Saturday Ride with Chandra

I made arrangements to meet up with Chandra at the train station this morning. The plan was to ride on over and see what was happening at the 25th Annual Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Fort Worth. We had originally intended to do an S24O this weekend but things fell through.

I was running late so I took a few shortcuts as I headed from home to the train station.

This pulled up behind me as I was waiting for the light to change at Cantey and 8th.

I rolled up and caught Chandra snapping photos.

Just before we left the train station we saw this Apache coming in for a landing. Of course we then had to search it out to get a look.

I'm not sure what it was doing here. It's possible they were getting ready to roll it into the convention center.

We safely left our bikes in the capable hands of the folks manning the bike corral.

Having the corral available made for a pleasant visit. Last year I walked my bike through the crowds.

Here's Chandra making friends.

Fort Worth aka Panther City

I don't know who they were but they played a nice rendition of Tumbling Tumbleweeds.

Nice setup!

After taking in the sights at the festival we headed south to Spiral Diner. Chandra is a vegetarian so this is the first place that came to mind.

I had a portabello quesadilla. Since this is a vegan restaraunt there was no cheese in the thing but whatever the substitute was, it was tasty.

Chandra rode back to the train station on his new Rohloff equipped Thorn Nomad. This is a serious touring bike. The placement of the front brake behind the fork was something that I hadn't seen before. I suppose its to prevent interference from the panniers.

On a Quest for Coffee

Work and family obligations have conspired all week to keep me from riding or blogging. I took advantage of the free time I had this afternoon and headed out the door with the intent of having a cup of coffee at the Spiral Diner, Fort Worth's only vegan restaurant. I'm not a vegan but I'm always looking for a good cup of coffee. 

I did something I've never done on a ride before, I wore jeans. I wore the removable padded liner from a pair of mountain bike short under my jeans which made for a comfortable ride.

I rode through the TCU campus rather than take the Trinity Trails.

I took a break near a building on Cantey Street that I believe is the TCU art department.

That baby head is kind of freaky!

I thought this was a stencil of Obama when I was riding toward the sign. I don't know who that is, maybe Henry Rollins? My wife thinks that it looks like the Janitor from Scrubs.

Riding on Cantey crossing 8th Avenue.

There are lots of nice old wood frame houses being remodeled in this area south of Magnolia Avenue.

Here's a fixer upper.

I arrived at Spiral Diner and discovered that the place was packed full. I didn't want to wait that long for a cup of coffee so I left. I walked next door to Panther City Bicycles and bought a t shirt. This is a new business just across the street.

This place caught my eye as I was riding north on Jennings towards downtown.

Riding under Interstate 30 on Jennings.

The view of downtown north of IH-30.

I settled for a cup of coffee from the Starbucks at Sundance Square. We seriously need some new coffee houses in Fort Worth. 

Fort Worth P.D. bike patrol officers

I came across this nice Bridgestone XO-1 while riding through Trinity park on my way home.

My last break near the Trinity River before arriving at my house.

Jingle Bash-An Enjoyable Evening

Jingle Bash is over, so that means that my life can return to normal. No more late night printing sessions trying to get ready for the show. The Etsy Dallas leadership did an amazing job organizing this event and drawing crowds of shoppers.

This is our section of the building before the start of the show.


My lovely wife manning our booth. It's almost impossible to get a photo of her when she isn't blinking.


I screen printed these business cards at the last minute the night before the show. We got lots of compliments on them.



We finally had the chance to meet some other Etsy Dallas members. They are a great bunch of people but one of the couples really stood out, Emily and Omar of Backbone, they are super nice people and are a joy to talk to. They are photographers although Omar has a day job working at the Spiral Diner in Dallas. They live in Oak Cliff and Omar uses his bike as his primary means of transportation. Emily says that their place is small but packed full of bikes. We traded some of Emily's photos for a couple of our t shirts.

Emily and Omar


I was also surprised when Mister Pondero himself, Christopher Johnson and his wife showed up at our booth. I wish that we had more time to talk bikes and stuff but business started picking up at about that time. I'm glad you made it out to the show Christopher.

One thing we were asked over and over again was if we printed children's shirts. I haven't yet but I am going to start real soon. We sold lots of shirts but I believe we could have doubled our sales if we printed kids shirts also.

This was our first show and it was a great experience, we had much more business than I had expected plus we made money for our children's Christmas. We'll definitely be doing more shows. Now I need to get back on my bike.

I wanted to show off some of Emily's work. These photos are from her Etsy shop. You can see more of her work here. Support your fellow cyclists and buy a photo if you can.