Kevins Walk 7: Day 10, Leg 8

I'm writing this in a little, hole-in-the-wall restaurant. A weepy, screamy Korean drama is playing on the TV. I can practically hear the snot running out of the emotive actors' faces.

I got up at the luxuriously late hour of 8:30 a.m., watched some YouTube on my phone, had myself a leisurely dump, then eventually headed out to take a look at Choongju Station across the street. I confess that, every time I stop here, there's that little voice of temptation whispering, Why not give up now and take the train back to Seoul? No one will be the wiser. I never give in to this voice, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't there. The desire to give up does surface now and then; the walk isn't all unicorns farting rainbows. It has its boring, tiring, and painful moments.

It's now a few hours later. I've had a bit of a walk-around, and I'm back in my room, where I'll likely be for the rest of the day—blogging, watching YouTube, and just resting my feet even though they aren't hurting nearly as badly as one might expect.

Here's a random smattering of shots from today.

a closer look at Choongju Station

heavy equipment

a rose that's seen better days

I didn't notice the two black roses on the front of my motel. Here's one.

Lunch was ddukbaegi-bulgogi. Very nice.

I started seeing this hotel chain a couple years ago.

Near as I can figure, Brown Dot hotels are "business" hotels exclusive to South Korea. I tried staying in one once, but they were booked up. I'll stay in one at some point, I'm sure. Just not this trip.

I, too, enjoy the feeling of water flowing past my ankles.

A reminder that Choongju is famous for martial arts.

But the famous martial-arts park got renamed!

The park's original name, World Martial Arts Park, is on the stone, but the stone got rotated so the new name, Tangeum Park, faces outward. Who uses a stone this way? Only someone very cheap.

a large performance space

what the inside of a crab feels like

the martial-arts museum, which I'll have to visit sometime

The sculpture is titled Snail. Should've been called Slug.

Oscar would stop being grouchy if he saw this.

The mosquito-y Hotel Soo, where I stayed last time.

One thing I figured out is why I didn't follow a particular route yesterday. I remembered it from 2017, and I used it again only in 2019 but not in 2020. The reason for the route change has to do with how Naver Map has routed me out of the city for the next part of my walk. Since I'm farther downtown, Naver has me follow a slightly different route into the mountains and onto the Saejae path. In 2017 and 2019, I stayed at a different yeogwan, but that place no longer exists, prompting the shift to motels that are even more downtown. I really liked the old route out of the city, though, so I'm pondering adding a kilometer or two to tomorrow's walk just to be able to enjoy that scenery. Then again, since I'll be leaving early, and because it's a bit later in the year, the scenery will be covered in darkness, so the detour might not be worth the trouble. I think, on previous walks, I left Choongju at a later hour; my memories of departure are filled with sunlight, and I think photos from those earlier walk blogs will confirm this.

Some housekeeping notes:

1. I'd been suffering a bit thanks to some canker sores that had taken up residence in my mouth a few days ago. They seem to be all gone now. At home, I normally deal with canker sores by swishing salt water around in my mouth: such sores are bacterial in nature. On the road, I just tough it out: I'm not buying a whole package of salt just for two or three gargles.

2. I got a new packet of tissues and another packet of wet wipes for my runny nose and for those sudden, on-the-road intestinal emergencies.

3. No pain pills today, and my feet aren't achy at all. Tougher, or just worsening neuropathy?

4. The Korean national weather service has been right two days in a row. It also tailors its forecasts to your exact location, right down to the district you're in. Tomorrow, the forecast is for rain around 3 p.m. I hope to be done with my walk by then.

5. I've been hand-washing my underwear and occasionally my socks, but yesterday, I finally washed my shirt and my sleevelets after more than a week. The design on the front of the tee is already looking battered. I probably won't wash my pants until my next two-day stop. In 2017, when I knew little about cross-country walking, I religiously hand-washed every article of clothing every day. I eventually realized how stupid and unnecessary this was.

6. I'm enjoying my bed here at the G Motel. The mattress is firm, just the way I like it. The previous hotel's mattress was way too soft—good for maybe a night, but back-killing in the long term. I'll miss this motel for sure: it's been cheap and decent.

7. Tomorrow's walk will be about 24K to the Suanbo area. I never see the dam there. In fact, I don't know where it is. Tomorrow won't be that hilly, but the next two days feature a 3K and a 5K hill, respectively. The hills aren't really that bad. I just hope there's no rain on those days. After the two hilly days, I have one more day on the Saejae, and that's it: I then embark on the fourth and final part of the trail: the Nakdong River path, which takes me the rest of the way down to Busan and has a couple brutal hills. Both of my camping days are along that portion of the trail. Again, I hope there's no rain, or I will seriously consider just continuing to walk to my next waypoint, even if that means walking 50-60 kilometers. It's not that I'm afraid to camp in rain or incapable of camping in rain: it's just the inconvenience of it. Things get wet and muddy in rain, and even when you try to clean your camping equipment before repacking it in your backpack, it's still going to be dirty, gritty, and soaked. That's only a potential problem at the second campsite. The first campsite will, at least in theory, be under a bridge, so even if it rains, camping won't be a problem.

I'll leave you with a bit of visual humor from yesterday's walk. When I stopped for refreshments at a convenience store, there was some kind of outdoor-bar setup, and on the bar were these plastic letters that spelled "HAYO." Well, the Georgetowner in me took over and, well, you'll see.