Nothing new going on here in San Marcos, Tx. Besides rain and more rain. I still haven't been able to ride the trails and they have been finished for almost 3 weeks now.
This past Sunday (Memorial Day weekend) we went to the San Marcos river and hung out with some friends of ours for a bit. All day the sun came and went as the clouds were rolling through town. I said that it wasn't going to rain so we might as well go, and if it does rain, well, a little water never hurt anybody and not to mention I would be wet from the river anyways. Needless to say after about 30 to 45 minutes it began to rain so we decided to go to a friends house instead of home.
Just to fill you in, San Marcos has many little flood plains an houses are built on hills. Well, as I was enjoying myself playing bowling on the Nintendo Wii I hear one of the guys say, "OH SHIT!, OUR HOUSE IS ABOUT TO FLOOD AGAIN! EVERYBODY GET A BROOM AND MOP TO SWEEP THE WATER FROM THE BACK DOOR TO THE FRONT!". Now luckily it's a straight shot from the back to front, tile flooring all the way. What had happened was there was water running from multiple neighbors yards into their yard and bring all the debris and trash with it. All of the leaves and tree branches, etc. were clogging the chainlink fence so the water couldn't run through, therefore it was routed directly to their back porch which is pretty low and in a corner so water piled up and started coming in the back door. We open a got on one side of the house and a mini river flows by.
At this time I realize that I have to walk around the house to the other side to free up the debris build up from the fence. As I am walking water is at knee level and flowing very very fast. I can't see the ground or what I might be stepping on because the water is so deep and dirty. I finally get over to the fence and grab a shovel to start shoveling the debris over the fence. This doesn't really matter because more and more keeps coming. At this time there is still water up to my knees. Amy is staring out of the garage window at me and telling me to be careful. I told her I needed a 13mm wrench so I could take the fence down to let the debris and water flow through. I get 5 out of 6 bolt out, and the last one is about 4 inches off of the ground, so it's under the water and I can't see it. Finally I get it off and the fence flies open like a gate and water takes off.
While walking towards the back of the house to try and redirect the flow of the water more towards the back of the yard and around the house, a wheel barrow comes floating towards me. I took care of it, got into the back yard only to notice that the water and debris had bent 5 of the poles concreted in the ground and took the fence out! I finally got the water rerouted away from the house, only to notice a snake. Yeah, at that point I was done, needed a drink and wanted to finish my bowling game on the Wii.
All of this and some more all happened within an hour. The flash flood rain flooded their house within 5 to 10 minutes. No damage besides some wet tile and towels to keep the water out of the bedrooms and hallways.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
May 27, 2007 UFC
Lastnight I realized one thing that I miss about Dallas, Tx that I never thought I would care about. That one thing is when I was wanting to to watch UFC 71, Lidell vs. "Rampage" Light Heavyweight title fight. In Dallas there are always bars showing UFC fights for free, no cover, just come in to have some drinks and have a good time.
But in Austin every bar that is showing the fight has a $10 to $15 cover charge to watch it. Now it only cost $40 for the bar to get the fight, now how many people do you have to have come buy drinks to pay off that $40? At the minimum 1, they are guaranteed to have one guy spend $40 on drinks over a 3 hour period of time, not to mention all of the other people that spend $20 on just themselves.
Anyways, I hope this works, here is the preview for the fight I wanted to see.
And yes the underdog, the person that everybody told me couldn't beat and wouldn't beat "The Iceman", Mr. "Rampage" Jackson, well, he melted the Iceman in the first round in less than 2 minutes.
But in Austin every bar that is showing the fight has a $10 to $15 cover charge to watch it. Now it only cost $40 for the bar to get the fight, now how many people do you have to have come buy drinks to pay off that $40? At the minimum 1, they are guaranteed to have one guy spend $40 on drinks over a 3 hour period of time, not to mention all of the other people that spend $20 on just themselves.
Anyways, I hope this works, here is the preview for the fight I wanted to see.
And yes the underdog, the person that everybody told me couldn't beat and wouldn't beat "The Iceman", Mr. "Rampage" Jackson, well, he melted the Iceman in the first round in less than 2 minutes.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
May 23, 2007 Trails+River
So today I woke up about an hour after I planned on getting up. That was around 9am, got up and started doing some math and reviewing all of that until 12:20pm. So I had been doing that for a couple of hours, so far it was the shortest session I have had all week. Anyways, I decided to get on the bmx and go for a ride to the trails. On the way I decided I want a corn dog, but realize I don't have my debit card because I left it in my swim trunks from yesterday. I manage to get the card, get lunch and get to the trails.
I get there, it's hot, cloudy and really humid. I already knew what had to be done, but knew that it was going to suck. I had to dig the 270 berm about 18 inches deeper and make it come out wider. The end was too tight and too sharp to carry your speed. Fortunately I had started this the other day and just had to dig the berm out of the dirt wall and make the dirt walls from the hole into a transition out of the berm and up the lip. I realize that I have spent an hour or so and look at my shirt. It's wet like I just fell into some water. I decided it was too humid in the woods with ZERO breeze and I needed to go get in the river.
