A Landa Love Affair on the Comal River, New Braunfels, Texas

We dislike staying in RV parks for many reasons, but when we do need to plug into the grid, we seek out the most offbeat, weird places to stay in a RV. Out of every state in America, Texas has more than its fair share of quirky RV trailer courts, and Landa RV Park in New Braunfels is the mutha’ of ’em all.

Look out, it’s Landa low bridges

Landa This, Landa That

Our Landa Love Affair began back in the day, when NuRVers was just a baby and consisted of a core-group of hard-partying, crazy, full-time, child-free full-time RVers. A live-and-let-live bohemian vibe made Landa a great place to spend winter. You could pretty much do anything you wanted to as long as your racket wasn’t louder than the hourly freight trains that run directly behind the park.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDeTzFVh5dc[/youtube]

Through the years, NuRVers have come and gone at Landa, and the winter party scene is no more. Management has also kicked out most of the DIY-RVers that kept things interesting (but a few still remain).

Landa funky DIY RVs

Yet for some reason, Jim and I felt compelled to spend a month along the Comal River once again. After all, it’s ground zero for the awesome Texas Hill Country music scene, everything is within biking distance and the rent is cheap, so why not, right?

Landa RV dump station camping

The daily river toobing along this private stretch of the Comal River is awesome. Where else can you pay just $400 a month for rent and have a spring-fed, crystal-clear river at your back door? It just compels you to chill out!

Landa booze toobs

But the longer we stayed there, the more that Landa’s many quirks got on our nerves. Like the off-leash dogs who shit everywhere and tormented Wyatt.

Landa rat dogs crapping everywhere

Then there was the nosy neighbors who felt it was OK to inquire about my “relationship with Jesus.”

Landa trucks worth more than homes

The final straw was the neighboring family of five, who for some reason was allowed to rent a long-term spot while living in a pop-up tent trailer, despite Landa’s rules prohibiting non-self-contained RVs. Yes, there were five people living in there.

Landa misfit families

We’re not RV snobs by any means, and they wouldn’t have bothered us so much if the tween-aged kids weren’t rock-throwing maniacs (we think they were the cause of our mysteriously shattered RV window). And oh, if their mother wasn’t constantly screaming at the top her lungs for some reason or another.

All this piled on top of sleep deprivation from being awakened by train horns blaring at 3AM each night, got old real fast. When April was over, we couldn’t wait to leave. I’m not sure if we’ll ever stay there that long again, but if we do, the NuRVers crowd needs to have to hold a reunion so at least all of the partying will distract us from the Landa Looney Bin.

Landa cheap camping on the Comal River

So long Landa.

16 thoughts on “A Landa Love Affair on the Comal River, New Braunfels, Texas”

  1. Greetings from an RV located somewhere in the great southwest USA:
    Yes keep posting about Texas Hill Country places to chock our wheels.
    Will be headed through New Mexico and could use some ideas.

    Reply
  2. Since I will be living in a DIY RV, I guess I’m out of luck and have to rely on you two to keep me updated about this place.

    I will be interested on how many places will not accept me and my RV. Skoolies are offbeats anyway.

    Reply
  3. O Landa, We spent three hours hanging out there waiting for some kind of management to show up and show us a site. We were able to get the vibe of the park right away!!) I could write a book on what i seen and herd in those three hours but would rather not. We ended up going up stream and enjoyed a couple of months in that area. Keep those big wheels rollin’!)

    Reply
    • Kale that really does sound like Landa, can’t tell you how many times I went to get our mail at the office and there was nobody there. It’s uh, quirky to say the least. Too bad we weren’t there when you visited, that wouldda been fun.

      Where are you these days?

      Reply
    • Hey Karen thanks for reading! Well, the dump station was that close but we only had 1 person use it the entire time we were there. Thank DOG for that!

      Reply
  4. So where was I? Oh yes, unruly people without boundaries are basically cave dwellers or possibly like early man. However, I don’t mean to disparage early man (human) as I’m sure they had codes of conduct.

    Campground and or park rules exist for a reason, it levels the social standards and strives to create fairness for all parties (and those partying). Folks with bad social skills or none to begin with are missing out on what makes life worth living – harmony within oneself and harmony within the community. If people don’t like “rules” then they probably don’t play well with others, and that’s OK, so long as they take their behavior elsewhere, or, where people like themselves can get together and go for a dip in the cesspool of unsociability. Maybe Landa is the place where people take their weak social skills? Maybe not, I don’t know.

    But most people just want to share beers, tell tales, sing a song, exchange insights, grill up some possum (I’m thinking Landa style cuisine) and other social niceties that make RV living the adventure it’s meant to be.
    And others? Well, they just plain don’t get it because no one’s explained what’s to get and as such they are a complete bear to everyone else.
    Rich or poor, bad behavior is bad behavior.

    Solution! Git the hell out of there!!!

    Much aloha, much love you two – Eric.

    Reply
    • Oooh wait, there’s more?

      I would venture to guess that prehistoric cave dwellers had more social graces than a few of the folks at Landa. For the most part, people were great, but it’s always the rotten apples . . . .

      We got outta there. And after that, Jim ate meat for the first time in 18 months. Hah! More on that later. xoxo

      Reply
  5. Aloha Rene and Jim,
    It’s been too long and I miss you both way too much!
    Where does one begin with this missive little missy?
    First of all, I suspect we can all agree, you can’t change the location, but we can and should push for changes in park behavior, but I reckon this isn’t going to happen either. What’s important is everyone living by the same set of rules so as to ensure community harmony, ok, let’s throw that Landa fantasy out the window. The second option is one upmanship, or, Rene, one personmanship.

    If “campers” let their dogs loose to defecate willy-nilly then maybe you and Jim should feel free to drop your dung around the park wherever and whenever you so need/desire. Just hold a cold foreign sounding domestic beer in front of that family of five and just relieve yourselves right then and there. If they express consternation and dismay, just say, “hell, I don’t see any rules against it nor any against screaming wives, shittin’ pups or late night trains” (let a drippy flow of spittle cascade down your chin and onto the ground postx declaration).

    Reply
    • Enrico! Where the heck have you been? Why haven’t you and the little lady purchased that Prevost and hit the road yet?

      It’s definitely appropriate to throw that fantasy of community harmony out the window at Landa. Next time we’ll just take your advice and drop our drawers.

      And one more thing: there’s nothing wrong with a cold domestic beer as long as it’s a Shiner! OK, or a Leine’s too.

      Reply
      • Thanks for posting this subject.
        Lose dogs roaming a park are safety and health hazard to responsible dog owners. And we
        also have the issue of dog fights and campers getting charged or bit. Have seen a lot in my years of work camping.
        This is real world RVing these days….sigh.
        Would like to learn more about RV blogging.

        Reply
        • Thanks for commenting RoadScribe! You have a lot to write about with all that workamping. Feel free to contact us with any questions about blogging.

          Reply

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