Diego Visits ATX

Chucky talks with his cousin Diego about the week they spent together in Austin, Texas. From 6th Street to Rainey to Barton Spring to BBQ, Chucky gave Diego the world-wind tour of ATX. Find out Diego's impressions of his first time in Austin.

Transcript

Welcome to Chucky Radio.

Hello. Well, I'm back It has been way too long since I did an episode of Chucky Radio. It's just been one of those things I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life over the last couple years and I keep meaning to do an episode and I finally just said, “You know what?” I just got to do one, and I had a special guest in this week. And so it gave me the motivation to do another episode because one of the things I love about living in Austin is having people come for the first time and getting to see it and getting to show them around and that's when I get the experience Austin. So this past week, I had my cousin come in from Miami and I'm going to bring Diego on the line. 

Hello.

So, Diego you are my second cousin twice removed.

Something like that, yeah.

We figured this out the other day when we were hanging out and I was pulling up the chart like exactly how are we related, and your grandmother and my mother are cousins, and so your mother is a second, oh no, your grandmother's a second cousin to me and then your mother is once removed and you're twice removed. So there you go, and here's a funny part. I always love the fact that in the Latin culture, we kind of call everybody who's even remotely related to us cousins.

Right.

Because you know, it's like I mean, we're all family and we're all, you know, for us, our families are from South America, Colombia, Peru. I've got family all over and so when you have family in areas where you visit frequently my mom lives in Miami so I see you, you know, but every six months, every year, we hang out, and so you're like a cousin, you know.

Right.

So, you had the chance, first time you'd never been to Austin before, right?

No, I've never been to Austin never been to Texas, so first time with both.

First impression. You get in I grab you at the airport.

It's it's less hot than Miami. So that was my first impression. It's not as hot as I thought it was going to be.

And the thing is, is like I think heat wise, like temperature wise it is probably comparable, but it's just that humidity makes such a huge difference, right?

Yeah. Yeah for sure. I mean, I didn't feel the humidity that I'm used to so it just felt not as hot, so I was happy.

There you go and so of course as I mentioned I love having visitors, first-timers coming here. I want to show you the ropes I want to take you everywhere. I want to do as much as possible. You're here for one week. Did we get a lot of stuff done in that week?

Oh, no, we didn't do anything at all. The whole time just playing battleship.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're just playing cards, battleship, you know didn't do anything.

Yeah. Mostly dopey here and there.

Now the funny thing is, one thing you mentioned towards the end of the week, and I always say this, it's like when you have a lot of things go on, so you create like a lot of memory markers, you look back and you go “Holy cow, I've only been here a week? It feels like I've been here like a month!” Right?

Yeah, by the by the second day I felt like I had already been there a while. So started compounding after that.

So one of the first things I always do taking people around Austin is of course Austin's known for its party scene for its bar scene, and you know, what do you think? I mean Sixth Street, there's Dirty Sixth, the East Side Sixth, Far West Sixth, and then of course, there's now Rainey Street. What's your impression so far?

It was interesting to see to see it all because you know I I heard about Austin through Joe Rogan and through Kill Tony, so like I've heard different things, you know, about downtown Austin, so it was Interesting to see it firsthand, you know, and the day is kind of chill, but at night time it definitely, especially in the weekend, gets a little crazy.

And it was actually really cool that we went by Joe Rogan's comedy place and obviously I ran into a guy on the sidewalk that you knew from that Kill Tony show.

Yep, so we were driving by we stopped when we parked right by the Mothership, took a couple pictures and as we're about to leave I ended up seeing Drew Nickens who is a brand new regular maybe a couple weeks ago he was made a regular for Kill Tony. He had been signing up for about 10 months. He lived out in Dallas and would drive to Austin every Monday to sign up for the show and then he finally got picked 10 months later, and he did really well and they ended up making him a regular so I ran into him in the corner of the street. I said hello. He was holding his famous energy drink and then he just walked away.

I mean, I mean it was kind of fun to see you kind of spot like a semi celebrity. Of course, I didn't know who the guy was, but you just like, “hey, that's so-and-so,” and then you just like went over and talk to him and you're like, “whoa, he was like cool.”

Yeah, my first five minutes on 6th Street I ran into somebody that I had seen on TV so that was pretty cool he looked exactly the same and, yeah, it was cool.

So a lot of bars, a lot of bar hopping going on I mean and then eventually, of course one of my favorite spots we end up going to Barton Springs. And, you know, I kind of gave you a little warning saying the water is going to be cool. But like, you know, don't worry about it. Just jump in and you'll be fine. You know, obviously just this beautiful spring fed pool. How is that initially?

