Day 30: Sun., July 12: Corner Brook to Port Aux Basques, NL

This morning, just after I'd had my shower and got my hair dried, the phone in my room at the Comfort Inn rang, "Are yah decent? A fellah here wants to come down and talk ta yah", sez Enid the receptionist. "Well, I'm almost decent", I said, "What does he want?" So, Enid puts this guy on the phone who sez (in a thick Newfie accent), "Jaysus, I'm sorry Girl, but I knocked over yer blue 'n white boik here in da parkin' lot and she's layin' dere on 'er side, with all 'er gas leakin' outta 'er and she's gota coupla scratches, looks like ..."


Acourse, he never got a chance to finish his sentence, poor guy, cuz I went absolutely ape$hit on him -- I won't repeat what I said, but there were a lot of short explosive high-pitched utterances starting with the letter 'F' - I'll leave it to your imagination!

When he could get a word in edgewise, he roared with laughter and told me it was all a big joke - he was 'Ern' (friend of Mikey), the fellah who worked on my bike in Grand Falls.

He and his wife, Maureen and their friend Terry (another friend of Mike's that I had met) and his wife were staying at the same hotel; in fact they checked in after I did the previous night and Maureen recognized the bike immediately but the night receptionist wouldn't give them any info. They had to wait to see the day gal who had checked me in ta get hold of me LOL

Anyway, we had a good ole natter and laugh and Terry's wife had a sit on my bike and loved it, finding it a way better fit than her top-heavy Sporty 883. So, a great start to the day :-)

We hugged goodbye and they headed off back east to Grand Falls as I headed off to Port Aux Basques and decided to just go the whole way without stopping (212 km). It was a wonderful ride. The TCHighway is mostly 2-lane the whole way with lots of passing sections and there was barely any traffic going in my direction (being Sunday, I guess), so I enjoyed it immensely in the beautiful sunshine. It was quite windy but it really got horrendous the last 30 km as we neared the ocean -- Man, I thought my helmet was gonna get ripped right off my head! The last 15 km I did, bent forward over my tank behind the windshield, slowing down to about 80 kmh. There were warning signs about the wind all that way, and boy, they weren't kidding!

But here I am, stealing an internet signal from someone called 'Allen' and staying at the Shark Cove Suites, which is the only accommodation I could get. Let's just say that it ain't the Ritz and leave it at that ...

I'm a bit disappointed cuz I expected Port Aux Basques to exude charm and old worldliness -- what it exudes is general unkemptedness (is that a word?) and grit. Your basic ICK, only relieved by the presence of a Tim Horton's and a liquor store open on Sunday ;-) Oh well, I'll be up with the boids and heading for my ferry ride to Nova Scotia tomorrow (after a caffeine run to Timmie's) :-)


Day 30 Corner Brook to Port Aux Basques

Day 29: Sat., July 11: Rocky Harbour to Corner Brook, NL

Sooo, get a load of these two just getting ready to jump on their bike -- see the non-shoes she is wearing - don't they look like great protection? Just like her tank top. And the icing on this non-ATGATT pair is that their son and daughter-in-law were similarly attired. They thought it hilarious I had leathers and full gear on ... DUH!

This was a pretty easy day, riding-wise, as the trip was not a long one. After a 'hearty' breakfast (on the morning after the night before) (what happens on the road stays on the road ;-) ) at Rocky Point, Mikey, Tequila Sheila and I headed out back through Gros Morne Park to Deer Lake, where we parted company with many hugs (and much sadness on my part - they were great to me and we had a fab time together); they to return to Grand Falls and me to carry on down the TCHighway to Corner Brook.

I arrived about 12:30ish, which gave me plenty of time to devote to uploading all my pics to Photobucket -- thank goodness the connection at the hotel was a fast one - it took till about 5:00 p.m. to get them uploaded and linked to the blog (hopefully, this satisfies those who have been prodding me to git 'er done LOL).

