When we saw signs for Schlitterbahn all over Texas we set a whole day aside just to soak up the scorching sun, stand in long lines, and ride the not so lazy rivers.
So shirts off, Sean's losing his farmers tan!
Because I'm no Schlitterbahn conoseur, here is some wikipedia history:
Schlitterbahn in German means "slippery road".
The Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort in New Braunfels, Texas, originally opened in 1979 with four water slides on 40 acres, is built along the cool spring-fed waters of the Comal River. In 1991, the Henrys bought another 25 acre piece of property known as Camp Warnecke and transformed it into Schlitterbahn East. The two parts of the park are separated by several city blocks with free parking available at both locations and a free shuttle between the two areas. Schlitterbahn East is further divided into two themed areas; Surfenburg, built in 1991, and Blastenhoff, built in 1996. In 1994, Schlitterbahn opened the first ever uphill water ride, known as the Dragon Blaster. Since then, they have added several other uphill water coasters, the Master Blaster and the Family Blaster. The Master Blaster in particular has often been voted as the best water ride in the US by travel publications and is frequently mentioned on the Travel Channel as such. In addition to these water coasters, the New Braunfels park now boasts over 3 miles of inner tube rides, 7 water playgrounds for children, 17 water slides, and the world's first surfing machine.
Schlitterbahn is considered by some to be the best waterpark in the world, and has been named so by the Travel Channel. Amusement Today gave it their 'Golden Ticket Award' for the "Best Waterpark" of 2007.
My first impressions were not the best. Too many people and the water looked dirty. Once I realized that they were using river water, and the look of filth was not from all the sticky children and parents, my anxiety went away.
They use good ole Goodyear tire tubes - that wa cool.
The shuttle bus to get from Schlitterbahn east to the two west parks was almost unbearble - a longer line than the damn slides, and our feet burned on the concrete! But yeah, it was free, and the free parking was convienantly close too. Coming back we didn't have to wait but a minute - so stop your wining April.
The things that I found unique was that it had a ton of lazy rivers - but they were never lazy, and some even had small high speed body slides that spit you out into the lazy rivers.
One tube adventure went across the entire park, filled with waterfalls and high speed rapids, under low clearance walking bridges, after about 10 minutes the ride never seems to end - it dumps you into the actual Comal river, which is Hella deep, and you kinda have to swim your way out.
We did ride the infamous master blaster, which we did see on the travel channel as well. Eh, the hour wait made the ride a little less appealing, but it did beat Ohio's kalahari indoor water coaster.
After all that water, Sean still has to cool his britches on the way back to the car - whew!
Schlitterbahn ended and an 8 hour drive to New Mexico began. Sean punched in at 6 hours, and I a measly 2 (but hey I'm working the graveyard shift!).
We passed a horriffic accident on the Texas border at 1am, and Sean mentioned many crosses along the sides of the road.
Finally, just outside Carlsbad caverns we found camping in what seemed to be a junk yard. Oh, and don't walk barefoot in New Mexico. It looks like grass, but it's not!
-- Posted from April's phone
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