Town Lake Time

We may be destroying the planet for our grandchildren, but the happy byproduct of global warming is the occasional 80+ degree day in late December here in Austin. Such was the case last Monday. I intended to work that day. I even went to the office, only to find out I was the only one with that idea. So, I did the only sensible thing and grabbed my “Wee Lassie” canoe for an afternoon on the lake.

When I arrived in Austin forty years ago, Town Lake was not the recreational mecca it is today. It was merely the dividing line between the rednecks and the hippies. There were no tech bros (with apologies to the very early IBM guys.) North of the river was the Capitol and the University. South was the Continental Club and the Broken Spoke. It would be a couple of decades before we started worrying about keeping Austin weird. The eclectic culture of the place was hardly in jeopardy.

Town Lake was renamed in honor of the former First Lady in 2007. It took me a long time to adopt the new name. The first paddleboarders started showing up around the same time I began calling it Lady Bird Lake. I don’t mind sharing the turtles and the birds, but it is hard to share solitude.

This day, I head upstream past Mopac toward Red Bud Isle and the Tom Miller Dam. The crowd thins out considerably past Deep Eddy, and I have the lake to myself. Well, not all to myself. There are thousands of turtles. I see red-eared sliders, snappers, softshells, and others I can’t name. The cormorants and the coots are also all around. This part of the river is alive. Downtown is far away.

Heading back, I detour into Barton Creek where the cool kids from Austin High are jumping off the top rail of the pedestrian bridge into the creek about twenty feet below. They may be the rebellious sorts, but their parents obviously raised them right because they generously offer me a hit off of the joint they are passing around. Do we really need to worry about keeping Austin weird?

As I head home, I pick my way through a throng of thongs on paddleboards and have to remind myself that it is the eve of New Year’s Eve. What a glorious way to say goodbye to 2024 and welcome the future. This year I resolve to get the Wee Lassie wet a lot more often.