We had a whirlwind trip back to the States with the help of Windy's sister, Emily, and her daughter, Kelsey. We flew from Taipei, Taiwan to Tucson, AZ, USA on the 5th of June. We landed in Tucson about 2 hours after we left Taiwan, well that's only because we crossed the international date line! We were in airports or in the air for about 15 hours. Between the 3 adults 2 children and 1 infant we had 11 suitcases, 2 car seats and a stroller to check in. 4 pieces of luggage were delayed a day from LA to Tucson because of the tiny commuter jet we were on.

We spent 3 days with Windy's mom, DD, in Green Valley, AZ (south of Tucson) and indeed went to Wal-mart on the way to DD's house and bought matching socks! We also ate at Jack in the Box. Oh the joys of being home!

We adopted Emily's old car, a 1995 Mitsubishi Montero and are very happy to have our own independent transportation again. Windy really struggled with transportation in Taiwan. Now she gets to pay over $3 a gallon for gas and replace the windshield as well a regular oil changes and maintenance! OK, so Taxis were cheaper, but now I can go where I want to when I want to! Yippee! OH yeah, and parking is a non issue where I've been.

We visited Windy's dad for just a day to celebrate Fathers day with the annual water balloon toss.On Saturday the 9th of June (a week early).Then hit the road again and made it to Beaver High Adventure Base Boy Scout Camp by midnight on the 10th of June after 2 mis-adventures. We went to our storage unit in Cedar City to pick up a few things and didn't realize the time zone had changed and couldn't get out of the gate after 9 pm. We thought we were doing well to be done at 8:45, ARIZONA time. Oops! Oh well, we were able to get the gate opened in about 20 minutes and were on our way again. The 2nd misadventure was loosing a duffel bag of baby clothes and toiletries off the roof rack as we didn't have any more room inside the car and though we were nearly to our destination and didn't tie it down properly.

Well anyway we are mostly enjoying our time at camp, though it's been a super rough transition on Cordelia at only 2 and a half months old. The climate when from 90 degrees F and 90 percent humidity to 40 degrees at night and 5 percent humidity!

We are working hard and getting full of nice clean dirt!

 

 

We took a quick trip across the border to Mexico in our short visit in Arizona before heading up to Utah. To bad they charge for a visa to get a stamp in your passport. We were in 3 countries in the space of 4 days.


And just for proof that a red octagon is universal for stop here's a picture in Spanish to match the Chinese sign shown earlier in the blog.

We arrived safely in Tucson on Tuesday night near midnight, 2 hours “after” we left Taiwan. We had a bit of an adventure and high stress (Ben lost his wallet 3 hours before taking the bus to the airport; it’s found now and in the express mail system thanks to the folks at the Grand Hotel.) We were just in time for each flight and didn’t have more that 10 minutes to rest between any transfers with immigration (surprisingly no problems due to the missing ARC) all the customs (no problems, but time in line) moving our own baggage in LAX and then arriving in Tucson in a 50 seater plane that couldn’t fit our luggage. We did have 11 check-ins, 2 car seats (one in the plane for Elnorra) and a stroller. Our 4 remaining bags and Cordelia’s car seat arrived at my mom’s house, free of charge, the following evening. We even had a loaner car seat for the day.

We went first to Jack-in-the-Box for a midnight snack (It was on the way, open 24 hours and sounded good) We then went to Wal-mart and we now own 20 pairs each of our preferred style and color of socks!

 

The flight home. We flew out of Taipei, Taiwan around 7 pm on Tuesday the 5th of June, we arrived in Tucson, AZ around 11 pm the same day! With the crosssing of the international date line we technically were only traveling 4 hours, but it was a much, much longer day.

Luggage! We had 3 adults, 2 youth and 1 babe-in-arms. This allowed 11 pieces of luggage up to 70 pounds, not counting 2 car seats and a stroller!

Moving out... the empty Taipei apartment. We found a new renter and sold our furnishings to her so we didn't have to find news homes for (and move) any more stuff than we had to.

