We're still a week away from takeoff and our plans have already changed a little bit. The in-laws have proposed a weekend camping trip, and hey, we love camping, and we'll have our own tent and everything, so of course we'll alter our schedule to accommodate it. It'll be sandwiched in between Children's Day (May 5) and Buddha's birthday (May 8). The destination is 월성계곡 (Wolseong Valley), which looks like a pretty neat place  with trees and a creek and all that jazz. One thing I love about Korea is the enthusiasm people have for the outdoors. Every trip we've taken to the mountains, we've been joined by busloads of people, usually middle-aged and older, decked out in their hiking finery, as eager to hit the trails as we are.

There will no longer be a layover in Daegu. We will ride straight to Busan like normal tourists, then hop on a bus back to Daegu. We'll hang out with family, camp, and then take another bus to Ganggu, which is north of Pohang but still a few kilometers south of the first certification center at 해맞이공원 (Sunrise Park). I was hoping to give a first-hand report of the coastal roads between Busan and Pohang, but alas, time constraints prevent us from including it on our trip. I understand that there are plans to develop that stretch, which I guess will include more certification centers and stamps!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First we have to get packed, get tested, and get ourselves on an airplane. We still have our packing checklist from France to rely on. The weather will be warmer, so we won't have to bring quite as many clothes, but other than that (and our ink pad!) it should be pretty much the same set of gear.

A shoutout to Shawna at Free Range Cycles, who always cheerfully hooks us up with bike boxes. This time, she happened to have a couple of big e-bike boxes. They don't sell e-bikes, and she tried to explain how she ended up with the boxes, but her story went in one ear and out the other. Anyway, I think they're just the right size for us. Big enough to make packing easy, but small enough to fit in a car and on a luggage cart. Those boxes we got in Paris were absolutely overkill. But they worked!