Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland/Nova Scotia, July 14th
Right now, somewhere on the Atlantic ocean between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and it was quite a days ride just getting here, more on that later, but first, I had a sunrise to get up for and would it be by myself or not? Yep, sorry to say by myself and with the alarm set for 4:30 Newfoundland time which would be 2:00 central, which I still have a little of that time in me, let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep and was also in no shape to be riding my bike to Cape Spears, what time did I say the bars close? you got it, 4:00 and I need more than half an hour to sober up to ride.
Ok, so George street did turn out to be the happenin place to be and even with the cougar situation and much more to the story than I care to share, there was still much more fun to be had and now I know why everyone says if ever in St Johns, you have to go to George street. I should’ve gotten more pictures, most which won’t be shared, but it’s very much like a Mardi Gra, just without the beads…now for the rest of the story.
So, you guessed it, not up at 4:30 to see that sunrise and still by myself that when I did finally wake up after shutting off the alarm, it was only 6:30 that I figured I have plenty of time to sleep in. That was until I realized that was 6:30 central that I was looking at, not Newfoundland time that I should make an effort to get up sooner rather than later cuz if I’m thinking about catching a midnight ferry from Port Aux-Basque, which I forgot to tell you about yesterday, I need to get going no later than noon.
As the story goes, I could either take a 16 – 18 hour ferry from St Johns, next one leaving at 12:30 in the morning Tuesday for 3 times the cost, or take a 10 hour bike trip back across the island to save some money and even time by catching the midnight ferry, that you got it, I opted for this one, which by the way, we’re already experiencing pretty rough seas. This will at least get me back to Nova Scotia early Tuesday instead of late Tuesday and I should really finish this story so I can get a little sleep since it’s only a 5 hour ferry ride and I have no place to stay once we do dock.
Well, I did finally crawl out of bed and get packed and cleaned up that I still have to make that trip to Cape Spears just to say I’ve been to the Most Easterly tip of North America, cuz if I’m going to claim North America, other than Nunuvut (and maybe you know why they call it “‘None of It”, no roads to do any of it) there are some things that I should take care of while here, cuz who knows when or if I’ll ever return. You can see by the pictures that I did make it to the Cape and while driving in my thought was a good thing I didn’t get up for the sunrise since its overcast that I wouldn’t have seen much of anything anyway. That’s what I thought until talking to Pastor John, whose filming sermons along the way traveling across Canada from Vancouver. Or the way he put it, the other guys, sorry, you know how I am with names, are the ones driving the van across Canada to get setup, while Pastor John flies to wherever they’re at…like I said, the boss always has it easy.
Ok, now I really have to make a run cuz I have a 10 hour drive ahead of me and according to my calculations, I should be able to shave a few minutes, if not half hours, if not hours off the trip, that is as long as I don’t run out of gas, and have I mentioned how far and in between the gas stations are on this island? if not, I should have, because just to avoid running out, I’ve been making a few more stops than normal even though there have been too many times that I’ve pushed it, that this time I got caught. The only thing I can figure is the strong head winds I’ve been fighting from St Johns, and remember how hard the winds blow across this island, well these are downright cold coming off the water across the mountain and capes to and from St Johns and they are brutal…that’s worse than the American version of wicked.
Well, at least I was close to one of those hotdog stands that I at least caught a picture of the other day, but may have skipped mentioning it. These hotdog stands are setup in the rest areas along the way that it’ll only be a half mile walk up the hill for me to see if the guy can help me out or not. Someone did stop to give me a ride and the guy said the same thing, the stations are too far and in-between and my next one is 40 klicks away, that’ll take a long time to get a gas can and come back, but I had him drop me off at the hotdog stand anyway and to my luck, Harold was more than willing to help me. He’d let me borrow his van to get gas for my bike, only problem is he couldn’t leave his hotdog stand so I might have to do some walking anyway, but the good news, there’s a gas station just down the hill that I made a quick trip down with his fan, filled the can and came back to the park. The way I had it figured with all of these people I’ve been meeting along the way that are out hitchhiking, I should be able to get a ride down the hill to my bike. I’m not sure what it is, but do I really look like someone wouldn’t trust picking up? No, don’t answer that. I did ask a guy who was buying from Harold if he could drop me off that half a mile down the road and him and his family were more than willing to help…thanks much for the lift.
Back on the road and now I’ll really have to hit it and have I told you how wicked the winds are on this island? today worse than any other that I’ve been riding and it seems to be a head wind that I really can’t afford to run out of gas again, well, guess what, I didn’t, but my next gas stop was sooner than it needed to be. With the sun just at the right angle above me, it made it hard to see and even worse, I was probably a little sleepy and pushing it just to get to the next gas station, that before I knew it, I was in the oncoming traffic lane and boy, not only did that put a scare into me, but it woke me up quick. That meant I really needed to stop as soon as I found gas, just to rest my eyes a little, so that’s just what I did.
Ok, I’ll be good on gas and make sure that I make plenty of stops from here to Port Aux-Basque, that what else could there be that’ll keep me from making the ferry. Well, how’bout rain with these wicked winds which is just what I encountered 150 klicks from the port. That’ll still be almost 2 hours and the other thing that is going to happen that everyone has told me not to do, ride in the dark. At least I have good rain gear to keep me dry, but when you can’t see the road very well, I figured it best camping out behind a truck for the rest of the way in. I’ll just have to slow down a little and let him get rid of any moose that might be in the road. That didn’t last though cuz I thought it a little slow that as long as I can see whether there’s anything in the road or not, yes, taking chances, but I really don’t want to miss this ferry. Wouldn’t you know it, the last 18 klicks were the worse, but I did make the ferry, that’s why I’m in the middle of the rough Atlantic and there were more bikes in line than I thought there would be.
