heart's desire, delight and content via dildo

whales spotted in middle cove caplin roeing in mid august.
couldn’t sleep. wanted the day to come so that i could head out. i was going on an extended road trip no matter what, i was going to leave by 9am and try to go as slowly along the baccalieu trail as possible.

i was going to look for closed conveniences, ball parks, additions to the carl english series as well as gas bars and good old newfoundland formalism.

ange had bought me the globe and the post as i told her my habits for week-ends up here but there would be no time to read them. i wanted to hit the road.

left – as is normal – later than i had wished. 10am this time i haven’t been logging daily distances as when i get in the car i simply go. crawled down route 20 to irving in torbay where pulling in i noticed that the car in front of me was having gasoline pour out of it. the person hadn’t a clue. this is pretty hard to do here as one has to hold on to the pump.

no matter, in minutes i was on the transcanada that mighty road that never ceases to amaze me. to-day the speed limit was down to 50k/h as there was a bike race along it. stopped myself to photograph a taxi cab perched on a cliff over looking the road as an advert.

worried as on the tch just south of holyrood it was raining. this would be a long trip to do in the rain. tried to think of a back up plan.

treated the saab nicely slowly made my way to 110. stopped at the whitbourne irving for a photograph and the tourist board beside it for a new map. then up route 80 i went.

i had made the loop in the opposite direction when my mother was here but it seems that i didn’t remember where i had taken certain images at the end of a long day. hence the reverse direction. i also wanted to go a bit more slowly during this leg as returning my attention was lapsing. the map was to make notes so that this wouldn’t happen again.

so the last time i did stop at dildo pond, but we by passed dildo – a mistake a nice town complete with tourist office and captain dildo everywhere. photographed a few closed shops on the way stopped to photograph a bus shelter at crockers hill in dildo when joe crocker came out and ask if i wanted to photograph him raising the flag.

sure.

until i saw what flag it was. holding back the bile that was building up in my gullet i politely asked why he was raising the stars and stripes?

a friend of his lives in the southern states and sent it to him.
trying not to have the gagging become audible was relieved when a maple leaf was finally raised also.

angela his friend seem to agree. neither could remember where the friend lives. she invited me in for a coffee which – even remembering the woman in corner brook – i declined not knowing if i would find a place to “recycle” it up the road.

traded whale stories as it seems that there were a few in trinity bay this week. has land because he has a newfoundland pony.mentioned the whales in pouch and in the bell island tickle. asked if i could get back to the main road via crocker’s hill no but he gave me directions.

slow but pleasant going. was proud of myself as i was not only stopping but if i missed something i turned around. broadened my thesis by including social clubs – the new green harbour lions building. the fishermans clubs that i found in the hearts’s. in cavendish i stopped to photograph another closed convenience and found the maple leaf nicely draped over a boxes garbage is put in so that animals cannot get to it. asked the lady who owned if i could photograph it.

no problem, a conversation ensued, she thought i worked for the national enquirer i assured her that that wasn’t the case that i worked for c.s.i.s. when two other people came out.

they asked if i was back for the homecoming – cavendish was having a 100th welcome home party that had been going on all week - and invited me in to join them.

declined again. i had a long way to go yet. there was the ray jarrett memorial sports complex in islington, as well as ball parks in whiteway which had an excellent homage to carl, the bal park in new perlican where i photograph three women who were having a jumble sale by the town hall. the kevin powers memorial ball park in wintertown that had the best carl english homage of the trip so far.

thought about abandoning pouch and moving out to this shore of trinity bay. lots of property that overlooked the bay and it was much cheaper. wondered if i could stand being this far from st. john’s as i know that carbonear wouldn’t quite cut it –even with the wal-mart.

the trip was a constant stop and start. there were a lot of abandoned businesses but most were just closed on sunday – i think. the shelves were full but there was quite a bit of dust.

i was reminded of arabian knights the falafel shop in duckworth street that it seems has closed for good. met the manager - who i am told is cuban - in water street and mentioned that the place is closed the owner ran out of money. could see why but again showing how small the capital is people at ruth’s and peter either knew him personally or had done something for the business.

the same phenomenon when dealing with the sea happened. after spending quite a bit of time in heart’s content and watching a fifties something man keep cruising up and down the road in his vintage cabriolet mustang, left the view big water and was landlocked with all these stunning ponds and hills in the back ground. it took me some time to register that this was not an area to pass through but one where i could stop. since there were no towns in the area i didn’t have this to make me realise that i should stop. around lead cove a beach where nets were left out to dry.

in old perlican a strange manner of stopping cars. a funeral home used cap stones to make sure cars didn’t fall off the lot into a ditch. turned left at the irving gas bar at routes 80 and 70 to go into old perlican and do a circuit of the tip of the peninsula. i was going to mosey into bay de verde which i read was only 1600 miles from ireland.

