7-18-14
I took a 1 1/2 hour bike ride to the end of the Tan-Zih Sugarcane bike path to my
favorite spot near the three W.W. II tanks in Shalu near Taichung Airport. I wasn’t sitting on the shady platform more than a few minutes when I heard the roar of jets and saw five Mirages flying in formation overhead. Unbeknownst to me, the Taiwanese air force was practicing maneuvers over Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Greater Taichung during a rehearsal for the base’s opening to the public tomorrow. I took a lot of videos
with my cell phone but missed the most exciting. I could barely read The Way of All
Flesh or the newspaper I brought for the constant sonic disturbance. The practice went on for over an hour. I felt lucky to have been at the right place at the right time. I
decided to ride to Shalu because of the shady flat bike path through Tan-Zih. The path starts at Bei-Tun Road (called Zhongshan Road at that point) just up from Ya-tan Road
intersection. I have to take Tanxing Road turning left at the Han-Xi River bike path and follow the streets through Guangyang and Ren-ai Road across the grade level train
crossing to get there. Once I was on the path, it was an easy cool ride. Up past the HSR overpass, a crew was laying down new asphalt and painting lines on the path but I just went around them. It seems like they’re always fixing that path; they should use better material.
After an hour of maneuvers the commercial jets started flying
in to the civilian part of the air force space. I wondered what the passengers
waiting in other cities must have thought when their flights to Taichung were
delayed for almost two hours; the airlines probably weren't even told about the
delay nor did they tell them about the delays they’ll experience tomorrow, the
morning of the air show.
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