Thursday, February 19, 2009

Guan Yin Shan Golf Course

Andy, my friend the Yamaha dealer here in PingTung called me on Tuesday and asked if I wanted to play golf on Friday. Silly question of course. So on Friday I picked him up at seven and then dropped Johnny off at school and we drove to Guan Yin Shan golf course. Now if you don’t know where this course is and you can’t read Chinese it is not easy to find. Either from the east or the west the last 4Km is on a winding one lane road with no clues visible from anywhere. A few years ago it took Andrew Carrick and I three attempts and a lot of questioning before we found it. But now it’s easy.

The course had changed little since I was there last, besides getting harder. Some of the fairways were wider and there was new building going on around the course. It wasn’t a real picture-taking-day due to the overcast and occasional misting of rain, but the temperature was perfect. We had neither cold rain nor hot muggy feeling until the last hole when the sun came out. It was such a nice day I forgot to grab the scorecard from the caddy. Oh yes, in Taiwan you almost always have to have a caddy. Here we also had a cart. Andy had coupons, probably through Yamaha, and always lots of new balls. I forget how many I lost.

After a shower and change of clothes (almost all courses have locker rooms here too), we went to lunch in PingTung. He restaurant is on Gong Yuan Road behind the Police station just before the next corner and across the street from a big parking lot. We had Nio Ro Mien (beef noodle soup) something very common, but the best I have tasted. Even the noodles had good flavor. Now most places will give you more broth if you want it for your soup, but this place will also give you more noodles. I will be going back there again

Visitors from OZ and the saga of the Bundy Rum







It all started in Brisbane, Australia at the duty free shop at the airport. Ed and Gwen Rankin were going to Taiwan to visit the new Grandson Ian, and planned to bring the necessary provisions: Vega-mite; quarts of sun-screen; and a couple bottles of Bundy Rum (for dad of course). They bought two bottles and made it through customs in TauYuan International Airport. Then, in transitioning to a domestic flight to Kaohsiung they were informed that they could not take any bottles of liquid larger than 100ml. What a crock of stuff. The bottles were confiscated and “dumped out” (and I have some beachfront property for sale in Arizona). No discussions, arguments, threats or whatever could persuade them to change their mind. They were asked if they wanted to ditch the plane and take the bullet train instead.

One would think that because there were two different airlines involved they had a miscommunication, but no, both legs were on China Airlines. Go figure.

No Bundy Rum, what’s the point of the trip after all? Oh yeah, the new born grandson, Ian Rankin. I remember my mother coming to see my new born son. There wasn’t even a pretext of an interest in seeing me, my wife, Hsien-Ling, maybe, but me no. Just the new baby.

Anyway, it doesn’t take much of an excuse to get the expats together for breakfast so there we were this morning at the usual place, the Forest Café near the teacher’s college. In the first picture there is Brad, Andrew-never-late-for-golf-Carrick and his wife Julie, Bonnie Rankin, Hsien-Ling, me(no, I was taking the picture, really I was there). In the second picture is Gwen, Ed, Nigel Edgar, Richard and Ian (in the third picture).

Richard is taking the folks to Taipei Saturday for some touristy things via the Bullet Train. I haven’t heard Richard using much Chinese though he has been studying. That would be fun to watch, having been there myself when I showed my mother around Taiwan. Now I take my son who says “shut up your Chinese is giving me a headache, I’ll so the talking”, or something a little less rude, depending on who we are with. Sometimes with the guys on a bike ride it gets even worse……

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Big Bear In Winter



Big Bear in Winter is Beautiful. Only a smattering of snow on the ground but covered on the ski slopes. Perfect. The temperature was great, too. We cruised into town and got settled in our cabin, trying to find a place to put everything. The cabin is not very big; cozy is the word for it. We turned on the water and the water heater, got the furnace working and even built a fire.

We found a great Nepalese/Indian restaurant in The Village and went there for dinner. Excellent food and service. I ate too much of course. That will be a place we return to every time we come up. We don’t see too much ethnic variety in either Bullhead City or PingTung so we always look for something new when we get the opportunity.

We also shopped at the Stupididiotic shop that caters to my mentality. So many cool things but we settled on an extendable battery-operated rotating marshmallow roasting fork. It provided hours of entertainment (the fork that is): little things for little minds.

