Mini-tour recap and upcoming coffee reviews

The mini tour in Texas (see June 21 blog post for details) went very well on several fronts: positive gigs, finding exceptionally good coffee roasters, checking out some great (and one not so great) skatepark, and most importantly - being around some amazing and beautiful people!   So, I'll start by talking about the first stop of the tour: Denton.

We started our series of gigs on Friday night at Killer's Tacos - which was about to be sold off and turned into a different venue.  Killer's vegetarian menu was pretty outstanding -- and I should know because I ordered four of their vegetarian tacos! I thought the sound system was really good and the vibe pretty chill. I've been told that when the place re-opens later this year, the vibe will still be the same.

Saturday morning, I checked out two coffee places and both were beyond amazing.

[NOTE: Photo of my coffee haul at the bottom of this post. I'll post extensively about the coffee roasters I visited in an upcoming post.  There's a lot to discuss!]

After coffee, I went to my first skate stop: Roanoke Skatepark.  I had been to Roanoke before (see post on March 31) and wanted to check it out using my new-ish Texican deck.  You know, I need to write about the Texican deck and the main man before the craft, Frank Gardner.  Again, I'll put a pin in that statement for a future post.

Watauga Skatepark

As last time, Roanoke was super fun, although I didn't go into the bowl this time as it was busy with other skaters.  Still a first class park and very well maintained.

Next park was the Watauga Skatepark.  It's a small park (see photo) but perfect for a beginner / intermediate level skater.  The small covered bench area was highly appreciated as the temperatures was reaching close to 95!

After that, I drove from Fort Worth to Waco and checked out the Sul Ross Skatepark.  Oh man, this place was my favorite of the three this day - mainly because of the long pool feature.  Super clean park with lots of subtle ebbs in the concrete that makes riding a blast.  I wish I could have spent a lot more time here but (a) it was almost 100 degrees outside and (b) I kinda really needed to get back on the road to Austin for a gig that night.  But man, I can't wait to find an excuse to go back there.

My weapon of choice: an IYV 300 Guitar

The gig in Austin was at a house called Arnold House... because it's on Arnold Street.  House shows can be loads of fun, but a major challenge for me as I need a serious PA system to help push the drum machine at level with the guitar.  

Luckily, I have known the people in Shipwrecked and Self-Checkout Renaissance and I asked if one of their members could play an impromptu minute set with me.  

Josh from Self-Checkout got volunteered to play drums for my set and we played a cracking 30 minute impromptu kraut rock set.  I was super pleased with how it turned out and so was everyone else... who thought it was my normal set!

Sunday morning - got up and out to pick up a bag of beans at Greater Goods... but... I saw a review for a place called Progress Roasters that was on my route to Greater Goods and... well... I had to check it out.

Progress Coffee Roasters is located near downtown Austin, just off the highway.  It doesn't have a great view, but man oh man, what a great coffee place!  I ordered a cup of standard black - which was a Central American blend.  Normally, that's not my thing, but it was well done and flavorful.  I picked up a bag of their Ethiopian and hit the road again for Greater Goods.

Now, in my post from February 14th, I made note about a coffee I enjoyed at the Bernie Bean.  Bernie Bean featured a re-branded coffee from Greater Goods as THEIR coffee... but after a little digging, found out that their coffee was sourced at Greater Goods and the coffee I fell in love with was a Costa Rican bean.

Arnold House  (Austin, TX)

So, as you can imagine, part of my objective for this tour was to make a stop at Greater Goods and pick up a bag of this incredible batch.

And now... with treasures of coffee beans safely tucked away in the car, I sped off to find the next series of skateparks.

My first skatepark of the day was at Mueller Skatepark. I noted that while Google Maps notes the park as Gaylord Sackler Memorial Park, all the signs at the park say Mueller Park.  Apparently - the park has both names officially.  But... what's most important was how nice this park is.  AND, it has a pump track!  I really had a blast at this park, even though it was freakishly hot.

My next stop was at the Jackson Tyler Norris Memorial Skatepark (see photo below).  I loved this park too!  Nice ramps, clean and well maintained, and so much fun.  I thoroughly enjoyed this park and was disappointed when I couldn't spend more time there due to being super hot and tired.

So, with a couple of bottles of fresh, cold water in the car, I drove off to Houston... but had a note to stop in Sealey as I wanted to see their park next.

Jackson Tyler Norris Memorial Skatepark
& my Texican deck

However, I knew there was a park or two on my way to Houston -- specially at a place called power plant skatepark.  More specifically, the Smithville Powerplant Skate Park.