I then treated myself to dinner in the hotel's restaurant, 'Jungle Jim's'. Yes, that name gave me pause too -- and it turned out for good reason LOL A Mexican-cum-Jungle-cum-I-dunno-what-kinda-theme. Dreadful service -- no-one looking after my table for about 15 minutes and then three different servers asking me the same questions repeatedly -- one seemed seriously DU-UMB. The food was indifferent but hey, the red-wine sangria was very good ... so I had several HIC and am turning in early.

Night!

Day 28: Fri, July 10: Grand Falls to Rocky Harbour, NL

Fisherman and brewis ('broos'). Ever heard of it? Neither had I, but Tequila Sheila knew I wanted to try some typical 'Newfie' dishes if possible, seal-flipper being out of season ;-). Last night we had this wonderfully big lobster feed so today she fixed this dish for our brunch before we headed out.

The previous night, she took a salted cod and soaked it in water. The only way to describe the aroma is to conjure up the smell of sweaty teenage-boy sport socks combined with a touch of parmesan cheese and that other smell that occasions accusing looks around a room which mean, "OK, who let THAT one???"

Woof, I'm tellin' yah, at that point, I was definitely NOT lookin' forward to brunch. ;-)

But, next morning, when I got into the kitchen, Sheila was frying up 'scruncheons' (which is little pieces of fat back pork) and onions and cooking the fish with the brewis (which is like a hardtack biscuit which softens as it is heated) and it all smelled mahvelous, Darlings.

And believe-you-me, it tasted out of this world. I oinked up two helpings topped up with molasses drizzled over it, I liked it so much. The cod tasted amazingly delicate, which I didn't expect YUM. Anyway, I know Big Daddy would love it, so Sheil will send me some brewis when I get home and I will get some dried salted cod and give 'er a go :-) More broadening of my horizons, eh????

We got ourselves off on our journey to Rocky Harbour (me managing to leave my spare keys sitting on their kitchen counter!), westward on the TCHighway and then, at Deer Lake, heading north through part of Gros Morne Park.

We stopped for a bit of an ice-cream break at Deer Lake and visited the Insectorium there. Absolutely fascinating! We loved the butterfly house and I took tons of pics of the butterflies, which landed on everyone repeatedly (very tickley feeling on the skin); I was really trying to get shots of these two lovely bright blue ones, but they were too fast for me and when they did settle, they closed their wings up, so all you could see was the black outer side SIGH.

There was also a honeybee colony set up, enclosed in glass, so you really got a great look at the operation of the hive and a very informative guide told us all about the whole process of the birth of a queen, how she is in fact selected as queen (the usual fight to the death scene) and so on. Big Daddy woulda love it!

Our ride through Gros Morne Park was very impressive -- the scenery is astounding -- I did get some pics, as you can see, but the best vistas had no stopping places for us. :-(

Once we checked into our hotel at Rocky Harbour, we headed to the Lounge for libations. NOT the most efficiently run establishment we've ever encountered. Sheila and I were easy to serve, as we ordered Corona and lime (they had no lime and never did turn up with the lemon they claimed they had), but Mikey's Caesar was a tough nut for the (seemingly) teenaged bartender gal. In the end, Mike had to go behind the bar and demonstrate the making of one.

He was quite hilarious about it, actually, calling for Worcestershire, Tabasco, celery salt and making them open a new Clamato Juice cuz the open one was past-dated (!) Sheila and I (naturally) offered streaming comments and criticisms, so a good time was had by all.

After a couple (!) of drinks, we retired to the dining room and ordered dinner from our young waitress who turned out to be from the same training school (NONE) as our bartender gal. (Obviously, help is hard to get in the nether regions LOL) Anyway, the food was GREAT and we had a fun time, getting louder as time (and wine) went on. We soon put a muffler on it when a whole wedding rehearsal party trooped in to the dining room -- turns out they had every table reserved except ours. As they were rather a sedate crowd (no alcohol served there), we took the first opportunity to sneak off to the Lounge with our bottle of wine in hand.

We had a heck of a good time -- I will miss these two great folks a LOT!

Ta-ta-for-now!