It was very refreshing, you know, I do enjoy cold water, but natural cold water is very different than like a cold shower, per se, but um, it was really cool It was very refreshing. It was good to swim around and see everybody.

It woke your ass up, right? I mean I could tell like when you first dove in, you go, you yelled out a little bit, you're like, “holy sh%!”.

Yeah, yeah, that initial shock is, hits nice it's like a quick little little pie and then I started swimming and I realized I was not in the best cardio shape, when it came to swimming.  

I definitely challenged your cardio system this week, between swimming and hiking and fricking endless walking around, you felt it.

Yup, I mean, you told me we were just gonna play battleship in your apartment, and you tricked me. I was tired and I couldn’t do anything. You just made me hike and swim and walk and scooter.

Oh yeah, we had to hit the electric scooters because a few times you get to the other end of downtown and you realize, oh sh%!, it I gotta walk all the way back, and it's like “nah, we'll take a scooter.” And now that they have all the bike lanes and scooter lanes around downtown, it feels a lot safer. So I felt I felt decent about putting you on a scooter. Okay, so just to finish on Barton Springs. I mean overall, ambiance, you know, hanging out on the hill, enjoying the vibe. You liked it?

It was very chill. Like I said, I think the the energy it seemed like everybody, you know, enjoys their time there. So there wasn't anything super crazy going on. No like, bad vibes. Everyone was there just having a good time. So that was that was really nice.

So now, the next day and in both that day that we met up to go to Barton Springs and the following day, you took the train downtown. I'm working during the day. I show you how to get on the train you jump on the train. You just roam on your own for a few hours. And then we meet up. I mean the train, it was late one time, I think on the second day, but generally it's a nice system, right?

Yeah, I mean it's it's pretty efficient I got on the wrong way one day so that was fun. I went north instead of south.

You went north instead of south, yeah. And then you got on the right train then you get downtown. That was a day, I think I told you, hey go check out the Austin Library, go walk around, you know.

Yeah, that was that was the day I went the wrong way and then I made it to downtown. I started walking. I checked out the Four Seasons, then I walked over to the library which was really cool because the whole top is covered with solar panels, and I'm in the solar space so I was on the terrace looking at the solar panels. And yeah, it was a it was a really cool library. 

Yeah, and then you made it around Lady Bird Lake, you took the trail, checking that out and then we met down off a Rainey. And It was so early that there wasn't really anything going on at Rainey, so we just ended up actually taking scooters back into downtown. Eventually, I took you to one of my favorite little speakeasies, the Firehouse Lounge. You know, you come in, it's like it's actually a hostel, and you walk in the front of the hostel, and then there's like this bookcase that you slide open and go in and that was a fun experience, right?

Yeah, yeah, it made me feel like I was in New York at some cool secret bar, so that was unexpected.

It was a chill night, but there were cool people in there, and you know, we had fun. From there we stopped by said hi to my buddy Pat who's playing guitar. He does his little act off of Sixth Street, so he plays on Dirty Sixth Street. So he was at San Jac's, and then from there we ended up at Barbarella. Now Barbarella that right that place has got an interesting vibe to it, huh?

Yeah, I think that night they were playing like 2000s music. You know, so we were we were just having a good time.

Partying a little bit too much as I recall. I wasn't drinking, I'm on this little get lean program right now so I wasn't drinking, but Diego made up for me, and he had a few, you got a little tipsy.

I was drinking for two people for sure.

You were. The night of debauchery. Oh, Diego, I had to wrangle you in that night, but we survived, that was the important part.

Yep and my my phone had died a while ago because I went out on the train at 3 o'clock and I have an iPhone 10 so it pretty much died by 7 o'clock, so it was cool to just be, you know, fully present in the moment not checking my phone, having a good time looking at different places and just just having fun.

Yep, yep, it was a good night. It was a fun night. I enjoyed watching you enjoy it. That was kind of my vibe that night is I was just like, oh my God, Diego was just you're getting into the music, you're getting into all the places we're going. So that was fun. So we get up on Friday so that was Thursday, and then we hit the green belt, because of course part of Chucky's tour of Austin I've got to take you out to Sculpture Falls. What's your, what's your impression?

Um, I'm not much of a hiker, I've done it before. But, I really had a good time, especially at Sculpture Falls. Again, you see a lot of other people, everyone is enjoying themselves, everyone is present, there's kids, there's dogs, there's nature. You know, there's cold water again. So, it definitely, I wasn't sure what to expect, you know the first, you know, round of the hike I was like, “when are we gonna get there? Is it gonna be worth it?” And it was definitely, it was definitely worth it.

