Day 9, Leg 6

While it feels like slobbing out to take a whole day off (remember, I've got six off days built into this calendar), I'm resting today after yesterday's 39K trek. The fact that the Naver app's plotted course went from 40K to 39K is disgruntling, but whatever—either way, it's the longest segment of this walk, and it's now done. Tomorrow's walk to west Daegu will be short: only 25K.

I did end up going out for a short stroll today, and as far as I can tell, the motel's cleaning team never entered my room. So for the rest of today, I'll be either in this molded desk chair or in my comfortable bed, catching up on world events (good ruck with erections!), watching YouTube, and just staying off my feet (the right foot aches, but the big-toe blister seems to be behaving).

One chore, which I'd started in Seoul, finally got done thanks to this room's fast WiFi: I finally uploaded the rest of my 2024 walk pics to Google Drive and deleted the pics from my phone. Not that my phone was in any danger of being overloaded with photos from this year's walk, but I still wanted there to be plenty of breathing room in storage.

I discovered, last night, that my room is handicapable-friendly. Here are some pics of today's short stroll and of my special room:

Basically, a warning not to take/pluck/pick any plants—just look.

pullback for context

Good things come in bunches.

The shaman spiders are everywhere.

the side of my motel (홍시/Hong-C)

veggies and flowers

French literary character?

not exactly the White Tree of Gondor, but that'll do, Pig

bathroom for handicapable use

help button on the wall (there's one by the toilet, too)

handicapable support pads

looks like a torture device when folded

fold-out shower seat for the handicapable

low-set towel rack on which some slob has left a towel

Have yourself a good, relaxing day.

ADDENDUM: it's supposed to rain the morning of the 9th. While that won't affect my afternoon arrival at Libertar Pension, it could literally put a damper on my morning. Rain on the 9th, in the region I'll be walking through, has been consistently forecast for days, so I assume it's happening. 

As for lodging at Libertar, I tried to do my usual thing and wire cash to the pension's account, but my bank, Shinhan, decided it was going to change how I access my account via phone again, meaning I had to re-certify myself for this new procedure. This required a scan of my ID card, which the app refused to scan properly. I had to text the pension and apologetically request paying real cash upon my arrival. Luckily, Libertar agreed to do that, so I think I'm set for the night of the 9th.

I was at Libertar in December of last year when my buddy Mike texted me in the early morning to ask what the hell was going on in Korea, with the president suddenly declaring martial law. Mike's text, which I'd seen right as I was waking up, was the first I'd heard of that news. And now, the conservative President Yoon is gone, and the liberal President Lee is in office. And right now, New York City is about to elect itself a truckload of stupidity-karma. Virginia, too, but my home state has been a lost cause for decades. Oh, well.

ADDENDUM 2: I found a workaround and was able to wire the pension fee to Libertar, Cthulhu be praised. This still doesn't change the fact that I'm going to have to visit my bank again to rectify this account-access issue. Again.