I shouldn’t have said I’ve been lucky with weather
I had another slow start this morning, with tea and fruit in my room. Slow starts will be a theme from now on, i think, since I don’t have any long days planned and I don’t have to worry about the heat. Not satisfied with just fruit, I had a cheese and scallion dan bing this morning with my cold milk tea. When was the last time I ate cheese? It’s been a while. And it was proper cheese too. Not that orange ‘American’ stuff. The Google reviewers had loved the French toast, so I gave it a try. Tasty, but it would be much better with maple syrup.
When I headed out late morning for my ride over to the east side of the valley (no panniers!), it had clouded over and was blustery. This must have been the cold front arriving.
My carb filled breakfast, washed down by cold milk tea.
Hmmm. It was looking very grey as I crossed over to the east side of the valley to route 193, which I think is a county road. Definitely not a highway.
I ate an orange in this gazebo overlooking the wide river plain. It was constructed in tribute to people who drowned trying to cross the river, before the modern bridge was built.
It started to rain as I was as far away from Shoufeng as I’d planned to get. The last 25 km were wet, so no photos. Rather than riding on the ups and downs of 193, I took the less interesting highway 9 back to town, repeating the final kilometres of yesterday’s ride. The temperature had dropped from 24 C to 20 at the end of my ride. I was wet, but not cold.
A few days ago I sent a thank you email to the very helpful SRAM distributor who made me an appointment at the bike shop in Kaohsiung Today she responded, saying that she had previously followed up with the shop, and she already knew that they’d gotten my bike fixed up. This place is full of thoughtful people.
Now that I’m reasonably certain of the weather, I got my last two places booked near Taipei. Saturday nights are tricky here. My hotel is Taipei would be almost three times the price of what I’m paying on Sunday night. I should’ve booked something long ago that had free cancellation. Another lesson learned.
The rain (that hadn’t been forecast as anything more than occasional showers) ended while I was in planning mode. I headed out in light mist in hopes of eating at a well-reviewed Vietnamese restaurant. But it was closed. The reviews did say he had irregular hours. That’s the risk of a 1 or 2 person operation. I ended up with sautéed greens with a piece of very good marinated tofu. Plus a huge bowl of dumpling soup. Too much food, but cheap.
I returned stuffed from dinner, and was greeting by my delightful hostess who had made me a fruit plate: pineapple, guava, kiwi, and bananas. Some of it will have to wait until breakfast.
Fun fact:Taipei gets an average of 2100 mm of rain a year. November and December are the driest and windiest months. Pick your poison - would you rather ride in wind or wet? In comparison, Vancouver gets about 1460 mm, with November and December as the wettest months.
