Keep Austin Weird?

To begin I need to say that some of Austin is going to be out of order. We spent a little over a week here so some of the stuff got a little blurred together.
Oh Austin... Where do I begin? Brooks and I had an amazing time in Austin. We arrived Wednesday June 16th and we were planning on staying until Sunday June 20th. Wednesday night we went to a place called Barten Springs. Its a man made dam like structure that is fed by an underground spring. I think its the only place in the entire city that has cold water.

This is what it looks like during the day.



We went swimming every single day. You kind of have to when its usually 95+ degrees in Austin. We went to a pool called Deep Eddy.

One day we tried to go to a swimming hole called Hamilton Pool. We drove about 45 minutes out of the city to go to it, but when we got there evidently there were "high bacteria levels" so it was unsafe to swim there. Sooooo we drove to another watering hole near there called Pedernales River. The only thing that has me a little confused is why were the bacteria levels to high at Hamilton pools, but we went to another river around the corner from it that didn't have high bacteria levels? What ever I aint no scientist.




So we met up with our friend Dashiell on Thursday and rode around town with him. We stopped at Live Strong which is Lance Armstrong's organization that helps people with cancer get the right treatment and find the right docotrs and stuff like that. Dashiell is interning there so he gave us a tour.
What is that?

There is some really awesome artwork in Live strong.

There were also a hand full of origional Shepard Ferry's.
We left there and went to a new fixed gear bike shop called Fast Folks.

It had sort of been raining on and off all day, but when we left Fast Folks it started to DUMP! Coming from San Francisco it really caught me by surprise because it NEVER rains in SF. All it does is occasionally drizzle. It was actually kind of refreshing to be rained on that hard on a day that was that hot. We rode through the rain to Mellow Johnny's which is Lance Armstrong's bike shop. There was a bunch of rad stuff in there too.
Most of the bikes on this wall were over $2000

Dad, Carl, I thought you might appreciate this ride.


Matt, that's a RVCA Cinelli Frame.

Soon after that it was time for some foodies, so Rob took us to one of the better places to eat. An empty lot with a bunch of food trucks driven into it.

Hehe, Me so Hungry.

Rob and Shaun.

Miz U Rob!

Rob was right. This may have been the best place in the city to get food. Only out of a food truck can Brooks get something like this. Its Chicken and waffles, but the way its prepared is what blew our minds. Its a chicken and waffles TACO the chicken is inside The waffle that serves as the taco shell. Then they threw bacon in there and melted cheese onto the top.

I guess the bicycle riders in Austin take bicycles very seriously. So much in fact that one critical mass isn't enough. They make up other names for group rides other days of the week And by group ride I don't mean "ten people riding around together" I mean like a few hundred. There's a night that they have an all girl ride (i forget what they called that one). And the one we went on, the community ride. The community ride met up, rode around town and ended at Barton Springs at 9pm. Between 9 and 10pm Barton springs is free ($3 the rest of the day) so all the bicyclists jumped into the pool for an hour. When Barton Springs closed we all jumped on our bikes again and went to a designated bar for that evening that then served free beer to the community ride.
I have a doppelganger in Austin who was on the ride. Its not just weird that we're both pale, have the same colored hair, and are similar looking. But the dude also stole my mustache.

Damn it...
We left there because one ginger is enough and went to a bar called Jackalope.

I think this picture answers your question. Yes its hot in Texas.


We're from San Francisco, we're allowed to jay walk.

Here's some more stuff from that night.
Night Owls Haunt!

Thats Rob and Chelsea.

Miz U.


Cookie gets pissed off at me pretty easily. Maybe its because I keep calling him Cookie.


Then he decides to be a gentleman again.

We got back late that night and laid in the street until about 5am.



Saturday We went to Austin Mopeds and met Lester and some of the gang ACR.

Thank you Lester for being so friendly and playing with us while we were in your town.





Come on ladies, Keep your shoes on.

We always ended up back at the say bar called Liberties. Maybe it was the cheap beer, Maybe it was the huge back yard, or maybe it was the Pork buns.



Another food cart. This ones in Liberties.

We had to get Texas BBQ. Pulled pork? YUP! It was amazing!



We went to a swimming hole called Twin Falls, It was unbelievably hot that day. We rode mopeds there and were sweating like dogs. Then we had to hike like a half mile down to the river and it was filled with people. The water was just about as hot as it was out side.



This is me really pissed off about the heat.

We decided it was to hot so we left and went to Barton Springs again. That water is very refreshing!
On Monday our friend and gang leader Jenny came to visit us. She works for United Airlines and will occasionally decide to jump on a plane and just fly places. I've had conversations with her about whats she's doing a certain weekend and she's said,"Ummm this band I like is playing this weekend in London, so I think I might go see them." She called us Saturday and asked where we were. We said Austin, so she jumped on a plane and came to Austin to sleep Monday,

and hang out with us Tuesday.





We love you jenny, thanks for stopping by and seeing us!
Couldn't forget you Cassie.

Rob, Shaun, Chelsea, Dashiel, Lester, and Cassie, Thank you so much for hanging out with us and showing us around, please come see us in New york when you get a chance.

The only thing that I think I left out are the bees, but that's going to have to be another post.
-Jim