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.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Little LiuChiou, around another island, again 5-2-2009
The Group, less me of course LaoSu called up last week and asked if I wanted to go to ride around Little LiuChiou Island with him and a friend. Since it was on Saturday and I had a ride scheduled on Sunday I had to ask permission from higher powers. No problem said the boss so I had her call and get the details. We were to meet at the harbor in Kaohsiung for a 9:30 am ferry ride to the island.
Friday was Hsien-Ling’s Birthday (plenty-nine years old) so we went to Kaohsiung for lunch at the same place David Horwitt from San Diego had taken us when he was in town scouring my brain for cycling tips. We had a good view of the harbor and I was able to see where I needed to come the next morning.
David called the other day to tell me about his trip. He was back in Taiwan for some more work but didn’t have enough time for another ride. He will be back again next year so hopefully he will have more time then. Work really gets in the way of one’s social life. We were also able to go to Costco to order two pair of glasses for me to replace the two I had lost recently. I wouldn’t say I have Alzheimer’s, but there is a good chance I have Part-timers. I didn’t know how long it would take me to get to the dock, I thought about two hours, ZhiSheng (my LBS buddy) thought an hour and a half. Just to be safe I left after breakfast at 6: 50. It took an hour and a half and the boat didn’t leave until 10:00. While I was waiting I saw more foreigners in one place than I have ever seen, including the airport when leaving or arriving in Taiwan. The HASH Harriers were having a run around the island this weekend, so there they were. A couple came over and asked about my bike but that was all the contact we had.
>Lots of Foreigners, but no, that's not our ride On the boat we sat upstairs in the back under cover. It was cool enough and breezy but I happened to sit in front of a speaker and had to listen to some dissertation the entire trip. It was in Taiwanese so I couldn’t understand a word of it. I finally got up and stuck my head out the side of the boat to get in the wind and out of the sound. It worked. We also saw three French girls who didn’t seem to be with the HASH group. Once we rode off on the island we only the foreigners once more when we stopped for drinks and some of them ran by.
Arriving at the Island The last time I was here Johnny was with me, along with ZhiSheng and a few others. We came and rode around the island. This time we came to the island and rode around… very haphazardly. Three people with us didn’t have bicycles so they rented two motor scooters. We first took the center road to the far side of the island and ate lunch. Then we rode around some more along the coast. We stopped at a marina and rested, took pictures, ate some more, and drank. As we were leaving I saw LaoSu start up a hill on a driveway of some sort. It was quite steep so I followed him. Down to the lowest gear and in the drops I found myself lifting the front wheel off the ground with each down stroke of the pedals. I stood up but found that at the bottom of each stroke there was no momentum to carry me forward and I was soon at a standstill. Wow, a hill tooooo steep.
Doesn't look that steep, does it?
At the top of the next hill we stopped and waited to everyone to catch up. They didn’t, so we went back to find out why. I waited at the entrance as LaoSu went in to find them. He came back and said (I thought) that one of the guys on the motor scooter had taken someone else to the restroom. Wrong. Apparently someone else had come in on a scooter, and left on one of the rented ones. Sneaky. When our guy got on the cycle he thought was his, the key didn’t work. They called the rental place and the boss came out and got him another cycle. Who would have thought that would happen on such a small island.
The group didn’t want to pay to enter into any of the tourist sights along the costal route, or visit the caves so we just rode around until 3:30 when it was time to go and catch the boat back to Kaohsiung.
On the way back we rode downstairs in the back. No announcer this time, thank goodness. The occasional sea spray felt great, but I need to rinse off my bike before it rusts.
Back in Kaohsiung we all went to dinner and had fish (what a surprise) although I don’t know how to explain which parts of the fish we had. All in all I ate too much and then had to ride home. One of the group was heading out in the same direction I was so he got me lined up on ZhongSheng road and I rode the rest of the way home on my own.
LaoSu and Mrs. SuOn the way, and almost home, I got a call from ZhiSheng asking where I was. Two blocks away, I said. He had someone in his shop who wanted to use Johnny’s tag-a-long bike. I asked if she wanted to buy it and he said maybe. I stopped at the shop and she followed me home. She turned out to be one (of many) of Hsien-Ling’s students. She decided to buy it but when she got home was overruled by her husband. Oh well.
Two days later ZhiSheng called and said someone else wanted to buy Johnny’s other bike. She came over and bought it. The tag-a-long is still for sale as Johnny is too big for it. Johnny will now move up to Hsien-Ling’s old bike and Hsien-Ling wants to get a new one, with an elect motor………..
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