You were getting close to bailing on me I mean, I kind of had to give you a little extra encouragement, cuz you're just like, oh man, my legs are hurting! 

Yeah, I mean when you don't you don't hike for a while, you know, you're used to just walk in on even ground, it takes a toll on you.

It was a challenge but worthwhile challenge because of course the payoff of just getting a hang at Sculpture Falls. Such a beautiful little, you know, I mean spring fed waterfalls, pool area, all-natural, just is so nice. I mean, it's definitely one of the gems of Austin. So yeah, it was beautiful I'm glad you got to enjoy that. And, let's see we ended up that night kind of getting back from our hike, little decompress, get ready, go out on a Friday night, and it felt kind of weird that night, right? We were hitting Rainey Street.

It was uneventful for sure, you know we went one place, then we checked out another and then you know, the the energy just wasn't there. So we just called it a night and that was fine, because I was exhausted from the hike.

I mean, I attribute the off night, and actually I think even Saturday night we ended up not going out because, it's summertime, you know, Austin is a big University town, so obviously no one's in for school, it's just summer classes going on. So it always changes the vibe on, you know 6th Street and Rainey, and on all that, and so I definitely felt that on Friday night like, it was really young in some places, and then you could tell there's a lot of like tourists and different people.

A lot of bachelorette parties.

Yeah, a lot of bachelorettes coming in from out of town, and it was just yeah, there was hordes of bachelorette parties. I think we saw, we must have seen minimum 10 plus bachelorette parties.

We saw like six in one, at Clive’s.

At one bar, six bachelorette parties, that was insane. So yeah the summer kind of nightlife vibe is a little little different in Austin, than what you would find in the spring or fall. So yeah, when you come back, I definitely recommend you come back spring or fall that really get the feel for what the nightlife is. But then you did get the opportunity Saturday night you discovered this place that someone recommended to you that I didn't even know about, brand new venue, and they had DJ playing, and you ended up going out to that and I I it was such a late, I think what was it from 12 to 3 a.m. your DJ was playing, and I'm like, yeah, I'll drop you off out there, and you can Yber back and you ended up having a good time, right?  
 Yeah, it was a Concourse Project out by the airport. I'm very much into the EDM scene over really any other music genre so I was asking around, where can I you know catch some good EDM music and they told me about this place, I looked it up and one of the DJs that I really enjoyed listening to was performing that night. So I bought my tickets and I just went solo, which sometimes is really fun to just go out by yourself and listen to music and uh. It was definitely a lot of younger people at the event, but I was there for the music. So I was just having a good time just dancing by myself pretty much.

Yeah, I could see you doing that. I could see you just, you know enjoying, the music a DJ that you had known but you've never seen in person, right?

Yeah.

Very cool. Sunday, just kind of going through the trip now, we ended up kind of a chill day, but then that afternoon we ended up going to one of my favorite interactive museum here in Austin called Wonderspaces. What'd you think about Wonderspaces?

It was really cool. Each, you know, piece of artwork or interactive, you know scene was it was so cool to to see and and interact with, and again not be on the phone. Just be present, enjoy the art, interact with it. I really liked the one where people write different messages and you get to pick it up and you get to see other people's messages and then you get to write your own message and put it back or someone else to read it, you know, in the future, so I thought that was pretty cool.

That that's a really popular one. That one, actually, it's been there since the very beginning. They've never taken that one out, because they rotate a lot of the exhibits and take some out and put in new ones, etc. And that one has always been there, and I think I even saw it once like at South by Southwest, and that exhibits called “The Last Word.” And so it's kind of an opportunity for you to just write something that you left unsaid. You know, something you wanted to tell somebody that you didn't get a chance to tell them, and so, yeah, it's really fascinating to pull the one, you know, this is all anonymous because you write it, you know, you know, unless you want to put your name on it, you don’t, and so you get to read other people's last words and it's interesting, there's some really good ones, there's some that are just silly, and then you and then it's kind of fun that you get to contribute to it.

Yeah, it's a cool concept for sure, you know. Especially if you're passing on a good message because you never know what people are going through so you may pick it up and it may be, you know, directly affecting how you feel or like you said, it may just be something silly that, you know, that’s just ridiculous.

Yeah, and then of course there is the sewing machine Orchestra, which is really cool.

That was cool.

