The road from Corner Brook to Deer Lake followed a river valley and then a lake. It was a fairly short ride, but the hills and the wind in our face made it a touch more tiring than expected. The views of Newfoundland are always beautiful, making every pedal worth the work though.
I must add this tidbit in. As I write this, we are sitting in a small town cafe as 8 local men occupy the tables next to us. Without a word, Ryan and I look at one another with a smile, knowing we are both thinking the same thing, "What in the world are these people saying?" The Newfie accents are one of a kind, dropping all h's with little pronunciation of words. We really need to concentrate to understand some of the locals. This corner of the world is definitely worth a visit. Before we arrived here, we often heard Newfie's are the friendliest people on earth.
We met a fellow cycle tourist named Malcolm, a resident of St. John's, Newfoundland, taking a two month leave from work to make a loop through the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Quebec. We met him just as he was taking a few days to rest a bad saddle sore that required a trip to the hospital and antibiotics. Malcolm and two friends had been planning this trip for two years, so you can imagine how bummed he was learning of the severity of his sore. Although trying to rest in order for the sore to heal, he ended up canceling his trip and plans to pick up where he left off next year. Saddle sores are definitely a concern and a bother when on the bikes day in and day out. After talking to Malcolm, we researched saddle sores and learned the best methods of prevention are supportive saddles that are properly adjusted, changing out of your biking shorts when you are not riding and standing up off the seat often while riding. Most people that we talk to always point to our saddles, shake their heads and say something like "If I were riding I would have the most padded seat I could." In reality, this is the surest recipe for a saddle sore. More padding means more movement, more movement equals more friction and more friction causes sores. We will stick with our hard leather Brooks saddles thanks!
Arriving in Deer Lake, we stopped by the information center to check our email and ask our typical questions. Next store at the Irving gas station was a public shower that only charged $2.25 per shower. Why I think we will, thank you. Talk about in need of a shower. It was quite brisk outside and we had not showered in a few days, so needless to say, our showers were quite long with the unlimited hot water and nice water pressure. Warm and clean, we decided to not ride farther and rather put our tent up behind the information center, calling it an early day. Just fine by me. That night the weather set in and we were in rain until late afternoon the following day. Thankful for shelter and being warm, we stayed in the info center catching up on our news online. Not wanting to ride in the rain when we were not in a hurry, we stayed a second night in the same spot and shared it with Malcolm (the last of his travels).
These rainy days make for wet gear which eventually leads to mold if you can't find a way to dry everything every day. Ryan did find a way to tackle the mold by mixing water, lemon juice and salt together in to a paste and scrubbing the nylon. This is all well and good when we have the means and time to clean our gear. Being "homefree" does not always allow for such cleaning opportunities. We take any opportunity to dry our tent to when the sun peaks out, taking over a large section of a parking lot while the sun shone for about 30 minutes. Just enough time.
We had about a two hour window without rain, making it another 50k down the road to Wiltondale. Planning to turn west at this town, the clouds quickly rolled in and did not look like they would be leaving anytime soon. No shelter in sight, we saw a very small white church down the way and rode in hopes of the doors being unlocked. To our luck, they were! Dad, you would be proud......after our stint in McDonald's, this church was just as welcomed. We grabbed our books and a bit of food before settling in to the pews for next five hours. Why do they have to make church pews so straight backed and uncomfortable? By laying down though, I managed a 30 minutes nap. A short window of no rain around 8:30pm, we quickly set up our tent on the side of the church. Blending into the brush and grass, our green fly hides us well and often cannot been seen from passerbys. We slept like babies.
I must add this tidbit in. As I write this, we are sitting in a small town cafe as 8 local men occupy the tables next to us. Without a word, Ryan and I look at one another with a smile, knowing we are both thinking the same thing, "What in the world are these people saying?" The Newfie accents are one of a kind, dropping all h's with little pronunciation of words. We really need to concentrate to understand some of the locals. This corner of the world is definitely worth a visit. Before we arrived here, we often heard Newfie's are the friendliest people on earth.
We met a fellow cycle tourist named Malcolm, a resident of St. John's, Newfoundland, taking a two month leave from work to make a loop through the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Quebec. We met him just as he was taking a few days to rest a bad saddle sore that required a trip to the hospital and antibiotics. Malcolm and two friends had been planning this trip for two years, so you can imagine how bummed he was learning of the severity of his sore. Although trying to rest in order for the sore to heal, he ended up canceling his trip and plans to pick up where he left off next year. Saddle sores are definitely a concern and a bother when on the bikes day in and day out. After talking to Malcolm, we researched saddle sores and learned the best methods of prevention are supportive saddles that are properly adjusted, changing out of your biking shorts when you are not riding and standing up off the seat often while riding. Most people that we talk to always point to our saddles, shake their heads and say something like "If I were riding I would have the most padded seat I could." In reality, this is the surest recipe for a saddle sore. More padding means more movement, more movement equals more friction and more friction causes sores. We will stick with our hard leather Brooks saddles thanks!
Arriving in Deer Lake, we stopped by the information center to check our email and ask our typical questions. Next store at the Irving gas station was a public shower that only charged $2.25 per shower. Why I think we will, thank you. Talk about in need of a shower. It was quite brisk outside and we had not showered in a few days, so needless to say, our showers were quite long with the unlimited hot water and nice water pressure. Warm and clean, we decided to not ride farther and rather put our tent up behind the information center, calling it an early day. Just fine by me. That night the weather set in and we were in rain until late afternoon the following day. Thankful for shelter and being warm, we stayed in the info center catching up on our news online. Not wanting to ride in the rain when we were not in a hurry, we stayed a second night in the same spot and shared it with Malcolm (the last of his travels).
These rainy days make for wet gear which eventually leads to mold if you can't find a way to dry everything every day. Ryan did find a way to tackle the mold by mixing water, lemon juice and salt together in to a paste and scrubbing the nylon. This is all well and good when we have the means and time to clean our gear. Being "homefree" does not always allow for such cleaning opportunities. We take any opportunity to dry our tent to when the sun peaks out, taking over a large section of a parking lot while the sun shone for about 30 minutes. Just enough time.
We had about a two hour window without rain, making it another 50k down the road to Wiltondale. Planning to turn west at this town, the clouds quickly rolled in and did not look like they would be leaving anytime soon. No shelter in sight, we saw a very small white church down the way and rode in hopes of the doors being unlocked. To our luck, they were! Dad, you would be proud......after our stint in McDonald's, this church was just as welcomed. We grabbed our books and a bit of food before settling in to the pews for next five hours. Why do they have to make church pews so straight backed and uncomfortable? By laying down though, I managed a 30 minutes nap. A short window of no rain around 8:30pm, we quickly set up our tent on the side of the church. Blending into the brush and grass, our green fly hides us well and often cannot been seen from passerbys. We slept like babies.
No comments:
Post a Comment