Nova Scotia, here I come and I think I’m gonna make another stop to see Kat, oh yea, and Leanne…you ready for that ride? Stay tune.
Cross country pics
Ok, so George street did turn out to be the happenin place to be and even with the cougar situation and much more to the story than I care to share, there was still much more fun to be had and now I know why everyone says if ever in St Johns, you have to go to George street. I should’ve gotten more pictures, most which won’t be shared, but it’s very much like a Mardi Gra, just without the beads…now for the rest of the story.
So, you guessed it, not up at 4:30 to see that sunrise and still by myself that when I did finally wake up after shutting off the alarm, it was only 6:30 that I figured I have plenty of time to sleep in. That was until I realized that was 6:30 central that I was looking at, not Newfoundland time that I should make an effort to get up sooner rather than later cuz if I’m thinking about catching a midnight ferry from Port Aux-Basque, which I forgot to tell you about yesterday, I need to get going no later than noon.
As the story goes, I could either take a 16 – 18 hour ferry from St Johns, next one leaving at 12:30 in the morning Tuesday for 3 times the cost, or take a 10 hour bike trip back across the island to save some money and even time by catching the midnight ferry, that you got it, I opted for this one, which by the way, we’re already experiencing pretty rough seas. This will at least get me back to Nova Scotia early Tuesday instead of late Tuesday and I should really finish this story so I can get a little sleep since it’s only a 5 hour ferry ride and I have no place to stay once we do dock.
Well, I did finally crawl out of bed and get packed and cleaned up that I still have to make that trip to Cape Spears just to say I’ve been to the Most Easterly tip of North America, cuz if I’m going to claim North America, other than Nunuvut (and maybe you know why they call it “‘None of It”, no roads to do any of it) there are some things that I should take care of while here, cuz who knows when or if I’ll ever return. You can see by the pictures that I did make it to the Cape and while driving in my thought was a good thing I didn’t get up for the sunrise since its overcast that I wouldn’t have seen much of anything anyway. That’s what I thought until talking to Pastor John, whose filming sermons along the way traveling across Canada from Vancouver. Or the way he put it, the other guys, sorry, you know how I am with names, are the ones driving the van across Canada to get setup, while Pastor John flies to wherever they’re at…like I said, the boss always has it easy.
Ok, now I really have to make a run cuz I have a 10 hour drive ahead of me and according to my calculations, I should be able to shave a few minutes, if not half hours, if not hours off the trip, that is as long as I don’t run out of gas, and have I mentioned how far and in between the gas stations are on this island? if not, I should have, because just to avoid running out, I’ve been making a few more stops than normal even though there have been too many times that I’ve pushed it, that this time I got caught. The only thing I can figure is the strong head winds I’ve been fighting from St Johns, and remember how hard the winds blow across this island, well these are downright cold coming off the water across the mountain and capes to and from St Johns and they are brutal…that’s worse than the American version of wicked.
Well, at least I was close to one of those hotdog stands that I at least caught a picture of the other day, but may have skipped mentioning it. These hotdog stands are setup in the rest areas along the way that it’ll only be a half mile walk up the hill for me to see if the guy can help me out or not. Someone did stop to give me a ride and the guy said the same thing, the stations are too far and in-between and my next one is 40 klicks away, that’ll take a long time to get a gas can and come back, but I had him drop me off at the hotdog stand anyway and to my luck, Harold was more than willing to help me. He’d let me borrow his van to get gas for my bike, only problem is he couldn’t leave his hotdog stand so I might have to do some walking anyway, but the good news, there’s a gas station just down the hill that I made a quick trip down with his fan, filled the can and came back to the park. The way I had it figured with all of these people I’ve been meeting along the way that are out hitchhiking, I should be able to get a ride down the hill to my bike. I’m not sure what it is, but do I really look like someone wouldn’t trust picking up? No, don’t answer that. I did ask a guy who was buying from Harold if he could drop me off that half a mile down the road and him and his family were more than willing to help…thanks much for the lift.
Back on the road and now I’ll really have to hit it and have I told you how wicked the winds are on this island? today worse than any other that I’ve been riding and it seems to be a head wind that I really can’t afford to run out of gas again, well, guess what, I didn’t, but my next gas stop was sooner than it needed to be. With the sun just at the right angle above me, it made it hard to see and even worse, I was probably a little sleepy and pushing it just to get to the next gas station, that before I knew it, I was in the oncoming traffic lane and boy, not only did that put a scare into me, but it woke me up quick. That meant I really needed to stop as soon as I found gas, just to rest my eyes a little, so that’s just what I did.
Ok, I’ll be good on gas and make sure that I make plenty of stops from here to Port Aux-Basque, that what else could there be that’ll keep me from making the ferry. Well, how’bout rain with these wicked winds which is just what I encountered 150 klicks from the port. That’ll still be almost 2 hours and the other thing that is going to happen that everyone has told me not to do, ride in the dark. At least I have good rain gear to keep me dry, but when you can’t see the road very well, I figured it best camping out behind a truck for the rest of the way in. I’ll just have to slow down a little and let him get rid of any moose that might be in the road. That didn’t last though cuz I thought it a little slow that as long as I can see whether there’s anything in the road or not, yes, taking chances, but I really don’t want to miss this ferry. Wouldn’t you know it, the last 18 klicks were the worse, but I did make the ferry, that’s why I’m in the middle of the rough Atlantic and there were more bikes in line than I thought there would be.
Nova Scotia, here I come and I think I’m gonna make another stop to see Kat, oh yea, and Leanne…you ready for that ride? Stay tune.
Cross country pics
posted by Dalej Webb at 3:50 PM
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