flora and Fauna was not touched

Could not find name or artist for this boot

The Blanco River in Wimberley

Driving home, we returned along the Guadalupe River. In Texas, toobing is THE thing to do on a hot summer day. You'll notice the cooler has its own tube!!

Must have the cooler along!

Toobing the Guadalupe River near Sattler, Texas

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.