A Stick and a Dream @ Chungju-si, South Korea
Despite last night’s scare we woke up with fresh legs, ready to take on another day of biking. We ate a quick breakfast at a nearby bakery to prepare us for the day’s work. The route started with a short descent down the riverbank to rejoin the trail. We picked up speed and at the bottom Adam took a compulsory look back to find that we were missing a crew member.
Stuck at the top of the hill was Eduardo. His right pannier had gotten jammed in the gears causing him to screech to a sudden halt. Fortunately, he rode out the slide in suave Eduardo style, sparing himself any injuries. Unfortunately, this hadn’t Eduardo’s first problem with his panniers.
The day prior, when we picked up the bikes, the rental shop just barely had enough panniers for us. Eduardo chose a snazzy yellow set that definitely looked cool, but turned out to be missing one of the metal hooks that held it to the bike frame. So the shop owner grabbed a couple zip ties and latched it in place in lieu of a hook. He looked confident in the fix and said we were good to go, but not before handing us a few more zip ties “just in case.” Eager to get on the road no one questioned it, besides zip ties are almost as strong as duct tape.
It was only a few hours into our trip when it became clear how the first hook was lost. The hooks were metal instead of plastic and they rattled with every bump in the road against the metal rack. Over time the vibrations loosened the screw until it backed out completely; causing the pannier to tumble to the side. Whenever we lost a hook we’d remedy the situation with the tried and true zip tie. After the second time this happened we made the decision that preventative maintenance would be safer. So we zip tied the last hook as well. By the end of the first day Eduardo’s panniers were completely supported by zip ties. So when Eduardo had even more pannier issues we were flabbergasted. There was nowhere else to zip tie!
Adam, now standing behind Eduardo’s, put on his figurative bike mechanic hat and began to analyze the situation. “Maybe a zip tie here or a zip tie there?” he pondered. Helen in the meantime time spotted a stick near the river edge. She carried it up and showed it to Adam. Adam gazed upon her with pure admiration “brilliant” he exclaimed. A few moments later we had a perfectly secure, modified wooden bike rack ready for another 300 miles.
Adam expertly bent the stick bent and together we zip tied each end to create a perfect cage an around the tire spokes. We were back in business. Adam was glowing with pride at this demonstration of his engineering prowess. However, Eduardo, being the one who had to ride the bike, didn’t seem quite as confident as Adam, but without any other options he pushed on. This stick was just going to have to get us to Busan.
The rest of the day was beautiful and much less eventful. We pedaled to our hearts content while enjoying the beauty all around us. Along the trail we found art sculptures, an oddly placed roadside mirror, a cool staircase, and many stamp booths.
That night then plan was to glamp, so we stopped at a supermarket along the way and picked up food for grilling. We bought porky belly, bulgogi beef, spam, ramen, and beer for a meal of champions. Our paneers were stuffed to the brim as we pedal the last few miles.
The next day was going to be the hard climbing day. So we made sure to get a good night sleep in preparation.
