Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1983)
'San Marcos- From tacky to tasteful, the ultimate tourist town by Diane Yount Battalion Staff If you've never travelled to San Antonio and you're stuck in Bryan-College Station for spring break, you should know — a San Marcos to New Braunfels to San Antonio road trip can be a wheeling ride from the tacky to the terrific — a trip definitely worth taking. The At Ease editors travelled to these South Texas cities to bring you the sights and scenes you won't want to miss in plan ning your spring break trip. Ready? Start out with checkbook in hand and follow your South Texas map to San Marcus. Once you get on IH-35, you'll have no problem finding Wonder World — and Wonder Cave and Won der Tower and Wonder World's Wildlife Park. After you get to Wonder World, we recommend that you pay for the whole tour of this attraction. After all, who can live without seeing the Mysterious Anti-Gravity House, in addition to all of the other "wonder” things available. And for the small price of $6.95 you get to see everything, starting with the Wonder Train. Hop aboard and you'll travel through Wonder Cave into a park filled with milling deer. The conducter halts the train and the speckled deer trample up for their daily feed. "Just bop them on the nose if they get too aggressive," is the conductor's clue that these deer actually ex pect deer munchies before the train moves on. You need to watch out for the adolescent male deer. They're finally grow ing horns and they'll use them without any qualms. Next, the train tour travels to Wonder Cave, the only drv- formed cave in the country. Be sure and get a witty, wonder tour guide. Ours was well- worth the ticket price. We had more fun ribbing the poor guy than we had on the tour. The actual walk through Wonder Cave took about 40 minutes. You get to see the infamous dark room, rock strata formations and cave graffiti, plus much more. After the depths of Wonder Cave, your tour guide will take you to Wonder Tower. This is the least exciting attraction at Wonder World. All you really get is a bird's eye view of San Marcos. Telescopes are pro vided. They only work if you add 25c. Don't. And, finally, the Mysterious Anti-Gravity House, the real reason for our visit to Wonder World. Magically, water seems to flow up, tall people appear shorter than short people and balls travel up sloping inclines. We'll leave it up to you to figure out how the attraction works. Back to the Wonder souvenir shop for gift selections for friends back home. After all, they only got to go skiing in Col orado. You got to see Wonder World. OK, so far you've only spent $6.95 plus souvenir expenses. And right now you're an hour away from San Antonio. You've got the rest of the day, so take a quick detour through Aqaurena Springs. Aquarena Springs offers sev eral different attractions, includ ing The Texana Village — an au thentic old west town with a sa loon and lots of bad guys. - You can also discover the Lost Continent of Altlantis and the Mermaids of Gold. This is actually quite a good show per formed entirely under water. It includes Jaws Jr., the Comedy Street Circus and the Atlanits City Maintenance Crew. There are also glass bottom boats to ride on and the glass- enlosed Sky Spiral — which towers 300 feet high — for your high-rise viewing pleasure. If the weather is warm during spring break, be sure and stop off at Camp Warnecke. Located in New Braunfels, this is one of those attractions that you'll re turn to again and again. There is plenty of room for picnicking and partying, and the bonus attraction — innertubing on the Guadalupe River — always keeps 'em coming back. All you have to do is rent a tube and hit the rapids. Lifeguards are around for the faint of heart, and — for the braver few — Stinky Falls is right up the path from continued on page 11