Kevin's Walk 9: Day 19, Leg 13

One more day, one more leg to go. I left the Gangnam Motel at 4:45 a.m. and arrived at the Songhak Motel in Pungsan-eup, western Andong, at almost exactly 4 p.m. Factoring in breaks, my average pace was about 2.92 kph, which is par for the course lately.

It was a freezing, foggy morning, and I was happy to break out the chemical hand warmers. For about two or three hours, I ended up tucking my trekking pole under my backpack so I could warm both of my hands in my pockets at the same time. Once the day warmed up, however, I put away (then eventually threw away) the warmers and got rid of my jacket as the sun finally beat back the fog, burning it away to reveal a bright, blue sky.

On the bike trail, there were plenty of motor vehicles—cars, trucks, vans, mopeds, farm equipment, etc. It got a bit tedious at several points, but it still wasn't as bad as being on a road with no shoulder while traffic bears down on you.

About two-thirds of the way to west Andong, I met a lone construction worker who was working on making a new bike path. Presumably, this sort of work is a team effort, but my man was the only one out there at the time. Unwisely ignoring Naver yet again, I had tried to follow a labeled bike path that culminated in a dead end, so I'd asked this guy what was up with that. He said a new path was being built and would be done in a few months, but in the meantime, I shouldn't trust the signs. I'd figured that part out on my own. At first, in good drinking-on-the-job fashion, the construction guy offered me some makkeolli, but when I told him I don't drink alcohol, he offered me a fresh apple, which I took and thanked him for. The nice thing about eating fruit while on a walk is that there's no reason to feel bad about throwing the apple core into the grass for Nature to take back and recycle. I left the man to his project and continued onward.

30K is substantially easier than doing 36K, but I was still glad to arrive at the Songhak Motel, which sits at the ass-end of town. I'm not nearly as wiped out as I'd been two days ago, but I'm still pleasantly tired. As had happened twice before, there was no one at the motel's information desk, so I called the phone number on one of the signs and was answered by a very loud ajumma who said she'd be right over. When she got to the motel, she told me a single night would be only W35,000 if I paid in cash, but W40,000 if I paid by card. This was obviously an old-school place. She also complained that I had arrived "quickly" (bballi oshyeot-ne!/빨리 오셨네!) and that no rooms in the motel were ready for me. She led me to a small house next to the motel and told me I could stay there, minbak-style. She then left me to my devices, and I sank down tiredly, contemplating my situation and noticing the lack of an electric fan, which greatly speeds up clothes drying. I elected not to do laundry or shower, so I'll be going back to Seoul smelling rather ripe. Back of the bus for Kevin.

As I sat half-unpacked and staring into space, there was a brusque knock on the door. Ajumma again. She said she now had a room ready in her motel—Room 106—which she claimed would have a better shower than the minbak had. I was actually kind of relieved despite the inconvenience of having to repack and go back to the motel: the minbak was roomy, but the blankets on the not-a-real-sofa had looked rumpled and used, not freshly laundered and folded. So I'm now in Room 106. I wasn't given a key, so I'll just leave early tomorrow morning. There's nowhere I need to go tonight.

So tonight, after I finish this entry, I'll just relax, watch YouTube, sleep, and get up early. If 30K is short, 28K tomorrow will be shorter. I have a couple of hills tomorrow, but they won't be so bad. I also won't be eating anything until I'm back in Seoul. And once I'm back at my shoebox studio, I'll gratefully shower and do all my laundry.

As I've mentioned several times, tomorrow might be the last day of the walk, but it's not over for the blog: I'll write up the entry for the final day tomorrow night, then I need to do several more things: write up my traditional trip postmortem, upload all of my thousands of photographs, resize all the photos to make them presentable, and add captions and commentary to every day's entry. This is probably going to take me well into December, and in the meantime, I'll be working like a madman to create more material for Substack and my other ventures. The Mythbusters might have disproved this, but I'll be hitting the ground running. No sleep till Christmas. Or Brooklyn. Whichever comes first.

Enjoy today's selection of images.