Day 28 Deer Lake, Insectorium, Gros Morne Park

Day 27: Thurs, July 9: Day Trip: Grand Falls to Twillingate, NL

Piece of iceberg video


Iceberg scene video

Now, this turned out to be an A-ONE-FABULOSO-HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY DAY! For a variety of reasons, but first of all ... because Tequila Sheila FORCED me into a shoe store (against my will, I might add ;-) ) ... and I hadda cheer myself up with a bit of retail therapy -- only ONE pair, mind you, as I can't carry any more on the bike LOL

But, second of all, cuz Mikey the STAR, whom I shall (probably) forever worship took Delilah -- she who has forsaken me with her mechanical upsets -- to Ern (the Harley Guy) for diagnosis of her ills ... more on THAT later.

Thirdly, cuz Tequila Sheil, Mikey and I had such a wonderful day -- doing the sightseeing thing -- to Lewisport (to pick out feisty lobsters for our dinner) and thence to Twillingate to sport with the icebergs and 'bergy bits'.

Fourthly, to come home and join the ever-ongoing party on Sheil and Mike's back deck with the 'hood' (AKA all the neighbours). Lotta fun people there, I tells yah!

Fifthy, to enjoy the lobster dinner with LOTS of garlic butter and BURP Corona's and lime.

And Lastly, to get the news from 'Ern the Harley Guy' that all Delilah needed was a to have her shifter mechanism cleaned and lubed thoroughly (which should have been done at her last service at the dealer in Chilliwack!!! AHEM) So, dat was dat, as they say here. No parts needed and Ern would not take a penny from me for his time, even. (So I got Mikey to sneak him a case of his favourite beer, at least!).

What a fab day, fab company, fab results for Delilah :-) I be doin' the Happy Dance once again!

Night All!






EDITED to add photos: Day 27 Twillingate

Day 26: Wed., Jul. 8: Harbour Grace to Grand Falls, NL

Well, me boyos (and girlos LOL), such a bee-atch of a day, I cannot tell yez! Oy, it was H E Double L Hockeysticks!

After a delish breaky at the Rothesay B & B by George and Lynn, we headed off from Harbour Grace, thinking we would explore a bit on some of the back roads on the way to Grand Falls where Tequila Sheila and Mikey live. We soon ditched that plan and decided to head directly there on the main highway as expeditiously as possible because my bikey, Delilah Deluxe was just not cooperating today.

She started up fine, still idling rather high, but then we headed off down the road and I had a bee-atch of a time getting her shifted into second gear. The next shifts up were fine and on we carried.

But, after the first stop for gas, same thing -- then I would have to bang her down into first and start trying to upshift again, sometimes several times. She always eventually got into gear, but it's a little dicey when you're trying to get onto the TransCanada Hwy and semitrailers are bearing down on yah. ACK!!!

And the wind buffetting was something else! This is due to the fact that crossing the Avalon Peninsula, via an isthmus, is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the winds come from all directions ... a lot ... all the time. By the end of the ride, I felt deaf as a post and sort of as if I'd just got off a boat.

And of course, we several times had to stop for gas, food, comfort stops and the dreaded road construction -- so everytime I had to shift up or down, it was a dicey situation to say the least -- which of course raised the stress levels tremendously -- my poor old arms and shoulders were quite sore by the time we arrived WHOOSH

But, Sheila and Mikey were terrific riding companions through this -- I will be forever grateful for their patience as I really had to slow down quite a bit due to the wind and stress. Mike actually offered to ride the bike for me, but I felt I must be true to my 'mission' and do it myself. And, ultimately, I am glad I didn't wimp out and go all girly (although for a second I seriously thought about it ;-) ) I mean, I think there might be few of my 'buds' who might be giving me the gearz for some time to come if I had LOL

Anyway, safe and sound here at their home here in Grand Falls - have drunk their beer, eaten their food, patted and loved up their two doggies and am just preparing to drift off to sleep in their comfy guest room. And Mikey has arranged to have bikey looked at tomorrow afternoon while we all go sightseeing for icebergs, so things is lookin' pretty good for the morrow :-)

Maybe I'll actually get some of my pics posted soon ...

