Day 75- Some problems solved-we like visitor centers

Day 75 Thursday, July 22, 2010 Distance 86.40 km. Time 5 hr. 13 min. Total so far 5225.75 km. We left our gravel road, wild flower " campsite" early and caught a couple who were just leaving the motel to give us water and take our garbage. Hills, hills, hills and more hills was the treat for our legs today. We'd just finished climbing one and there looming in front of us was another. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the scenery was exceptionally beautiful. At the Northwest River there was a wall across the river that looked like many wood sticks side by side and no fishing was allowed. Going around Clode Sound and around Port Blanchard , I tried to take a video holding the camera in one hand while going downhill. It didn't work and I think it's too dangerous so that's the end of that. All around us are the White Hills. We stopped at an information center. When the lady called the ferry she had bad news. There was no ferry going today and the big one is still broken. We filled our water and outside we met Bea from st. John's. I told her about the ferry and just in case she gave us her address. You never know but we may have to fly out. The next town was Clarenville where we checked Canadian Tire for our cooking fuel called "Heet", a car antifreeze. They didn't have any so we went on to Sobey's to replenish our body fuel-FOOD. While Dave was inside, friendly Vaughn approached me and asked how our trip was going. I liked his ICEBERG ball cap He used to live in St. John's but moved here to a camp for his children to be able to visit and enjoy the water. He was telling me you could camp in any one's backyard in NFL and they wouldn't mind. His daughter came out of the store and he introduced us to Elizabeth who said she lives in Placentia. That is the closest little town to the ferry. I said we were headed that way and may have to wait until Tuesday and she immediately said we were welcome to her backyard or her home. I gave her a big hug. What a feeling of relief went over me to know we would have a place to go to. After they left, Christine came over. After complimenting Dave's great tan, she said she loves to bicycle and would really like to do a trip. We gave her tips on how to work her way into it. Later Dave said we are doing what some people only dream about. My legs were starting to feel the work after 4 hours of riding. Dave proposed an ice cream break for me before going farther. We made it to the next visitor center which is beside a busy Irving gas station where Hwy. 210 joins Hwy 1. We decided to stop there. We had two choices-beside a large propane tank of the gas station or on a little corner of the nice grass of the visitor center. I chose the nice grass and we set up and the lady didn't kick us out and this way we could go in and use the phone in the morning to call the ferry again. We both had a shower at the Irving station and later had a hamburger there although that took forever as we were after a whole tour bus of people.

Day 74- Reaching Terra Nova National Park

Day 74 Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Distance 91.97 km. Time 4 hr. 48 min. Total so far 5139.35 km. Happy Anniversary today to Chris and Melissa in Roseneath ON I got up early this morning and wrote a blog about Geoff and then emailed my siblings and my children with Janice's address. The breakfast coupon worked out great and Dave and I felt privileged to be sitting in the dining room with teapots, bacon, eggs and toast and jam. It would be nice to start off every morning that way. While I packed, Dave rode back to the visitor center where, sure enough, he had left his two water bottles on the top of the porch railing. And thankfully no one had moved them. We got bread for lunch at the grocery store and were on the road again at 8:30. We still have not seen any moose even though the sign says “Moose 26 km” at various times during the day. I guess we need to ride in the evening for sightings. I felt good today. There were lots of hills and after the first hour the sky brightened and it got sunny and warm again. I always tell everyone that the Lord brought us and the sun together to NFL. We met three young male tourers going the opposite way. Ian, Chris and Mike are from New York, Massachusetts and I think San Francisco. They flew into St. John’s and are on Day 4 of a tour of NFL. and Nova Scotia. They have certain dates to be back and have to plan accordingly. We are blessed to have no time restrictions on our trip. All three were riding Surly Long Haul Trucker bicycles and were very pleased with their performance. Mike had an interesting setup on his handlebar. He had his Flip video camera mounted and was taking videos here and there. Later we stopped and looked at Joey’s (Smallwood) Lookout overlooking Gambo. There was a spectacular view of the town below and the tide out waters of the bay filled with rocks. It was getting hot so I took off my socks, changed to my bathing suit top and put on my sweatband and had Dave lather me with sunscreen. The only problem with that is that at the end of the day you feel dirty and really want to wash. At the Gambo River, I took a photo of a fly fisherman. All the brooks have signs saying you can only flyfish in them and some don’t allow any fishing at all. All the guys wear those little beige vests that you attach your flies to. This river was wide but not deep and had lots of rocks. We had lunch at the Terra Nova River where the ES Spencer Bridge is. We saw a few motor boats going along that wide, deeper river. Finally, we reached the boundary of Terra Nova National Park. Gear 2 became very important as we now had hill after hill after hill after hill. You know what I mean! The inside of my right knee was getting sore. We passed the two park campgrounds but they were both several kms. off the road so we continued on to Charlottetown, which is a small town not included in the park. We looked behind the tennis courts but it was up too high a grade. We checked a gravel pit and a dirt road but I couldn’t see any good spot. Finally we went to the motel to see if we could camp in their spacious, green back yard. Instead the lady pointed to the dirt road that I had just checked out. We went way up that road and although she said there were a couple of sites and wanted ten dollars, all we found were piles of gravel and rocks and one little patch of wild flowers- no picnic table, no toilets, no water, no fire ring (although we never have fires) -NO chargeable campsite. We parked on the wild flowers -clover, daisies and buttercups and spent the night.

