Springtime, Texas

Trees are starting to leaf and bud. The grass is filling green into the spots which were tan and brown. It rained last week a good bit and gave a nice turbo-boost to this past week’s growth. Our view out the balcony is of the only field in the area, owned by the National Farm Life building and spotted by trees and small purple flowers. At night the bugs are beginning to rattle and scrape, droning through the night while birds whistle and scream.

I found the first mushrooms of the season, growing out of the decay of a hollowed tree. Probably fifty or so small brown guys all clumped together in three bunches at the base of this tree and the one next to it. I thought it was way too dry for fungus to grow out here, but theyre around. Every plant or tree I see is at least a small bit different from the species that grow back home. Theres completely new trees and things Ive never seen before too, like armadillos(even though I havent seen one yet, theyre here).

There was a kind of community art show on Friday which Alex and I visited. There were some barkless trees down there that felt like hairless dogs and cats. Anyway, I got the job riding for Panther City Bicycles on fridays, and possibly will be working for them in the future wrenching. They are on the road which sponsored the art festival and were displaying stuff inside.

I continue to meet people under odd circumstances and everybody is always super friendly. Ive got people to ride with and to play music with already. I met a dude named Luis who lives a block away who Im trying to make music with. He’s into latin punk rock and stuff with really good rhythm like Fela.

These pictures are the vw jansport bus that this guy scott was driving to sxsw. Alex is inside the bus   

Thorns blow

Yesterday Alex and I drove 45 minutes to the mountain bike trail we were hoping to ride, Cedar Hills State Park. Its one of the more hilly rides outside of here and we watched a youtube video of a ride there and it looked fun. We drove out to the town its in looking for a bike shop cause we didnt have any tubes.

Now hes got this phone with GPS nav in it and google maps and shit so we were following that around for about twenty minutes trying to find a bike shop (we later found out isnt in business anymore). We drove ten minutes back to the park and got to the front gate, not only finding out it cost 5 bucks to get in, the trails were closed anyway because “theyre too muddy”

This really angered me because the muddy trails are the most fun trails. This also confused me because its been 65-75 sunny out for three or four days since its last rained – everything looked dry to me. Well of course we realized the hard dry ground down here doesnt soak up water quickly at all so the mud really is saturated through the surface when you hit it. a muddy patch a foot wide and three feet long in maryland would be like an inch or three deep. Here its like almost a foot, and it will look dry on top from the sun baking it too, so Ive been surprised and very muddy several times.

After we left the park and drove back to Ft Worth we decided to ride into town and go to the one bike shop thats close to downtown. We wanted to get tubes and ride the Trinity Trail which follows the Trinity river around Ft Worth for miles and miles in order to fulfill our need of a bike ride.

I had never been into this bike shop before but it looked nice from outside – we got there right after it closed one night last week. Its an old brick building and theyve got probably thirty bikes or so inside. They sell mostly road bikes but theres a couple high end mountain bikes in there too. Got to chatting with the guys who work there and it turns out they need somebody to cover their courier service on fridays, so Im going to be doing that during the day fridays now. They said they only have about ten or fifteen different adresses that consistantly get deliveries so itll be easy to figure out where Im going. Not to mention its the easiest city ever to get around on a bike.

anyway We left that place and rode around for four or five hours and over the course of that got two flat tires during the ride. Theres some tree down here that has tiny tiny thorns and they keep busting up our tubes. An older guy lent us his levers to change one of our flats. He was riding an old aluminum frame that was washed clean or painted or something, and a newer SID race fork with the lockout. The fork was painted glittery silver, so I asked him what the good rides were in the area and he told us about a good bunch of em – he said the best around is a two hour trip out to SE texas where its more moist to the pine forests. Well take a camera next time we ride so I can show you what its like down here.

After that we came back home. Yesterday Alex drove me to work so I wouldnt have to ride…and today when I check my bike my front tire is flat as hell. Three flats in one day and last week we got seven total. gotta figure something out here….

Even with all the flats the riding has been a lot of fun. The weather is great and the sidewalks are empty. The cops in the city are all bike cops and they all ride on the sidewalks, so theyre free game for bikers and people get out of the way. The road, in the other hand is not so comforting to be on all the time. people drive like maniacs down here – Ive seen a couple people pull off the side of the highway and through a ditch to get to a side road because there was traffic or something. A lot of people have honked at us when we are in the street, but luckily theres a good park trail system that takes us all the way from a mile from our house all the way downtown and around the city.