i was going to make that decision when i saw the dirt road to grate’s cove via daniel’s cove. a bit late speeding along i was on it and it was the best dirt road so far. sped to daniel’s cove, a grouping of about five houses, that looked like an accessible cape st. francis. it was nestled between the hills and wetlands and the sea. i couldn’t see the bonavista at all, all the houses had some space around them. it did seem a bit remote for me though.

the glowing assessment of the road ended there. it turned into one of the worse as i dodged pot holes, and ditches the rest of the way to grates cove. cannot say whether it was worth it as there is a perfectly good paved road to the point, but it is a nice outport.

fits the cove, rises nicely on the ground – an ecological preserve on an island just off sure like pouch places to walk along the sea. photographed the roman catholic church, some newfoundland formalism, people had discovered the place as houses were cleaned up since the last time that i was here and there were new suburban type of houses going up. wanted to photograph the convenience that looked like it had closed but there was a pick up in front of it.

from old perlican there were these micro climates. it would be hot and sunny then the temperature would drop 5c then raise as quickly as it dropped over conception bay there was bank of clouds that engulfed baccalieu island, it drizzled in red head cove – another small community with the ironic sign of please keep our shore clean while it was strewn with the spines and heads of gutted fish. again there was this quite nicely rehabbed house that didn’t overlook the ocean but the narrow valley into town. the rain prevented me from photographing the united church here and again i was aware of my diminishing time on the rock if i had more time i would return.

gave the ball park in bay de verde a pass it seemed too cynical an attempt at one. also not having a wireless in the saab, i have been required to think and i realise that i want to photograph things not in use but not in disuse. so no ruins crumbling buildings etc.

people who play baseball here have to be brave, the base paths are gravel, the outfield grass looks like a meadow which is probable softer than grass would be but grass isn’t found. i have to go have a look at st. pat’s to see if the fenway park of st. john’s is the same.

i was also in shock as on the way into bay de verde there were a row of suburban houses along the highway that seemed so out of place i wondered why they were built. the fisheries plant in town – i thought – was cutting back so socially it seemed strange. location wise conception bay was visible but a good kilometre away over land. the houses were even on the wrong side of the road.

it was raining on the hill outside town bright and sunny not 500 metres away.

in town climbed the hill, parked by the museum and went for a walk around steered clear of the flakes and headed back to this garden built by vic. again i tried to merge the satellite dishes, with the clothes lines and the atvs from one shanty bruce springsteen’s born in the usa was blaring. a bit of surrealism that i was first made aware in winterton where there was plastic play house in front of a concession stand in playground area. found a bit grittier version here as the back of carol’s grocery had signs for the lottery and labatt’s bleu guarded from my view by a kiddie tool shed and swings.

passed someone who had too much to drink and was unaware of it as he was still sitting to himself on the ground and drinking. passed two girls outside the other convenience, smiled and walked on. when i returned there were three when i finally drove out of town there were an equal amount of boys.

shop was functioning but for sale – a snap made. also made a snap of the town – am not sure why for personal record? i cannot imagine using the snap. to justify the one snap made i rotated a bit and made another to include the fish processing plant.

my attention span was waning. luckily this was the turn around point. i would head back via the more populated conception bay shore.

again the weather was changing, the clouds were flowing over the hills then there were three shades of clouds with some sun coming through. stopped and tried to do something with this as weather is a trait of the rock and since i have been here – on many visits - it has been pretty non eventful – except the winter of 2001. here the depth of the sky was manifest by the various shades of clouds competing for space.

stopped to photograph a convenience in job’s cove, tried to get a decent photograph of the cloud cover over the bay and how the peninsula that i live on was jutting out over them in lower island cove. photographed the midnight seniors centre – a strange name, and fell into a stereotype by photographing a horse – only hope that there was something ironic in the frame.

the rain started coming down and guiltily felt relief. was having a hard time concentrating on photographing, was thinking – irrationally - how far i was away from st. john’s. the rain allowed me not to stop at potential photographs. the irrationality of this was that i didn’t have anything to do back in st. john’s and could spend as much time as possible but i have come to realise that nothing of use would come now – as the last time i did this loop. stopped raining in perry’s cove where i made a snap of ms electronics then again headed into carbonear via the wrong road – victoria instead of the shore.

nice irvings mainway in victoria but was now distracted by the rainbow over conception bay that was becoming more and more pronounced. at the bay i could see the complete arch of the rainbow and the foot – which was in carbonear. stopped at the subway for a snack and saw that the arch was now over and perfecting centring the wal-mart on the opposite side of route 70

back off subway is cheap.

again guilt crept in when i chose the new lower conception bay by pass instead of heading through harbour grace bay roberts, clarke’s beach etc. in fact tried to get off in harbour grace but missed the off ramp and there was no room to do a u turn.

a non eventful drive into st. john’s. did hope that i would finally remember to stop one day at the erratics of butler pot. finally got the irving at torbay road and stavenger drive at dusk – the provincial flag waving - along with the public picnic area.

stopped again to get the irvings sign at wilkenson’s convenience when there seemed to be a nice balance between the sign and the darkening sky. so far i have had no luck with this.

a chat with sharon while she was minding the children to end the day.