April 24, 2022
Travel day: ain't no stoppin' us now!
It's only been 7 months since we last flew from the U.S. with our bikes, so the process still feels familiar to us. Thanks to our longtime friends Fred and Sue, getting us and our gear loaded and transported to the airport was a breeze. We knew where to snag a free cart, and we delicately balanced the boxes and eased them down the ramp towarda a surprisingly wide checkin queue. We had only the usual "what did we forget?" and "where did we put that?" jitters as we inched towards the counter. We dealt with the paperwork, then weighed my bike box. 56 pounds! I thought they were going to let it slide, but they didn't. On top of that, they wanted to charge us for both boxes without even weighing the second one. I mean, I knew it was heavier, because of all the junk in the trunk (bag), but I thought maybe I got the boxes mixed up or something. I insisted that we weigh the other box. 66 pounds! Ouch! There was no way of weaseling out of this one. We took our lumps and paid the piper. I guess that's the down side of using such sturdy boxes.
Security and boarding were decidedly drama-free. We sat in the plane for a while waiting for them to load the cargo bays. I suspect they're carrying a bunch of containers, because those seem to take forever. We left the gate about 50 minutes late. They're predicting an arrival time of 3:55pm. I doubt we'll make it to the 보건소[bogeonso] (public health center) by the time they close at 6pm. We'll just have to head over there first thing in the morning. I found info that they have a testing tent set up at the AREX station near the campground, so that could turn out to be a real boon for us. There's still the question of whether we're actually going to camp the first night, what with the rain and the inevitable fatigue and all. But it's just so convenient! Or rather, getting to any other lodging from the Ara path is so inconvenient. And there's the matter of whether they'll even let us on the AREX train with our bikes.
That's all the news that's fit to print from this side of the international date line. Next stop: 인천[Incheon]!
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