You've got, yeah, the lights the string of lights hanging from the ceiling that start flashing in all these different sequences, the projector that you walk in front and you splash color on the wall, I mean just I I just I've always loved that exhibit, it's I mean, you know, that space, I should say and and enjoy seeing all those exhibits So yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Always always a fun time there, always a good experience. And so we ended up kind of wrapping up the week. Going to one of my favorite spots to go hit this beautiful river, spring-fed river, as you notice the theme in this area is everything is “spring-fed,” the water is always so nice and clear and nice and cool too on hot summer days and so we we ended up at San Marcos and went paddleboarding up the San Marcos River through the center of town. And, what did you think about that?

Yeah, I mean you definitely took me out of my comfort zone this trip, you know I'm not normally one to to hike or to paddleboard just because I get kind of lazy. But it was definitely worth it. I didn't really know what to expect. The way up the river was a little challenging especially after everything that my body had already been through for the last week but the way down was really nice because you just got to kind of chill and the river, yeah it just kind of took you down on its own. So yeah, it was nice.

And you get up to the headwaters and you get up to that really cool, where the waterfall coming off of the pool that all the springs basically feed into, and so it's kind of a nice reward at the end of this upstream journey that you go on and there were some spots, I mean, I have to admit since you didn't really paddleboard a lot, I was impressed like the water gets moving pretty quick and you got to be a pretty efficient paddler to make it up some of these spots, and you were champ and you did it. So it was a it was fun experience for sure.

Yeah, I mean there's always life lessons in there, you know, especially like with the hiking and the paddleboarding like you said, like, it's challenging but it's at the end of the challenge it becomes worth it with where you where you get to and then you feel very proud of yourself for, you know, the hiking or the paddleboarding, and then you get to enjoy, you know the fruits of your labor and enjoy the way back. And everyone again, just like Barton Springs, just like Sculpture Falls, even in downtown, everyone's energy is very friendly. Everyone says hi. You spark up random conversations. Everyone's laughing, just having a good time, good energy, so it's kind of hard to be in complainer mode while everyone is having a good time.

Exactly. Now that is definitely something that I think a lot of people enjoy about coming to Texas is this friendly attitude this kind of more open attitude to engage with strangers, it definitely makes you feel a little bit more welcome, and like you're kind of more injoying the sense of this community. And then after a day of paddleboarding. Oh, we forgot one thing, before we went paddleboarding. I said this is your chance, let's get a good meal in and you wanted to try some Texas barbecue. Took you to the famous Terry Black's barbecue. You got a meal there, huh? 

Terry Black's, can't forget it.

Great brisket. You, you my friend load it up on the ribs. I was like, yeah, he's gonna have trouble finishing those ribs.

It's hard to tell when they try to serve it. You don't know how much it weighs. You don't know how hungry you are, so she cut one. I was like, uh, and she's like two, uh, she's like I'll give you four. I was like, okay, but the definitely went a little overboard with the ribs, but they were left finished that day, so yeah, it was fine. The mac and cheese really good, the brisket was really good, the barbecue sauce was amazing, and I topped it off with a nice classic glass of coke.

There you go. Good ole, straight up Coca-Cola. And then, it was your last evening, it was just gonna be a chill night. I wanted to show you Mueller, which is an area that we didn't get a chance to really go and experience, so I just say, hey, let's just pop over there so we can walk around for a minute. You got a chance to see Mueller in that community, which is an area I've been looking at, you know, moving to. Nice, and then as a final hurrah we had one last get-together over at Lala’s. And then, and that wrapped up our trip. You got to see the bar that never takes down Christmas decoration, celebrates Christmas 365 days a year. And I got the kick of your butt and pool.

You did. I'm not gonna make excuses, but yeah, I kind of let you win cuz, I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna beat you at your own game at your own bar on the last night.

Okay, I hear repeat challenge here. All right, buddy. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed Austin. We got a chance to, you know, reminisce on this past week that felt like a month.

It felt like a month for real.

We did so much and now you're back in Miami. You're chilling, getting ready to get back into work mode. I'm doing the same and I will be seeing you the next time I pop into Miami, which is gonna be in September.

For sure, I'm looking forward to having you here, and then to going back at some point to Austin at a different time to check out, you know, same places different time, should be interesting.

Exactly. All right, cuz. You have yourself a good evening. It was a great having you on Chucky Radio podcast.

I appreciate it man. Have a good night.

Take care. Bye. 

Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Chucky radio, I hope you enjoyed it. Our theme music is by our friend, Guy Porter. Until next time, this is Chucky. Peace out.