Moving out... the empty Taipei apartment.

Lunch at the little "restaurant" behind Ben's work. The proprietor was a good friend to Ben and one of the main reasons he learned as much chinese as he did. She was fun to watch work and talk to. Her English was quite good especially considering her age and occupation. Most of the youth are taught English in public school now; but not when she was growing up.
Danny, Anni, Jim and Mary Shaffer joined us for our "goodbye" lunch.

An amazing lobster salad, as good as it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nissan Mini

I really like the Mini cooper, but this version made by Nissan is even better. If they sold these anywhere else I would love to buy one when we go to America. What a cool car, and we love the chrome.

Down the mountain

After our experience at the peak we knew that we could not keep to our original plan of decending the other side of the mountain. The trail on that side was all ice and we were informed by the rangers that a woman died only two weeks before on that trail, and that she had crampons! So rather than risk a fatal fall we decided to decend that very day all the way to the trail head. it was a push but also a beautiful day. There was little fog and we reached the trailhead just at sunset. Windy even got a ranger to drive our van to the trailhead to pick us up! saving us a 3 Km uphill hike in the dark. We then drove all the way down to 嘉義 ChaiYi to shower and stay at a hotel. What a long day! In the morning we were hiking up the mountain being pelted by hail and at night we were over 130 Km away taking hot showers! We hiked about 3 Km up from the 排雲山莊 PaiYun Lodge to the peak, and then down 12 Km to the trailhead and then drove about 120 Km to 嘉義 ChaiYi. We went to McDonalds and loaded up on the necessary empty calories, and then to the hotel. We were too tired to take pictures of anything after this sunset shot on the mountain. This trip also meant that we were at about 4000 M above sea level and then almost at sea level meaning we traveled from the top to the bottom of Taiwan in one day. Tough drive through fog and swich back roads too.

The unfortunate bridge

This bridge was the victim of a boulder that came crashing down the mountain. Many bridges similar to this one were constructed over dangerous parts of the trail. Ken, being an architect, was impressed not only that so much of the bridge was still sound after the landslide but that these and many other materials must have been airlifted in.

玉山主峰 Jade Mountain Peak

玉山 Jade Mountain is the highest peak in northeast Asia. In 1900, after the annexation of Taiwan by the Japanese, two Japanese anthropologists, Torii Ryūzō and Mori Ushinosuke, became the first people to have been recorded ascending 玉山 Jade mountain. They gave the mountain the name Niitakayama (新高山) literally the "New High Mountain", because it was even higher than Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.
Mid-morning on our second day we nearly reached the peak when fierce winds and hail made progress very difficult. We met a few other hikers who had given up and advised us to turn back. We did not have crampons for the ice that was on the trail and the last kilometer was very sheer. Ken said "Let's just go as far as we can." Lorie decided to stay put until we came back. In her defence she had already made it up one of the steepest parts of the trail and was less than half a mile from the top. In only a few hundred more meters I suggested to Ken that it was probably getting too dangerous with the ice on the trail and the chain that guides the way to the top, as well as the stinging hail which made it difficult to see. Again he said "Let's just go as far as we can." and I realized that what he meant was "We will make it to the top or perish in the attempt! Damn the ice and hail! Forward and on to glory!" When we saw this sign however, (it reads 玉山主峰 Jade mountain main peak .2 Km) I agreed with him. Really if it was so close I figured we could make it through anything. I actually enjoyed beating the ice off the chain so that we could get a decent grip. Once we had made it to the peak my camera took only this one photo of the peak without us in it before it froze and stopped working. Ken's camera also stopped working. It was very cold and the strong winds were sending the hail straight across the peak at high speeds. It was like being hit with a fully automatic BB gun. There wasn't much for us to see because of the storm, but we were proud that we made it. I joked that the spirit of the mountain must have heard me say what a pleasant and easy hike it had been to climb the mountain, that it was much easier than described by others, and had decided to show us how tough he could be.