Facebook Syndrome

I left Blow Me Down and started to drive south with the feeling that I was starting to wind this part of the trip down. The travelling thing, that everyone experiences, is that when telling the story to others, it is all the highlights. I'm no different. Social media is not filled with everyone's hard stuff. Traveling is awesome and I love it and I'm thankful I'm getting a chance to do it, but there is a flip side. The uncomfortable times. The wanders that turn into dead ends. The lonely times that seem to get closer together as the travel extends. The eating differently. The missing of sons and a daughter-in-law and a certain grandbaby. And the tapping on ones' shoulder of work responsibilities. Those things don't disappear completely so it makes me want to be really focused on enjoying the times of good weather and interesting places. That didn't necessarily happen on Thursday.
Thursday was a driving day. I decided to check out Stephenville. That took a few minutes and I had a great bowl of turkey soup there. The rain was on and off as predicted. Nearby Harry's River is a famous fishery and I had a goal of getting to the river, watching some people fish and maybe finding someone to guide me for a bit. (Fishing is prohibited in NFLD without a guide). From Stephenville, I drove back down the highway and turned off toward the intersection of the river. A really good comedian came on the radio and I started to laugh. Loudly. Raucously. (https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/laugh-out-loud/… scroll to about 12:25 in this 30 minute clip for Charles Haycock) So I was howling, crying laughing. No idea why he strikes me so funny, but as I turned off the highway and started on the side road to Harry's River the road suddenly turned into the Amphibian Death Road. Suicidal frogs were suddenly EVERYWHERE!!. I tried to dodge the first one. "No!", I screamed out loud. I tried to dodge another one. "Jesus!". Good lord, they where everywhere. They would be crouched, sitting still and just as I swerved away they would sproing right toward me! What the heck?!!! Meanwhile, Charles Haycock was saying things that were so funny. I was laughing and swearing and bouncing over potholes. Well THIS was a memory. When the river appeared it was super anticlimactic. A bridge. A couple of houses. One little store. With a house attached. It was like someone had turned their front room into the town convenience store. Chips, candy, bread, milk, lotto tickets and beer. All one would ever need to get through(yikes). No fisherman. So I got out, walked a bit of the river. In the rain. Then I steeled myself for the return trip on Squished Frog Road and made a plan B. I decided to head toward Burgeo to finish off this southwestern tour. I headed down the highway, gas tank at 3/4 full and took the turn off to Route 480. Through the mist I could see that the landscape was turning tundra. I drove. And drove. And started to feel a little skeevy. About an hour and half in, having seen one car and no sign of anyone living here, and, more importantly, not a single gas station, I realized that I was either going to turn around or go for it. I kept driving. And then things got sketchy. The road was horrible. Huge potholes everywhere. The rain and fog came in HARD. I had about 25-50m of visibility and was only driving about 45mph. It was the first time in Newfoundland that I've felt alarm bells. About two hours more, with the gas tank needle dropping, I rolled into Burgeo. Population: under 1000. It was pouring. I could see nothing except a little neon "open" sign in the window of (you guessed it) a small, white building. I parked, walked in to find another classic NFLD house/restaurant/convenience store. I took a seat at the aluminum table with metal chairs. A woman came out of the back with a candle in a cupcake and I could hear the one other group in the place start to sing happy birthday to a five year old. There was a tv mounted on the wall above me. It wasn't a flat screen. In fact, it was a big, square, heavy tv like the one Mom and Dad had in their bedroom in Attleboro. It was tuned to a local station and the news was being broadcast in that old-school font I remember from the beginning of computers. Black background. Blue letters being scrolled across. "Residents are being asked to do a better job with their dogs. Feces on the dock is making it unpleasant for our fisherman." "Happy 75th birthday to Bobby O'Neil" "Please note that the driving test instructor will be in town on July 15th to offer licence opportunity for the summer season". I'd never thought of how that worked in a small town! What if you failed your test and the DMV person wasn't going to be back for another couple of months?!
I ended up having a beer and another bowl of soup before heading out to find a camping spot. There was, conveniently, a provincial park and I stopped at the office. A little note was taped to the window which said, "Gone for a bit. Feel free to look around". I got back in the car, now feeling soggy, and drove around the campground. There were a couple of big rvs that looked like they were parked for a long stretch. Lots of open spots. I picked one, parked and climbed in the back. The torrential rain had proved too much for my set up. The end of the bed was wet. There were puddles on the floor. Even the window by my head had leaked. First time I can remember for that. And then the weather turned bad.
Thunder and lightning. Even more torrential, torrential rain. Sheets of rain! I grabbed my yoga mat, laid it over the wet part of the bed to keep my sleeping bag dry. I grabbed my bath towel and scrunched it up to stem the drip near my head. I clicked the nightlight on and picked up a book to ride it out. As the storm abated, I could hear the waves crashing. I had no idea I was this close to the beach. When I woke up, despite the weather still being pretty foggy, I (once again!)found a really pleasant surprise. I was near a beautiful sandy beach. I made a big breakfast burrito with eggs, avocado, salsa and a little cheese. And then I went for a walk on the beach. Later, with the fog still thick, I decided to drive out of town and stumbled on my favorite little fish shack so far this trip. Maybe I'll make a house like this someday!Read more