Last week, Lee and I happened upon an island on the east side of Town Lake:
It's just east of the heart of Austin, yet remains undeveloped:
From the shore:
Don't let the undeveloped shore fool you: a wonderful green belt snakes along the river as it goes through Austin, hiding the city in certain spots if you're good with a camera (full disclosure: I'm not ;)... 'Austin' is hiding out of view and behind the branches on the left.
Kayaks in tow, we voyaged across the ocean sea lake 200 feet of water from a nearby peninsula to explore the unknown. Our seafaring approach:
We found a nice landing bay on the eastern side of the island:
That lead up to the rest of the island:
The island is roughly triangular at 200'x220' with a 300' hypotenuse:
Once on land, we found two big swings put up by redswingproject, an anonymous swing-hanging project that started in Austin, and has since spread around the world. Check them out.
There were also some chairs and a table, along with a crude rope swing and an empty, dug out grave, complete with welded cross (odd). We definitely weren't the first, but are surely part of a small slice of Austinites that have enjoyed the unnamed island.
Over the next few days, we brainstormed how we could host the next Analog Game Night on the island (Analog Game Night is a weekly gathering of geeks to play real, physical board games, complete with beer, tunes, and the dorkiest conversations imaginable). After some initial planning , we hosted "Analog Game Night... on an Island". To pull this off, we needed:
-Boats/ Solved by using Lee's two Kayaks to bring people/gear over one at a time. We originally planned to borrow a larger paddle boat to haul everything at once, but the trailer had a 1 7/8" ball that wouldn't mate with our 2" hitch.
-Good weather/ Solved by living in Austin. It was windy, so we setup a 10'x20' tarp that worked perfectly to keep our game pieces stationary.
-Lighting/ Solved by bringing along four desk lamps with CFL bulbs:
-A power source for the lights/ Solved by borrowing the batteries from the electric bike and a power inverter:
-Legal authority to stay on the island/ This wasn't solved, but we did determine that neither the city nor county police have jurisdiction. This means only the LCRA, TWC, or State Troopers could issue us a citation... we took our chances, relying on the fact that the police don't spend their nights looking for board gamers camping on an island. We later learned - through details id rather not clarify, except to say that when the event occurred, we were sober - that you can fire a gun and nobody on land will blink an eye.
-Lots of obscure beer to satiate the beer snobs/ Solved by:
Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale
ESB Special Ale
DogFishHead Chateau Jiahu
Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel
Arrogant Bastard
Mippeller Red Ale
St Bernardus Christmas Ale
Lobotomy Bock
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter
Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot
Breckenridge Summerbright Ale
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Independence Convict Hill Oatmeal Stour
Amnesia IPA
Green Flash Double Stout Ale
Boulevard Bully Porter
Boulevard Pale Ale
Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat
Boulevard Singlewide IPA
Boulevard Amber Ale
Boulevard Irish Ale
Malheur Belgian Ale
Brother Thelonious Abbey Ale
Petrus Aged Pale
Lagunitas Cappaccino Stout
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale
St Sebastian Golden
St Sebastian Dark
Maui Coconut Porter
and the quality stuff: JOOSE, CORE Spiked, and Four Loko...
Of course, Lee and I forgot to bring any games, but our guests didn't (phew). We played agricola and chicken foot, drank about half the beer, and had a gratis midnight dinner comprised of bread, turkey, lettuce, etc, all compliments of a buddy who works at a sandwich shop:
I won't mention names, but at some point one of us wandered off into the woods, too drunk to coherently place pieces:
...and stayed there for 4 hours.
...
The trip was a blast. 11 people showed up, which is pretty good considering we send the invites out the day before we left. We all liked it and will definitely be back.