Night All!

Day 25: Tues, July 7: Argentia to Harbour Grace, NL

"Harbour Grace". Isn't that the most lovely name? I'm gonna do some research to find out the origins of the name -- I think it would be fascinating ... along with Heart's Content, Dildo and other weird and wonderful monikers ;-)

Anyway, we are staying here in this little town of 3,000 on the sea, at a fabulous B & B here, Rothesay House, built in 1855-ish (full of paneling, wood floors, bay windows etc., etc.) and run by George and Lynn, who are the quintessentially perfect hosts (plus Meggie the dog). Very highly recommended folks and place to stay, if you ever get to the Rock.

We arrived here in the late afternoon, after having had a very late lunch on the way and enjoying the views and (windy) ride in the burgeoning sunshine ('burgeoning' is my word for the day, yah see). LOL

First stop after checking in was to head for the local beer store -- Alexander Keith's Pale Ale turns out to be a perfectly acceptable substitute when Corona & Lime is unavailable, BTW -- aren't I just broadening my horizons sooo much, eh?

I see that I should back up here and say that the ferry came in about 1-1/2 hours later than advertised (what's up with that eh? Perhaps the captain was Mexican and we were on manana time?)

Passengers were not allowed down to the vehicle deck until she was completely docked and tied up, so then there was (somewhat) of a mad stampede to get down and get the bikes untied as well -- luckily for me, a fine young laddie parked behind me helped me wrestle the straps open and we jumped on our bikes and away we went off the boat -- where I promptly wound up pulling off in to the terminal area cuz I spotted what looked like two bikers waiting -- one with those wonderfully 'slutty' Drifter fenders I was pretty sure had to be Tequila Sheila.

Yep - it WAS them and it was like Old Home Week all over again. Both Sheil and Mikey are warm outgoing sorts and we've already had plenty of giggles. And the fun part is, they both are interested in exploring a bit off the beaten path as they haven't had the opportunity to do so before, so we will all be touristas together :-)

Once the formalities were over, we headed off down the road, where we stopped at the local Tourist Information Centre for maps and a guidebook and wound up chit-chatting to a fellow and his wife and trying to help him persuade her to learn how to ride -- don't know how successful we were, but at least we got her to sit on all our bikes -- just to try out the fit, doncha know!

Interestingly, Mikey quickly identified that my bike seemed to be idling too high and I realized he was quite right -- that is probably what is contributing to my difficulty with shifting smoothly -- happily, he was able to arrange an appointment for day after tomorrow for me to get 'er in to be computer-analysed in Grand Falls near their home, so hopefully that will get sorted out pronto. I will be doing the happy dance then, boyoboy!

Pretty bushed now, so will sign off and get some sleep. Oh, yes, I have taken a number of pics and will get those posted, hopefully tomorrow night.

G'Night All!

EDITED to add photos: Day 25: Harbour Grace, NL

Day 24: Mon, Jul. 6: Long Day's Journey into Night

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note (cuz the signal is crappy onboard the ferry) to let you know, that thanks to good friend Gravol, I had a reasonably good sleepy-bye in my dormitory bunk (no snorers, thank Gawd!) and we are now about 2 hours out of our landing in Argentia, Nfld on Tuesday morning.

Challenge was to get the bike tied down on boarding -- big thanks to Big Bob for the previous lesson in how to do it and to Wilf the Goldwinger, who demonstrated how to tie the tiedowns tight (and basically did most of the work!) -- aren't bikers grand -- really helpful folks!

Met a couple from Metchosin of all places, Gary and Carla, who are BICYCLING -- seems we stayed at the same place last night -- anyway had a nice old natter and I was even able to recommend a Metchosin restaurant to them, the Garlic Rose, where the Women's Weekend had dinner in May -- too funny.

Will be meeting up 'somewhere on t'other side' with Tequila Sheila and hubby Mike ... will try to blog tonight!

Cheers!

EDITED to add photos: Day 24 Voyage to Argentia, NL