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passing joey to get a gander at appleton.
THE POUCH COVE LIBRARY DOESN'T HAVE A CD SLOT SO NO DOWNLOAD YESTERDAY
they left only 10 minutes before me - a bit upset as they didn't know that there is no suck thing as umlimited mileage on the rock. here they were motoring on the transcanada to corner brook, a good 700 km away with a mileage allowance from hertz being 100 km/day. they were sick, what would that mean when they added the 160 km to gros morne and back.

i had to lock up, get my film, make sure that i had everything and then headed down route 20 to the transcanada. who cares if it cut through the middle of this vast nice park in st. john's you can hardly see it. sped pass mount pearl - left urban newfoundland behind. there was a copy inuit direction marker placed on the hill this side another on the opposite - i'll get it on the way back or when i head down to st. shott's. i don't have to race but i have to get to gander. 311 km be there in three hours. middle gull pond, ocean pond, dildo pond and arm. a stop at whitburne to pick up yet another map, speeding by the giant lobster in clarenville making a mental note to get a snap of the lone church across the northwest arm , am reminded to watch out for moose when a coyote races across the road just before terra nova. the greenery of the park, the pathetic caribou at gloverton irving gas bar. a stop at joey's look out wishing that i had stopped at gambo pond to photograph the erratics - it wouldn't be the last time. slow down slow down.

hoped that the ontarians would ask me to take their snap so that i would have an excuse to photograph them and their caravan convoy. one couldn't be all that bad the plate read A0A

stop at the city limits to photograph the silhouette of a concord - www.bigthings.ca - then the runway lights crossing the transcanada. found the art and culture centre with no problem, the trouble arose when she wasn't in and wasn't due until wednesday. so off to appleton, this side of green bay not to be confused with baie verte or bay de verde. but first a ball park complex off the airport road.

nice house it was rambling with all a lot of private areas, the grounds seemed nice and it looked like there was a green house. didn't get too much of a look as i was fending off two labradors - and two what looked like dachshunds - i guessed that they were snacks for the labradors. she and her husband greeted me, offered me a mug up - actually being british, the tea was in china - to the shock of her husband who had taken down his mug. we talked about the basket cased moron that is running the land above mexico and wondered if newfoundland would be far enough away if he won a second mandate. was told that bush pere comes to labrador to fish and last time sunk up to his chest in a bog - is bush fils shorter or taller than his father?

also shared gossip about the art crowd here on the rock. it seems that all my perceptions about certain people were correct.

the trip back was to see a different coast. it was 3pm i reckoned that i could be back to pouch by 9pm. i had forgot to give her the backing for the prints so stopped off at the culture centre. head out to the transcanada to find the route to musgrave harbour. 15 km down the road i realise i missed it but cannot figure out how. retrace my now expensive steps - it costs $50cdn to fill the caravan - another kerouac moment and fitting as radio one's paul kennedy was interviewing lawrence ferlinghetti and profiling city lights. find out that when i turned to get on the transcanada the road that led me to it was the one i was looking for, should have turned left but there was no marking. 120 through forests managed by the corner brook paper and pulp company. not looking at a map or worse seeing the mileage constraints - intend to make the loop through gambo back to the transcanada but if i had time, was rushing - slow down slow down - because i hear moose like to cross the road at dusk, i would have headed up to twillingate to have a look over the main tickle.

i realised what the flight plan was of the plane over the great northern, over baie verte, twillingate and fogo, bonavista, trinity, then conception bay into the airport. realised this when i saw the ice bergs that i had seen from the plane just outside hamilton sound.

instead of reaching a land's end and turning back - which may have been less miles did the kittiwake loop stopping in musgrave harbour due to a book that i read about the goodyears, photographed the ocean with canada post boxes in front of it had a mild case of the attack of the black fly. took the road along the sound stopping now and then to try to photograph the erratics, and the town hall.

was still racing too much as i missed a great deal of things - there is something about the response and sportiness of the dodge caravan that makes you want to take to the road and 120 and tackle any and all curves. because of this i missed a couple of good conveniences a few arenas.

has just passed the ultramar in new wes valley when the gasoline gauge light came on. this can cause a mild panic for heading down to cape st. mary's there were 43 gas bar-less kilometres between placentia and st bride's. stopped in hare bay at the ultramar to fill up. the station attendent spoke to me so his fate was sealed.

cruised through gambo trying to find a spot close enough to the river so that i could photograph more erratics . it was now early evening and at places the water was still reflecting the sky and clouds. tried to get to butt's pond but with no luck did photograph a house laden with lawn ornaments from all over north america. no cliché went untouched.

stopped at the joey smallwood interpretative centre to look for postcards bad statue in the joey smallwood museum which would cost a twonie to see so i gave it a pass.

by now i was frustrated, no time no money. it came to me that ideally i would like to link all the tourist loops slowly not making day trips but easing my way across the province i could have spent time in every village that i went through. i hated not being able to do a diversion - it isn't in my nature to do anything directly. i was close to fogo, wanted to see salvage - long a second syllable - shamblers cove looked interesting. i was now noticing that even though you cannot get any farther east than the area around st. john's you cannot get further isolated than these outports that, only recently, when the road was put in, became part of the whole and they are disappearing quickly. the new map doesn't have great harbour deep now that the outport decided to be relocated - it could only be reached by boat.

i would like to take the same time it used to take to get to these places. the populations in these places seemed to be placed on the land - thought model railway layout - rather than here in pouch where the houses seemed to be in it.

hitting the trans canada it was to be a straight shot back into st. john's but did stop for the giant lobster in clarenville. the irving near by. the lone church was impossible from where i was too much vegetation in the foreground - next time - my mantra. a stop at whitburne for the irving at dusk, it was 9:30 but still light the waning sun breaking through the clouds. i was thankful as i was wary of moose and away from cities the province is dark. wish that it was lighter so that i could have photographed the refineries at come-by-chance. when i was getting a bit tired of driving, the glow of mount pearl that appears then disappears. soon the lights of greater st. john's, pippy park, torbay road. one last stop at the irving in torbay to buy a globe - out - so a national post.
968.2km