My husband is 50 on Monday. I follow him in that milestone 20 days later. So for our birthdays, we purchased bicycles. Some of the best bicycles in the world, Giant, are manufactured in Taiwan and come to find out, Taipei city and county has an extensive system of biking trails. Our neighborhood is surrounded by bike trails but the best trails run along the rivers that cut through Taipei. Getting from our bike trails to the river trails was a bit challenging today. We think we've located a better route on the map for next time. The trails are great. For those who live in Dallas, the Trinity River project with its system of bike trails, nature trails and playgrounds in the flood plains, well it works great here. We rode about 15 miles today and it was beautiful. Yes, the water quality of the river was definitely urban but that didn't stop the sun from glinting off the water like so many precious jewels. We could hear the cars whizzing by on the expressways that surround the river trails but it wasn't loud. The sun was shining and the sounds of children laughing and fans cheering at their team's roller hockey or softball teams was like music. We are already looking forward to our next trip on the trails, next weekend if the weather holds.

Hi, this is the aforementioned old guy... It was truly a great ride today. We had a great ride and are not too sore even. I'm already thinking about riding all the way down to the ocean about a 50-60 mile ride from our apartment. If we do work up to that ride we will need to have the good sense to take the train back to town.