Day 73- Sad news in Gander

Day 73 Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Distance 47.09 km. Time 2 hr. 36 min. Total so far 5047.38 km. Packing was so hard as the bicycles had to be brought down first from our second storey campsite and then all the items. We still were able to start at 7am. The first two hours are always enjoyable because we are fresh and energized and the traffic is very light then. We saw lots of moose country. At one stop at the Salmon River Bridge, Dave spotted one as it walked into the stream, took a drink and then headed into the bush again. At Appleton, we passed the Gander River over the Queen Elizabeth 11 Bridge. It was a big wide river. Our beautiful day soon turned overcast and it started to drizzle as we entered Gander. I took photos of the Memorial that Dennis (on the ferry) had helped to establish. It was a military plane crash. Dave went on to the visitor center while I stopped at the Aviation Museum and took photos of all the planes out in the yard. When I went in, there was a fee and since Dave had the money, I had to leave. At the visitor center, we called to book tickets for Saturday for the ferry from Argentia that goes back to Nova Scotia. Well the ferry is broken!!! A little ferry is taking its place and it will be full and we have to be booked for Tuesday but if the big ferry gets fixed then maybe we can go on it on Saturday. That puts us in a bind as we have to be there on Saturday anyways no matter which way the plan works. The rain was coming down hard now so Dave decided to check our email while we were stuck there. That’s when we saw an email from Melissa to contact her as soon as possible. We finally got her on the phone and after a little mixup about my thinking great Uncle Geoff had passed away, it turned out that Dave’s brother, Geoff, in Vernon, BC. had passed away of an aortic aneurysm last Wednesday, July 14th. All this news deflated us and we decided to look for a motel so we could call and talk to Janice, Geoff’s wife. Well the Comfort Inn just across the street was full and the hotel next to it wouldn’t let us in early so we headed to the Sinbad Hotel and were able to get in right away in a room with an outer door for the bicycles. Not only that but we got a coupon to have breakfast in their dining room the following morning and not only that but we were able to do a load of laundry and one more not only that but the grocery store was right across the street in a mall. Pretty sweet! We called Janice to see how she and the children are doing, then did our groceries and laundry and then called Melissa. I sent two blogs from a few days back. We both cleaned our bicycles and then went to bed and had a good sleep.

Day 72-A Civic Holiday?

Day 72 Monday, July, 19, 2010 Distance 94. 58 km. Time 4 hr. 38 min. Total so far 5000.29 km. Dave woke up first for a change. I was awake a lot listening to one neighbour emptying rain out of his overhead tarp and another group making noise until about 2 am. We were the only early birds as everyone in these parks sleeps in. The day cleared up as we went along. The wind was on our back for a while so we made good time. At one spot, I took photos of a huge pipeline that was leading to some building in the distance. Dave wasn't going as far ahead as yesterday and I seemed to be feeling better today. He had given me some cough drops to suck on and I had a hot cup of tea for my throat. We were out of food and looking forward to a grocery store. We had a surprise when we reached Grand Falls- Windsor and found all the stores closed due to a local civic holiday. OUCH! We thought then that we would go to MacDonald's and have a hamburger BUT they were still serving breakfast. So we moved next door to Subway and ate a 6 inch sub there and we both ordered a 12 inch one to take with us. Later on the road, usually along a railing to park the bicycles, we enjoyed our subs -6 inches every hour. We stopped at another visitor center which also had 3 employees who were all very helpful. When we were going up one hill, Dave stopped and went in the ditch a little ways and I wondered what he was doing. He had spotted a NFL flag so now for the rest of the province (or trip) we are flying the flag from Dave's bicycle. Just past there, we decided to stop at Notre Dame Provincial Park. We could hear rumbling in the distance but it didn't seem to disturb all the swimmers in the lake. I guess hot weather doesn't happen here that often so they take every opportunity to enjoy it. We asked the lady if we could have a spot with some grass and not too far in. WELL, we went to number 9 and it had 12 steps to go up followed by more incline, and there was not a blade of grass to be seen-just dirt and stones. That is why we prefer stealth camping to parks. In most of the parks, you need a foot high mattress to be comfortable and you need a jack hammer to drive in the stakes for the tent. You should have seen us unpack our bicycles down on the road and run back and forth with our items as the rumbling and dark clouds got closer. Finally, we pushed up our bicycles, covered them up and jumped into the tent which was still damp from the previous day. Guess what-we had just a few sprinkles then, had time to have supper and then had another bit of rain later. We are still having parts of the floor of the tent that get wet, and we can't find where even though we sprayed the whole bottom again in Maine.