September 24, 2024
A whole new world
(sorta)
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OK, so where did we leave off? Ah yes,Taipei.
China Airlines (and probably a lot of other carriers) want to charge you a pretty penny just to be able to select your own seat. A scam, I say. For the final leg of our flight, they put us in the middle two seats of a 4-seat row. Not fun, but we can handle it for a 3-hour flight, right? Well guess what, we hit the jackpot! Not only were there no passengers next to us, but the seat arms all lifted up so that we could each take turns lying down at our leisure.
We certainly needed that rest for what is always the trickiest part: reassemblage. No problems with immigration, baggage claim, or securing cash (which we've read is an absolute necessity here in Japan). The bikes? Let's just say we managed, but it was slow and painful. To add to our chagrin, we were about half way done when a security guard person very politely told us we'd have to take our business outside. Great. Our junk is spread out all over the benches, one bike is still in its box, and we don't know what to do with the mountains of waste we're generating. Sunyoung explained in her jet-lagged Japanese that we were at his mercy regarding how to handle all this. He took pity enough to cart away the empty box full of tape and other trash, and to guide us to a grassy area where we could continue working on our bikes.
My experience is that grass is a recipe for disaster. You drop a washer, you're never going to find it again. So I had to be extra diligent. Not a great thing to add to the pressure I was already under.
Oh, and there were mosquitos feeding on us. And the defeaning roar of jet engines every minute or so. Lastly, and perhaps most stressful, the clock was ticking! See, the campground we were headed to is only staffed until 5pm.
With our baggage clumsily attached to our bikes, we mount them and try to orient ourselves. I have a route prepared for my computer, but there's always that initial task of determining which direction to head off in. We look at road signs and figure it out. We hop on a walking path that takes us outside the airport permiter. Finally, we breathe a sigh of relief and look at the time.
4:51!!!
The ride has been very easy up until this point, with almost no traffic. We sometimes ride on the right (wrong) side of the street, too distracted to pay attention to silly things like stop lights and pedestrians. Now we were in the thick of it. We've navigated much worse, but this was a bit of a shock to our systems. Luckily, we soon reached the park where the campground is, and it was smooth sailing from there.
The manager/groundskeeper was super nice and patient explaining everything to us. We found a site, set up our campsite, rode to the nearest konbini (convenience store), had a leisurely dinner, and settled in for a good rest.
The park in which the campground is located is near an air force base. The sound of jets taking off and landing could be quite annoying at times. Whether this continued after we dozed off is irrelevant, because if it did, we slept right through it.
Data is very spotty here for some reason, so I have a lot of catch up to do with the journal. All in due time.
Today's ride: 11 km (7 miles)
Total: 11 km (7 miles)
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