The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 11, 1983, Image 17

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    '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