I'm obviously going to have to change the angle of the lip out of the berm. It has begun to look more like a landing, long and flat. It may also have to change in height due to the speed coming out of the berm, like a foot shorter.
I get to the rope swing and play on that for an hour or more, then decided to go further down the river to the water fall and swim there. All in all it was fun. Now here are some pics of the river that is literally 50 yards from the trails.
The guy that took this picture only spoke spanish and didn't understand that I wanted the picture to be when I was jumping off of the rope swing. I went far and higher on this time than before. I climbed higher on the tree before pushing off, but oh well.
Here's the train bridge that people jump off of into 8ft deep water
Rope swing, it works best to pull the rope on the right side of the tree, climb up and push off.
A couple of ducks that came to visit me at the rope swing, ducks fascinate me for some reason.
San Marcos River Pub
Waterfall/slide
Water current after the slide, to another waterfall/slide
This dude fell out of his tube...
on this next slide.
Another part of the river that few people float towards. Perfect spot for a "river" bmx jump. It's about 8ft deep in the middle and there is a runway for as long as you want coming up to it.
A poor example of how to ride this rope swing, but fun none the less.
I get there, it's hot, cloudy and really humid. I already knew what had to be done, but knew that it was going to suck. I had to dig the 270 berm about 18 inches deeper and make it come out wider. The end was too tight and too sharp to carry your speed. Fortunately I had started this the other day and just had to dig the berm out of the dirt wall and make the dirt walls from the hole into a transition out of the berm and up the lip. I realize that I have spent an hour or so and look at my shirt. It's wet like I just fell into some water. I decided it was too humid in the woods with ZERO breeze and I needed to go get in the river.
I'm obviously going to have to change the angle of the lip out of the berm. It has begun to look more like a landing, long and flat. It may also have to change in height due to the speed coming out of the berm, like a foot shorter.
I get to the rope swing and play on that for an hour or more, then decided to go further down the river to the water fall and swim there. All in all it was fun. Now here are some pics of the river that is literally 50 yards from the trails.
The guy that took this picture only spoke spanish and didn't understand that I wanted the picture to be when I was jumping off of the rope swing. I went far and higher on this time than before. I climbed higher on the tree before pushing off, but oh well.
Here's the train bridge that people jump off of into 8ft deep water
Rope swing, it works best to pull the rope on the right side of the tree, climb up and push off.
A couple of ducks that came to visit me at the rope swing, ducks fascinate me for some reason.
San Marcos River Pub
Waterfall/slide
Water current after the slide, to another waterfall/slide
This dude fell out of his tube...
on this next slide.
Another part of the river that few people float towards. Perfect spot for a "river" bmx jump. It's about 8ft deep in the middle and there is a runway for as long as you want coming up to it.
A poor example of how to ride this rope swing, but fun none the less.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
May 22, 2007
So I had another blog under a different name that I deleted on purpose. The only problem is, well, I didn't save or copy anything that I had written on there. Now I don't remember anything that was posted up except for the pictures that have been seen. So here is the NEW news that's going on with the trails and San Marcos, Tx in general.
Prior to moving to San Marcos, Tx I had asked multiple bmx friends if there were any "trails" down here. I received mixed answers from different people. Some said that there were, some said that they knew of some years ago but thought they were gone now because those riders had left town and others said that there were some "dirt jumps" here, but weren't really sure where they were. When I first moved here I kind of went on a mission to either find a spot to build or find the existing spot to make my own addition. There are MULTIPLE places for good trails here, it was just deciding on the best location.
The location I am at is on a flood plain, close to the San Marcos river and has multiple kinds of wild animals on it. There are a couple of young deer that leave there, multiple Jack Rabbits, squirrels and Cardinals that I see on occasion. There are onle a couple of drawbacks about the place. The first drawback is that I get the normal passerby walking through the woods and having them stumble upon my lines, and soon to be lineS. The other day I had to yell at some kids running and jump off of the lips with their feet. I was polite and they stopped, which is good because I was out numbered by the 5 guys. Not to mention that one of them was about 4 inches taller than me and out weighed me by about 20+ lbs. The only other REAL drawback is the fact that I am not digging through grass or brush, but I'm digging through vines. The vines make it difficult to get past the first layer of earth with a decent shovel load. It tends to pull the dirt off of the shovel. Once past the vines the dirt is EASY and awesome to dig. It's a mixture of black and brown dirt. It tends to crack when dried out, but it's super fast and just needs a sweeping, watered and the dirt swept on it again to fill in the top layer that is cracked.
First set
2nd Double, going into left hand berm
same jump as above photo
same jump as above, but looking back at the landing
3rd double, coming OUT of the berm
4th set
4th set (side view)
4th set (landing)
3 rollers after 4th set
jump going into 270 berm
landing coming out of 270 berm
2 rollers after jump out of 270 berm
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