Since we came with the idea of skiing, we went to the Summit and purchased ski passes for the next day including lessons for Hsien-Ling and Johnny: two, two hour lessons each with beginner lift passes. Regular pass for me. I thought I had all my own equipment so we rented skis, boots and poles for them. We had to return after 2:30 to pick them up for use the next day unless we wanted to do it in the morning. Upon our return and the discovery that I couldn’t use my ski equipment, we got everything for all of us, save my poles which were the only thing I had that was usable. Dan at the equipment rental was extremely helpful in finding me more modern equipment and explaining to me how much more control I would have (as though I might have ever had some control) with the new parabolic design without telling me how archaic my old equipment was. And he was right, I actually amazed myself. He even came to our rescue when we turned in the equipment the next day and wanted to charge us for the second day even though we thought we were only picking them up early. Thank you Dan.

Johnny didn’t want to learn to ski. He would have rather stayed in the cabin and watched videos all day. I had to offer a bribe to the one (he or his mom) who skied the better at the end of the day. He tried to make a deal with his mom to win without the lesson but she wouldn’t go for it. But after the first lesson he was hooked. Said his instructor told him I should buy him some goggles, wolfed down a huge hamburger and a half them picked out the most expensive pair of goggles in captivity and raced back to his second lesson.

Hsien-Ling, on the other hand was set to be a career student and record holder of the come-back-until-you-learn-to-ski-guarantee. Her second lesson turned out to be one-on-one with a Chinese speaking instructor and she actually passed. She was too sore to go on the beginners’ lift one more time with me but swore she could actually ski. It had started to snow by the time Johnny had finished his second lesson so we called it a day as I had no chains and was wary of what the roads would look like if we waited too long. Yupper, I’m a flatlander.

The next day we built a big fire, rested our (my) sore muscles and played UNO almost the entire day. I lost so much that only in the last game was I able to regain my $2.00 I.O.U. It started to snow that evening, and had actually snowed about 2 inches earlier. We thought about making a dash for the border (home) but didn’t want to pack the car in the dark so we waited until morning.


This is what we got for waiting



Our Street

So instead of packing in the dark, we packed in the snow. And Johnny got to have a real snowball fight. We didn’t have to dig out the driveway (good thing because the snow shovel fell apart) but the CHP was requiring chains so we went down the street and bought them. We could have made it without them but….. now we have them.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

He Who Dies With the Most Toys



The Grate Has Seen Better Days

It has been said that “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” It has also been said that “He who dies with the most toys is still dead.”


Did you ever wonder if all the toys that you have accumulated still work? I thought I had a lot of toys but now have my doubts. My family and I came up to Big Bear for the week before our winter vacation was over. It was a chance to let my wife and son take skiing lessons (while I shooshed down the slopes). I signed them up for lessons, two each at two hours, and then arranged for equipment rentals. I had bought a pair of skis, poles and boots at a garage sale that I thought would work for my wife, Hsien-Ling, but thought it better to rent a set for her first time. We found out the boots didn’t fit anyway but would worry about the skis and poles later. As for me, I was all set. I thought.

When we were trying everything on before going to sign up, (when we found out Hsien-Ling’s boots wouldn’t fit), I broke one of the straps on my boots. That was one out of two. Since all the straps were the same vintage and made out of the same plastic…. Hmmmmm. Ok, I’ll rent boots, no sense buying a set at peak retail to use once every other year. But then the rentals didn’t fit my skis. The shop wouldn’t adjust the bindings because of their age, and new bindings would be about $300. At least I don’t have to rent poles. Maybe I can sell them all at a garage sale. That is more than I could do with the tent that I tried to put up last month and found that the top was rotten.

And Now We Have Chains


So how many other toys that adorn my garage are of the same quality? As the fable goes: A lump of gold and a gold-painted-rock are of the same value if you only want to look at them. So I think: “He who dies with the most toys, probably never had enough time to use them all.”

Monday, February 2, 2009

Searching for clouds

Me, Don, Ed, Mac and Chuck and the 206



Today, four buddies and I took off at 0-dark-thirty to fly to Prescott to get our bi-annual flight physicals. We all live here at the airport and all fly different kinds of planes. Ed has a Debonair; Don, a Mooney; Mac, a Sierra; and Chuck has two RV-6s that he built himself. Today we took my Cessna U206 since it has six seats.

