25 August, 2016

Many pieces of luck

The last two days have been remarkable in so many ways. We were stopped at a place called "The Wilds", in the south of the Avalon. When we got up in the morning, it was raining. But that was fine: we had planned to drive a ways anyway. So we packed, got in the van, and headed north by a somewhat circuitous route (going west to catch Hwy 80 before going north to Dildo.

What we had not realized was that some of this road was gravel, and quite pitted. And the rain came hard, and long. By the time we got as far north as the TCH, I (the driver) felt we had to stop and let the rain slow down before we went on. But slow it did.

We had thought we would go up as far as Hearts Content, before stopping. But we decided to go through Dildo (which was just off the highway), and our luck began. We saw a couple of B&Bs, and decided to try one called "Inn By The Bay". And what a good choice that turned out to be. Run by a couple of women, they gave us a good deal on two rooms, and we settled in. Went off for a lunch at the local restaurant (the Dildo Dory), and then back to the B&B. By now it was starting to clear, and the evening was fresh and clear. Our B&B has a fine restaurant on site, but was closed that night, so we had a snack supper in the main room, watching the sun go down over the bay.












We slept wonderfully, and pretty long, given that we were in bed by nine.

I had a walk in the morning, down to the harbour and back, before breakfast. Checked my mail, read some, and had a great breakfast provided by the B&B. Then we were off on the bikes, for a ride up the coast.

A little ways up, I stopped at. Home Hardware to by a small tool for the bike. Bad choice: while I was there, my bike fell over, the contents of my front bag dumped into a puddle. Not too bad except for my iPhone, which got wet. I dried it off, but it was not going to work. Sigh! Definitely an "Oh, shit!" moment.

However, what are you going to do? So we went off again, along the road past Hopeall, Greens Harbour, Whiteway, to Cavendish, where we stopped to take a picture by the beach huts pictured on the front of the Newfoundland map and tourist brochure. Then on to Heart's Delight, and then Heart's Desire, where we met up with Darlene for a lunch by the dock. I placed my phone in the sun (it was now a clear sky) in the hopes that it would heat up enough to dry out. No luck: it was dead.






The scenery, as above, was spectacular. And the riding was not too bad: some up and downs, but pretty straight-forward.

But we have learned here not to trust the weather to be consistent. By early afternoon, it had clouded over and was spitting rain. We were in Heart's Content, so stopped for a coffee and some carrot cake in the local restaurant, served by a rather unhappy waitress to match the mood of the sky. And we decided we would push on to Winterton, with Darlene's help and encouragement.

Winterton had a Wooden Boat Museum, which we decided to go and see, and we were glad to have done this. A fascinating trip through the intricacies of boat-building, and boat evolution over the years. They had some wonderful t-shirts, but unfortunately none in our size. We had biked almost sixty kilometres, and that was enough.

So back to the B&B by van, arriving by early evening. Time for a shower, a bit of wine, and then supper here.





But there was the "Miracle of the iPhone". I thought I would check again to make sure the phone was really dead, and I got it to light up. Kind of a bizarre pattern on the screen, but there was life. I plugged it in, let it charge a bit, and it seemed to be okay. Glory be to Cod!

And supper was not too bad, either.

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Location:Front Rd,Dildo, Newfoundland,Canada

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