the weather is not cooperating

it's thursday the 10th and we haven't biked since 11.05.11. only 2 days left, both with 90% or better rain projections. anymore bike riding seems unlikely. today is another catch up day for this blog.

correction - last post should have read, wed, not tues. this is about thur, 11.03.11. we woke up to a cloudy day at the cingjing guest house. this was a rustic, bare-bones hotel in the mountains. we had driven for several hours up a long, narrow twisty road arriving too late to see or do much. i was tired and cold and immediately went to sleep as lilly expected us outside, rtr (ready to ride) at 8:30 am. the van from giant was arriving with our bikes, so the expectations were high that we would get fitted and have our first easy familiarization ride before the big ride on saturday.

the van was driven by A-Nan who also set up our bikes and help us get properly adjusted. the bikes were what i would call respectable, but not anywhere the top of the line. my bike is actually not the right size but seat adjustment made it work, and i was actually fairly comfortable.

the ride to top of wuling mountain is brutal. out of the hotel parking lot grades of 10 and 12 percent immediately fried our legs. fortunately, the giant bikes were fitted with triple chain rings so the climbing was tolerable...for awhile. i somehow managed to grab the lead and stay there until lilly called it quits due to a time crunch. time was always a problem as we had too much to do and see, and not enough to do it all. i can't say i wasn't glad the ride got shortened as it was truly steep, and getting steeper. but as you know i am a glutton for punishment and would have liked to finish the few more miles left to the top of the mountain.

we had a 3 hour drive to make dinner reservations at the gorgeous grandview hotel, which could not wait. lunch was a pre-made wonton soup kind of thing we got the 7 - 11 next to the cingjing hotel. hot and spicy, it was not easy to eat because of the rocking and rolling of the bus on the mountain roads. proud i didn't spill a drop, my mouth was burning as i ate 7 - 11 brand fried seaweed. the health benefits of the seaweed completely diminish by the frying? likely, right? who cares, it was good and i needed something after all that climbing.

we arrived at the grandview tired and cranky, but upon seeing this taiwanese leisure suit i figured, "what the hell," showered and put it on for our group dinner. i was alone in trying it! the others were just not cool.

the best thing about my room was finding the incredible, sophisticated, fully automatic, heated seat, rear-end washing electronic toilet.women have a front wash option as well. this is it, the state of the art in toilets. all you have to do is open the door to the toilet room and the toilet does the rest. lifts the lid, lifts the seat, then lowers the seat, lowers the lid, flushes and turns off the lite when you close the door. hot damn!