DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE

It was decided that a bike trip was to be had on the weekend. Excitedly I awoke at 8:00 AM Saturday morning. By 8:45 I was packed and showered and ready to pick up my passenger Reanna. Suddenly, a "roadblock". My bike wouldn't start. I coasted down to the shop (finally living on a stupid hill paid off). I had to cross a busy interesection while pushing the bike and dropped my cell phone on the road as I scurried across. I stared at my phone in disbelief thinking, "Dammit, don't let it be one of those days". After several cars and bikes nearly crushed my phone I darted out and retrieved it before the situation became sour.

As it went I needed a new battery. A simple fix and our convoy of 5 bikes was on the road by 10:15. Johnny Steele took us on a slick path outta Seoul much faster than any route I've ever taken.

We put in a few good long hauls before our asses needed a rest and change of seatery. As the owner of the most comfy seat (as voted by Reanna) I was hurtin so I can imagine the others may have lost all feeling. We ate lunch and kept on trucking. Rippin it 40 km/hr up these sweet mountains (its only 125 cc yo) and winding down the backside.

We made it to our destination, the west coast beach of Gangneung by 4:15. We threw the frisbee as best we could; unfortunatley the International Windsurfing Championships were on and this meant there was wind. Though, we did manage to do some sea layouts (dive to catch the frisbee). After checking into a cheap minbak (small one room floor sleeping space), we ate some delicious samgyepsal (basically a ton of bacon). Then we went back to the beach and tossed my flashflight (night disc). The wind had completley died. After a few hours of that we played the best drunk game ever. Roman candle wars! Roman candles are the crappy fireworks they sell here. But damn they make a great 3 on 3 war game. Its a slight burn if you get hit and we all got hit at least once. The shot of the day tho went to Andrew Downey of Team Canada who put a peanut-sized hole in John Ross' t-shirt. Good times. Go Canada Go.

The following day the crew went back to Seoul but I didn't work till late Monday so I figured I'd make use of my time. I stuck around the beach until about 3 and then headed north towards Seoraksan, South Korea's most famously beautiful national park. It was a sweet drive, first along the (barb-wired) coast and then into Seoraksan. I ascended up the road to nearly the height of the peaks, what a wicked drive it was. Then I kept going down a road with a big red X over the name of the next town. It seemed like the sign was saying something, but I kept going. Sure enough the road was messed up. There were massive pieces of road missing for about 50 km. Guard rails were hanging over the edge of the cliffs. A house was crumpled like a piece of paper. No this wasn't North Korean missiles or angry rice farmers, it was the remnants of last months typhoons.

That road took a long time but I made it Hongcheon (about 100 km outside Seoul) at 8 pm. I stayed there in a love motel, super cheap - 25 bux basically, with a sweet shower that sprayed water from 7 different spouts at the same time.

I drove for about 2 hours today (takes a long time to travel through Seoul) and had a scare when it began to rain down on me. Fortunatley it stopped after 3 minutes and I was dry in another 20. That was it, the most recent road trip; as talk has it, there should be many more in the upcoming weeks.