What a beautifully smooth flight. We were surprised to see no snow on the Hualapai Mountains near Kingman. There was only a smattering of snow on the peaks to the south also. Although we didn’t see much snow, we did see a few trails that would be fun to cycle or hike in the summer time.

In less than an hour we were there, way too early for our appointments. The temperature was a nippy 24 degrees F. Flight Service said -5C. Cold however you say it, especially in the shade. BBBrrrrrrrrr. We all wanted coffee just to warm up our hands, so we went first to the airport coffee shop. Breakfast was an afterthought. It was pretty reasonably priced as well.

Getting back to the plane was interesting as we had to go through a locked gate and none of us bothered to remember the code that was printed on the other side. With a little help we made it through and were able to taxi ourselves to the other side of the airport to Ritt-Aire where Dr. Ritter has his practice. The Doc is an old friend of mine from Bullhead City. He used to have the only clinic in town, many years ago. We reminisced about old friends as I got my physical. We all passed, even Chuck, who will be 90 this November. He is also the only one of us that doesn't wear glasses.

The flight home was actually slightly longer even though we were going downhill. We skirted some mountains rather than skimming the top in order to avoid the bumps. As I skimmed it onto the runway there was a great round of applause. Whether it was for my landing or for getting them back alive they wouldn't say. One thing I have to say, though, it is a lot easier to push the plane back up into the hangar with five people than it is with only me.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cycling the Laughlin loop


I got up this morning, took a shower, got dressed and made my way to my computer waiting for everyone else to get up. About 8:00 my brother, John, I.M.ed me asking if I wanted to ride in about an hour after it warmed up. There was no wind today, no excuse there, yesterday I told him I had to wash my hair and he wouldn’t buy it then, I had to resort to my needing to wait for Jon the mechanic to finish fixing my plane. I couldn’t use that one today as he finished yesterday. There was no way out, especially since I got him started in riding in the first place. “I have created a monster!” was a quote that came to mind. “Give me a 15 minute heads-up.” I texted back, hoping he would find his own excuse or maybe the wind would pick up.

No wind, it was time to go. “Want to go to Laughlin?” he asked? “Are you nuts?” I thought. “How about the Parkway?” I asked. “Why?” he asked. “Who are you and what have you done with my out of shape sedentary brother?” I thought to myself. By that time, a half block from home I realized I had forgotten my Edge 705 GPS. I am not riding anywhere without “logging” it so I went back and got it, along with some Cliff Bars and two bottles of water and a wind-breaker. OK, let’s go to Laughlin.

John wanted to go clockwise so we started out and coasted most of the way to the Avi Casino. It is mostly flat for a couple miles before a long gentle uphill to meet up with the Needles Highway. I waited for him at the top, ate a Cliff Bar and admired the view. So clear we could see 50 miles, even more if the mountains hadn’t been in the way. Then I fixed my chain-rings. The bolts holding them onto the crank were getting loose, again. Of course I had thought of grabbing my tools before leaving the house, but, nah, I wouldn’t need them. I hadn’t even brought my wallet of phone. We used the spring clip on the back of John’s garage door opener and all was well. Just another reminder of why I bought the Long Haul Trucker. Unfortunately it is in Taiwan and I am here.

The next leg was flat and then a little downhill. Then the wind started. It is winter, so it came from the north, kind of the direction we were heading….. When we turned onto Casino Drive in Laughlin I had to downshift even though going downhill. That was not a good sign. We had three hills to go up, only one would have been a pain without the wind. With the wind they were all a pain. Finally we passed Harrah’s Casino and peddled downhill to the flat, and directly into the wind. We slowly passed the casinos until getting to the Riverside. There, the casino is close to the road on one side and the parking lot is close on the other and a skywalk connects the two creating a venturi that stopped me in my tracks. I struggled through and then waited to watch my brother get his surprise.

We made it around the corner, over the bridge and back into Arizona. We barely had to peddle for the next four miles. I rarely drive on Arizona 95 through Bullhead preferring instead to use the Parkway and bypass the lights and traffic. But, 95 is flatter, so….. I was surprised to see the number of vacant lots, there seemed to be more, and the businesses that were closed or closing. Modern day sandwich men were out with signs directing us to the stores that were closing: KB Toys in Laughlin, Office Max, etc. a sing of the present economy.
The wind was with us most of the way home until we turned east to head up the hill the last two miles. Big crosswinds are a nuisance. Finally up the hill and into the airport and we were home. The wind was pushing us all the way.