The Swimming Hole 5-3-2009

Since we sold Johnny’s regular bike last night I had to go to the bike shop and retrieve the tag-a-long. Johnny, Nigel, Richard and I went for a ride today to the river to go swimming. I grabbed my camera and put in a new compact flash card as I ran out of room yesterday. Little did I know that I also ran out of juice. I wouldn’t have known because the display is broken and I can’t read anything. I think that in my blind search for a timed delay exposure I must have hit the quality of the save because now I can only store 30 pictures on a 1GB card. That’s what I get for not downloading last night.

We left at about 8:15 and first went through the red light district to say hi to all the “ladies”, then to breakfast across the street from PingTung Technical University. Johnny was too busy bantering with Nigel to order breakfast so I had to. After breakfast we went up a couple hills (actually bridges) that Johnny proclaimed were mountains and therefore, I had lied to him. I was beginning to believe him as he has gained weight. I keep looking to see if I had flat tires. Luckily, once in awhile he actually pedaled. Soon we were there. And so was everyone else from PingTung County.

Being hot one might expect spectacular scenery, but Taiwanese are afraid of the sun, and any girl who actually went into the water was fully dressed. Fully: long sleeves and long pants as well. But the water was nice, only cold when you first get in, and Johnny and Nigel took turns tormenting each other.

The swimming hole is a wide portion of the river that has been dammed up with rocks and tarps making a rather nice place to swim only getting maybe 8 feet deep in the center, but mostly shallow enough for most people to walk in. Richard and I had ridden here last week, on Thursday and there were only about 5 other people.

More and more people kept coming all the while we were there. We saw one group with their barbecue and propane bottle. There was even a watermelon in the water getting cool. We ate our sandwiches from 7-11, along with our rice triangles and chocolate bars. A great way to relax.

As we were leaving I got a call from Andy, the Yamaha dealer, inviting us out to lunch. Johnny and I were heading straight home, but Richard and Nigel were going back a different route down Eucalyptus Lane and through WanDan where Nigel lives. 10 minutes later I got a call from Richard. He had just received a call from Nigel, but it wasn’t Nigel. Nigel had left his phone somewhere and they were headed back to the swimming hole. Apparently when Nigel had changed clothes he had put his phone down and washed his hands. And he proceeded to forget his phone. It must be contagious because he was with me when I lost my last pair of sunglasses….

Johnny and I rushed home, showered, and then with Hsien-Ling, picked up Andy and went to lunch. He took us to the same restaurant he took me to after we played golf the other day. Great beef noodles with all you can eat noodles and broth.

After lunch Johnny went with our friend Flame and her two dogs to the park for a dog obedience class. Johnny’s job was to watch one while the other got trained. Lots of people showed up, but the trainer didn’t. Johnny had fun anyway.

At home at night there was the never ending game of monopoly as Johnny with now over $300,000,000 slowly takes my money away. Johnny has 14 motels and the service providers; I have 8 hotels and the airports. There is a lot of luck in this game. He keeps landing on the airports but keeps missing Times Square (Park Place for you old timers).

I will add pictures next time we go to the river.