Daily Miles: 45
Totals Miles: 209
Start Location: Mungyeoung Spa
End Location: Jukamni Bird Sanctuary
We had a pleasant night at the hotel and even found a movie to watch in English on the television. We were up early because we needed to make a phone call to the United States before 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Korea is 13 hours into the future so this is early AM. Unfortunately the IRS decided to do an identity check on our tax return this year. We never got the letter until after we left, and now only have 30 days to contact the IRS for them to verify that we in fact did the return and it wasn’t someone else. The kicker is that you need to have your returns in front of you for this year and last year, as well as all the supporting documents likes W-2s, which we obviously don’t have. We won’t be back in the United States within the 30 days, so we’ve been trying to get copies of all the documents we need so that we can call them and have ourselves verified. This has become incredibly frustrating and problematic, and we’ve had to spend at least two hours each morning for the past few days dealing with this. This morning we made some progress and soon we should have all the documents we need. Apparently if you fail the verification they will deny you your return. It just sucks. We have a big return so this has become a priority. And of course there is no extension they can give us because we are out of the country. 30 days and that’s it. But that’s our government- making it as difficult as possible to pay you back the money they owe you.
Anyway, we were out riding by 9:30, a late start but at least it was warm out. We stopped at what appeared to be a restroom about 10 miles in, but it was closed, and a man driving by stopped and talked to us in Korean, to which we gave him blank stares. We popped out Google translate and the guy was trying to give us directions to a restaurant for some reason. We just said kamsamnidah, smiled and continued on.
It’s hard not being able to understand anyone or anything. I haven’t been able to read a single sign for the past several days. I have no idea if something is trying to warn me of potential dangers or if there’s a cafe soon approaching. It makes me realize how important language is, and how terrible it must feel to be illiterate and not be able to read anything.
This got us into a little bit of navigational trouble today. There was a detour around a section of bike path that was under construction. The signs pointed us in the direction to go around, but It didn’t make sense to go that way because it wasn’t the way on the maps. So we continued on and eventually ran into the impassible construction, and then had to back track to go to the detour. It cost us about 8 miles and over an hour, and could have all been avoided if we read Hangul.
We are camped in a bird sanctuary by the river in some tall grasses. We know this because a sign was nearby in English that we could read and understand. The weather is supposed to turn sour tomorrow afternoon and rain for the next few days. I’m not sure what our strategy will be to deal with it. Riding in the rain is absolutely zero fun. Maybe we will take a day off and let it pass. The only timeline we have is the one dictated to us by the IRS.
Everything else is wide open.