Once I arrived, I was intrigued as it looked kind of small, but well used.  However, once I got wheels on the ground, it was apparent that the park suffered from a lack of maintenance.  The graffiti didn't bother me at all, it was the crumbling concrete and dirt build up all around.  If you click on the link to the park - you'll see photos of how it looked when it opened.  But today, it's a sad and neglected.  I hope the city / parks board does something to give the skatepark a little love.

So, I didn't spend much time at all at the Smithville Powerplant Skatepark and was back on the road to Sealy, Texas.  That park was diametrically the opposite of Smithville!

Both are small, but Sealy's skatepark is very clean, well-maintained, and great for beginners.  Smithville looked rough around the edges, but expert skaters might enjoy the challenge of the place.

I enjoyed the Sealy skatepark a lot... mainly because I could skate it without getting stopped by rocks / broken bits of pavement.  Nice but also nothing special.  If you're traveling near Sealy, Texas and you have your deck... give it a spin!

Anyway, I made it to Houston and got to the venue just in time to get set up and soundcheck for the set.  The gig went well, but it was super sad to note that it was Shipwrecked's last gig for a long time as their drummer is moving to (ugh) Santa Monica.  :D

All in all, a great three day trip with friends, coffee, and lots of skateboarding... and almost dying from heat exhaustion!!! 

Self-Checkout Renaissance (Houston gig)

Shipwrecked (Houston gig)

Look at all that roasted bean goodness!!!

A Different Kind of Tour (no band this time)

I had hinted about this a while ago on my Instagram accounts, but here we are for the big reveal!  Yup - instead of touring for band promotion, I am hitting the road to enjoy traveling for a change and have fun exploring trails and parks.

Typing that sentence out is weird for me as I've spent 14+ years planning tours based on where my band can perform and how much distance we can "reasonably" tackle between cities.  Touring life - contrary to popular belief - is neither glorious nor fun.  It's a race from city to city, trying to stay awake, friendly, fed, passably sober and, not go broke in the process.  All in the name of trying to increase your fan base.  Many times, it's a thankless and frustrating experience and must be done with a degree of consistency for it to "work".

And now, with the passing of time, I don't have an interest in that lifestyle.  Often when I was on tour, I would wish I had more leisure time to explore the cities we stopped at and just enjoy the community and the surrounding countryside.  

I started embracing that concept on my last few tours with Stockhausen & The Amplified Riot -- taking my bike and/or my skateboard and giving myself extra time between gigs to enjoy the experience.  And now... I'm ditching the band aspect completely and focusing on exploring the bike trails and skateparks without any band pressure.

And so, below is my plan of travel for late September [edit: November].  I'll be packing up my trusty Nissan Rouge with my bike, skateboard, and whatever else I need for the journey.

Along the way, I'll also check out local breweries and (most importantly) coffee roasters!  I'll have a large, insulated bag so I can keep the bags of coffee protected as I drive from place to place over the course of two weeks.

My goal is not to achieve hundreds of miles of bike riding - it's to enjoy the trip and check out the bike trails and skate parks that I had to drive past when I used to hustle for band work.

In other bike news, I'll be training for the Hotter'n Hell bike ride (100 miles) in August and the Bike Around the Bay (174 miles) in October.

Other big endeavors on the horizon - I'm planning on late Spring 2024 to ride on the Great Allegheny Passage.  This route will take about 10 days to complete and cover 500 miles from Pittsburgh, PA to Harpers Ferry, WV and back.  I'm planning to do this ride instead of the MS150. I'd like to do the MS150 again... but I feel there's some changes that will need to be made in the management of the ride for it to become enjoyable again.

I know there are plenty of riders and groups that can accomplish these rides / routes in far less time... but my goal is not to crush miles under my wheels in the name of distance.  I want to enjoy the sights, sounds (solitude) and nature and be able to enjoy these rides while I still can do them.  :) 

Tour, Skate, Chill

It's time for another quick tour around Texas for Stockhausen and the Amplified Riot. 

This time, I'll be touring with my friends from Shipwrecked and Self Checkout Renaissance - both from Baton Rouge.  I'm super excited to travel with these awesome bands - and also excited to be hitting up a few new skate parks along the way!

Here's how it's looking for this weekend:

I've hit up Roanoke before during a tour last March - and it was a fun, easy riding park.  But the others will all be new to me.  I'm especially looking forward to Gaylord Sackler skate park because it has a pump track!

I'll also (of course) be checking out coffee roasters - especially in Austin.  I was looking forward to hitting up Texas Coffee Traders but they will be closed by the time I make it into town.

Ranch Road Roasters and recent Houston gig

It's been weirdly busy but also - not so bad that I am stressed out or lacking time to do the things I love... like drink coffee!  Note: I'm only slightly exaggerating. 

