Evening stackers,

I write from my hotel having just checked in and showered after a very long productive day.

I landed in Austin at 1045 AM and I had rented a Turo. It took me a frustratingly long time to find the damn thing but once I was was in the right garage (blue not red) I found it pretty quickly. Then I went to my hotel, a grungy little thing 15 min south of round rock, only to be told I couldn’t check in for another 1.5 hours. I was looking forward to a shower and a nap before heading out to meet @Scoresby at PlebLab. No matter, the poker room The Lodge Poker Club was only a 13 min drive away. I could kill some time there no problem.

The place was really nice inside with plenty of tables and friendly staff. After getting my players account all set up I waited for 20 min or so to get seated at a 1/2 500 max no limit Texas Holdem game.

The game was good and the players were friendly. I posted a breakdown of my favorite hand in the saloon here:

#1602968

They had a table of treats for sale perhaps made staff member and I am sucker for both pastries and supporting small business so—win win. I got the pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting (delicious). Here it is:

I only played for 1.5 hours and instead of going to the hotel to check in I headed straight to town to meet with @scoresby and @k00b which I was a bit nervous about. I’m not a very social person. But I was doubly excited to not only meet some real life bitcoiners, but fellow stackers! The pm stackers who created and build this place no less ! So off I went, nerves be damned.

I found PlebLab easy enough. It’s a cool small space with ultimate hacker vibes. Scoresby and Koob came to say hey right away and were very cool and friendly. Koob wasn’t wearing any shoes, which is apparently normal for him, and as a fellow barefoot person, I give triple salute. Shoes suck. I’ve been a barefoot person my whole life and I too am barefoot at work every day. Kudos to Koob. He gave me some cool SN stickers and a cooler SN hat and pretty quickly Scoresby and I embarked on a city walk. I wish I would have thanked Koob for his founding and effort for curating this Bitcoin internet social for all of us but sadly I forgot.

It was very very cool talking to scoresby, what a guy. We had a lot of bitcoin related things to talk about which is so (pardon my French) fucking refreshing man. This is rare for me. Maybe for you too, dear reader. To be able to talk to a bitcoiner about bitcoin is so much fun. We can jump to this conclusion or that realization because we understand exactly where we are coming from in certain outlooks, opinions, knowledge, and world views. Scoresby is the man. He took me all around and showed me where there has been some awesome sounding Bitcoin events in the past. He showed me where the unchained head quarters is. He took me to Waller beach where walked along the Colorado River for a good ways. He showed me a bridge where apparently millions of bats live and come out at night in huge swarms. We could hear them chittering away. We saw a turtle. We saw a woman chatting on the phone in the grass with a HODL shirt on. Cool to see out in the wild, we both agreed.

He was quite curious about my poker playing and if someone is asking my about poker I have a hard time noticing anything else. So my recollection of surrounding details on the trail is a bit shoddy. I can rant and rant on that topic. I had a great time chatting it up and really appreciated his time taking me around. I loved talking and breathing bitcoin like it was a normal part of every day life. I felt submersed in its community just by chatting it up. We talked about the direction he would like SN to go and his efforts to make it happen. We spoke about current security incidents, cold storage options, SN sending wallet option past and present cultural shifts… it was great. Often I feel like I am the only real life bitcoiner out there when I’m surrounded by people who don’t know or don’t care but here in this moment, I felt the opposite. Perhaps it was the combination of being in a new city, talking to a new person, and seeing new things, but it felt like bitcoinization has already happened. It was normalized. We were the normal ones…

After an hour of walking we parted ways and it was time for me to EAT.

@plebpoet had suggested I go to a BBQ place called The Green Mesquite. “The real ones” go there she said. So not wanting to risk being a shoeby, that’s where I went.

Now the first thing I deeply appreciated was they had their own parking lot!! If you’ve ever been to Austin you know that parking here may be the only thing comparatively scarce to Bitcoin. The place has a real Texas saloon vibe to it and I thought just maybe this place has been here just as long as Austin. The man at the counter was friendly and had me sit anywhere. There was only one other person there. There were lots of old Texas decorations and Older country and blue grass songs playing which I appreciated. (Don’t like this new stuff in that genre)

I quickly decided that the best route would be a BBQ platter so I could try as many different things as possible. I went with the three meat choice and got smoked brisket, dark meat chicken, and sausage. My sides were green beans and fried okra and I got a shiner bock to wash it down with. Here it is:

Everything was delicious. I don’t know WHAT is going on with their BBQ sauce, sitting unceremoniously and unlabeled with all the other condiments, but it was amazing. It wasn’t crazy sweet and complimented the chicken and brisket so very well. I didn’t try on the sausage as I didn’t feel the need. It was so juicy and flavorful.

As I’m sitting finishing my beer something really wonderful happened. I saw a man through the window walking up, dirty and skinny and disheveled. He came through the door and I was too far to hear the words exchanged but I’m fairly certain he asked for a meal and said he couldn’t pay for it. Without anger or hesitation the guy working the counter said “I can do a sausage roll” and made him a small meal. The roll, some chips, and a water.

It was really wholesome and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it.

I left shortly after and sat in my car and pulled up BTCmaps to see what sort of trouble I could get myself into. Just 7 min drive away there was a place listed called Local Pastures. Here is their BTCmap and website:

https://btcmap.org/merchant/node:10791261306

https://www.localpastures.farm

These guys are awesome! It’s a tiny little store the size of a large Kobe’s box and they get local meats, dairy’s, produce, and coffee and sell them here. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was their square terminal. They have the flip version. I poked around for maybe only a minute before asking the man if they accept bitcoin and he said “yep no problem.” Ha! Another victory for the books. Now it’s time to shop. Unfortunately the majority of their stuff required a kitchen to get use out of but the selection was quite nice. I had to settle for snacks. I got a couple of beef sticks and some pecans by two separate local farms.

When it was time to ring up he remembered I wanted to pay with sats and pretty quickly generated a lightning invoice before flipping it over to me. Easy day. Phoenix wallet again didn’t disappoint in speed and success. I asked him if he had ever heard of BTCmaps and he said no. I let him know that’s how I found this image and gave a brief explanation about what it is. He thought it was pretty cool when I showed him. I also asked if anyone else spends bitcoin there he said maybe once a month. He did say that for some stretch of time in the past there was a guy who would come 1-2 times a week and spend his sats there but he moved away. Perhaps that guy is a stacker.

We had spoke a bit back at PlebLab about how disappointing BTCmaps can be. It definitely does not paint an accurate picture of where you can find places to spend your hard earned sats. So it felt good to get one first try. Maybe I’m lucky? Maybe I have a knack for finding the spots? Really I just liked that this one had a carrot as their symbol on the map and it was conveniently close by.

All in all, great day. I will now take a quick power nap and head back to the poker room for a couple hours of table time.

Day two post coming tomorrow!