The floating cooler has been cleaned, the temperature continues to rise and recent blood work indicates that my liver is (barely) recharged and ready for punishment.

This week marks the start of the South Texas tubing season, and it would be difficult to find somebody more excited about that fact than me. It's like a four-month Christmas for partying loafers, where the only thing asked of you is to sit in the crystal-clear water on a hot day, float for three hours with a beer in hand and people-watch.

Tubing appeals to just about every need of my existence, and based on the thousands of other folks who congregate on the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers throughout the summer, I'm not alone.

The lure of the rivers is that they're clean, slow-moving and not very deep — making them accessible to everyone.

Floats can vary depending on the river and how much time you have allocated to do nothing. If you float the Comal, a single run won't take longer than two hours, and you probably can get a second float in before sunset. A tuber can spend the entire afternoon on the Guadalupe with floats as long as six hours.

No two floats are the same, and there's plenty of water out there in the Hill Country to float. My personal favorite is a stretch of the Guadalupe just outside of Gruene.

There's a special kinship among tubers that adds to the flavor of the experience.

If your cooler runs dry, it isn't hard to find a helping hand (with a beer attached to it) willing to loan one. Just cross your fingers the owner of the hand isn't drinking Keystone Light.

The same holds true with cigarettes, if that's your thing. I don't smoke, but I do respect the ingenuity of those who can keep their Camels dry in the water.

This isn't to say tubers don't account for their fair share of problems. Littering, underage drinking, loud music and trespassing all have drawn the ire of many in New Braunfels, where new restrictions seem to pass the City Council every year.

The council debated everything from cooler sizes to tube limitations and more on the Comal in the offseason. Thankfully, the council decided the money tubers bring is too great to ignore, so it backed off from enacting anything too severe. You can't help but think the bad press from the tubers' perspective will force more people to the Guadalupe than ever before.

I'll be one of them, so if you see me floating by, please toss me a beer. I've got you next time.

Chuck Blount | 210SA