I picked up this bag of beans a few months ago (I know... shame on me for waiting so long!) at the Ranch Road Roasters in downtown Fredericksburg, Texas.  I have to give credit to the staff at Ranch Road for being patient - even with a line of customers behind me - for taking time to explain their coffees.  The staff brought out their head roaster who also took some time to explain to me (and everyone within earshot) of their roasting methods with the various beans.

So now, after a few months, I finally made it to this batch!  I have been searching for more information on the Ethiopia Abana Anderacha Lot - but very, very little can be found... which is frustrating because this is a pretty special coffee. 

With my first sip, this coffee starts off mild and blooms slowly with lemon, honey, and a floral coffee finish.  It may be mild, but the "fruit" notes of the coffee stay on my palate after sipping -- this is a good thing!  I don't like milk in my coffee but I could see a dash of oatmilk going well with the sweet, fruity coffee notes of this brew.

For this coffee, I used a slightly finer grinding setting than I would normally use for Ethiopian and the results were quite good. The coffee fruit and floral essence came out much stronger on the finer grinding settings.  Also, I normally like to wing it when I'm making coffee, but for my initial tasting, I kept to the golden ratio so I could bring out the complex notes of the coffee properly. 

In other news: I played a gig at The End last week with my friends form the band Sex Mex, Pathos and Logos, and Rhizomata.  

I've played gigs with Sex Mex several times and I've seen them when they were a three-piece, a duo, and now.. and four-piece band.  Each time I see them, they always deliver an outstanding, tight show of post-punk / new wave.  Absolutely have mad respect for them!

Pathos and Logos are super nice dudes who play a style of music I would call gamer soundtracks, however - I think they would call it prog rock.  It's not too complicated and fussy, keeps a steady beat,  and is instrumental... so it's perfect music for playing action / fps type video games.

Here's a few pics from the night -- I didn't stay long for Rhizomata as it was getting late and I had to be up early for work.  :/ 

Sex Mex

Pathos and Logos

New Bicycle Alert: the Fuji Sportif!

Well, look what I just did.  🚴‍♀️

It's not like I said I would NEVER use a multi-speed bike... I was just very committed to staying on that single speed train to the point of being obstinate.  I still adore the State 4130 bike (and the hundreds... if not thousands... of dollars in upgrades / changes), but I need a bike that can help me tackle a significant amount of miles while also not breaking my body into useless goo.

And so, behold!!!  The Fuji Sportif 2.1.

I promised myself that I would make minimal changes to this bike - which was a big reason why I purchased this particular brand and model.  I looked at less expensive multi-speeds; but many reviewers of those bikes noted the quality issues with the gearing, seat, and other parts.

The Fuji Sportif line has received several good reviews - although the 2.1 model hasn't received a lot of reviews that I could find online... and I looked and looked and looked.  I found several "reviews" of the bike by online stores / dealers... but not many true, independent product reviewers.  

Nonetheless, I looked up the major parts individually and noted that most pieces were either made by Fuji directly or via one of their holdings - such as Oval.  The crank mechanism was made by FSA (Full Speed Ahead) and the gear shifting system is an R9 made by microSHIFT (with cabling made by Jagwire).  The bike came with Vittoria Zaffrio 700 x 30 tyres (with Chaoyang tubes) and a tried-and-true KMC X9 chain. 

The rear cassette is a microSHIFT 9 speed and has the following gears:  34, 28, 24, 21, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11. The front crankset is an FSA 50/34 set.  Another note: The fork is C5 carbon while the bike frame is A2 butted aluminum.

So all-in-all, a very good set-up right out of the box.  MY only issue with the set up are the pedals.  They are non-branded pedal with footstraps on one side - which I didn't like.  I'm not a fan of clip / strap pedals as I like a big, wide platform pedal.  My State bike has a set of Chromag Scarabs, but I have been wanting to try out something different.  After a bit of reading / research, I decided on a set of Deity Deftraps.  They are plastic - so they are light - but also strong and less expensive than metal pedals.

I also decided on changing out the tyres for a set of Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TRs - mainly because I had read review after review about how amazing these tyres are for road biking.  So, what the heck, why not try them?!  I had a spare set of Continental tubes that I was planning on using with the State bike, but never did since the tyres on it are still good -- although will probably need to get replaced very soon. 

TLDR: As of this post, I have completed 150 miles on the bike and my impressions are that this is a GREAT bike for me.  It's light (21 pounds), has a robust gearing system, very quiet on the pavement,  and is a lot of fun!  It doesn't have the distinctive colour scheme as my State bike, but I'm very much into the feel of how this bike handles.