Four days on the road

When we left home on Wednesday 28th a.m., the plan was to be in Newfoundland by Friday 30th, approx. 2 p.m.

Day 1 - drive through Montreal, past Quebec City and on to Grand Falls, N.B. for the night. This part of the trip went according to plan. We even got the same room at the Hill Top Inn as we had last year. Alas, the bottle of make-up I left in the bathroom last September was there no longer.

Day 2 - drive to North Sydney, N.S. in time for the 11p.m. ferry to Port-aux-Basques. Like clockwork. A bonus of a double rainbow in Cape Breton. Needless to say, I got all excited and snapped a load of pictures through a rainy windshield. A guaranteed way to fill up the trash bucket. ***** Alas, even a double rainbow didn't spare us the news we got at the ferry terminal. The MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood was out of commission and the replacement (MV Lief Eriksen) would not sail until the following morning. Once again, proof everything is random.

A night at a motel in North Sydney (which shall remain nameless because a place such as that doesn't deserve free publicity) on our own dime didn't make us any less grumpy about having to get up early to be at the ferry by 8am to get a good place in line. Marine Atlantic gave us meal vouchers, one each for a breakfast, dinner and supper. We used only the lunch voucher and have a year to use the others. Uh huh.

We landed in Port-aux-Basques at nearly 6pm, way too late (because of the danger of moose-car encounters) to be heading across the island. So I phoned my dear uncle Ben and aunt Mary in Corner Brook and begged their hospitality in putting us up for the night. Of course, they said, come on and we made record time over the road, driving up to their door by 8:20.

A grand night, by any standards. We sat around the kitchen table and caught up on all the family news. Aunt Mary had a meal of cod au gratin waiting for us and a real cup of tea - our first since leaving home on Wednesday. Uncle Ben was hoping we'd be staying for a few days but we had to break the news that we'd be off again in the morning, making tracks for Hillgrade.

And so, by 10 am on Saturday, we were off again, passing Deer Lake, the long drive to Springdale and Grand Falls and then off at Notre Dame Junction to Lewisporte and up the shore to New World Island and our Newfoundland home.

We saw a moose between Deer Lake and Hampton. A female, grazing at the side of the road. Never even looked up as we passed. Good thing she didn't decide to cross because we didn't see her until it would have been too late to avoid her.

A couple of Tim Horton's coffees later, we pulled up in Friday's Bay cove. Cora was planting carrots at the side of her squid-drying shed with her granddaughter Jenna. Big waves and hellos. Eileen and Gord came out of the lobster pool down by the wharf and waved wildly, called out Hello, Good to have you back. And it was good to be back.

John went under the house immediately to hook up the plumbing junctions. Inside an hour we had running hot water and electricity. Smooth operation. We were so pleased with ourselves that we had things under control so quickly that we decided to set up the computers. Bad idea. At 5:30, we realized that we had forgotten to go to the grocery store and so had absolutely no food in the house except what we had brought with us (organic honey, organic peanut butter and whole wheat pasta).

Our long-planned meal with Joanne and Simon, previously scheduled for Friday, took place on Saturday night. It was grand to see them again and we only scratched the surface as far as catching up goes. When we were leaving, Joanne handed me a bag containing the lasagna left over from supper. She pressed on us as well a bag of frozen fishcakes she had bought at a recent bake sale, as well as a loaf of bread. What a good friend she is. When we were unloading at home, we found also a large sack of homemade ginger snaps. Wow.

And so we're off to a good start. Food and friends. Don't need anything else.