Stephenville to St. John's

We'd left Werner in the pub Friday night, and assumed he was still sleeping when we got up Saturday morning. Considering we were up at 8 and had to be at the bus stop at 10, I'd hope most people on vacation would still be asleep. We'd decided to try our luck hitchhiking from Deer Lake. (Actually I think I'd finally driven Neil crazy, and he'd reluctantly agreed. It must be hard being the sherpa - he's there keeping me sane, but no one's keeping him sane . . .)

So about noon the bus pulled in to Deer Lake for the lunch stop. Deer Lake appeared to consist of two buildings - a bas station/restaurant on one side of the highway, and a motel on the other. Oh yeah, and a big statue of a moose. Where the "Deer" and "Lake" parts fit in, I'm not too sure. But, it did appear to be the transport hub James said it was. Most of the traffic seemed to pull in there.

So while the rest of the bus went in for burgers and fries, we sauntered up to a couple of truckers (the only truckers) who were standing next to their rigs. When we asked about getting a ride towards St. John's, they told us they weren't heading in that direction. Not seeing any other option - besides pestering people in the restaurant (which really isn't an option when you're really faced with it) we headed out to the road.

I should mention that we had huge packs. Not as huge as they'd been before we dropped stuff off in Fredericton, but we were still carrying hobbits on our backs. So as cars flew past, if the drivers did acknowledge us, it was usually with a shrug or motion to show they had no room for us. Or with a wave. Thanks. That helped. And then the bus pulled out, the lunch break over, and the driver laughed at us. That was a bad sign. We'd been out there a half hour, not long, but long enough to start to think about how long we were actually gonna stand out there before we went over to the motel and booked a room for the night. And then we started joking that maybe Werner would get tired of Stephenville and head to St. John's, and suddenly a familiar looking car drove by, slowed down and stopped. As we floundered over there with our packs, Werner got out and popped open the trunk. And we continued our trip.

We'd been hoping to make it to Gander cause a guy had offered us a place to crash through couchsurfing.com (check out this website!!). We thought we'd make it there around 5 or so. Werner got us there over an hour earlier, passing the bus, most of the people who's driven past us, and the two truckers who's said they weren't going our way. Grrr. Hitchhiking in Newfoundland is not as easy and accommodating as we'd been told. Anyway, we grabbed a bite to eat in Gander, but Werner was ready to press on to St. John's, so we figured we'd take the ride and hit Gander on the way back.

The landscape of Newfoundland is amazing. It blew my mind coming in to Port-aux-Basques. The route past Stephenville was nice, though not spectacular, but Corner Brook looked beautiful. This little city hugging the mountains and the bay - I wish we could have gotten out and checked it out, but we were on the bus at that point. The long road from Deer Lake to Gander and beyond was pretty, but then we hit Terra Nova National Park, which was beautiful, and I think it was there, with the sun going down, that we saw our first Newfoundland moose. Werner slowed down, and I scrambled to get my camera going, and then we noticed it wasn't moving, and then we noticed it was one of those big provincial signs that look like moose and say "watch for moose." Anyway, we felt like idiots, but it was pretty funny at the time.

Anyway, the highway started climbing around there, or had been climbing, and then we came onto the Avalon Peninsula. The mountains weren't huge, even compared to those on the north side of Newfoundland, but the landscape was awesome. It was really dark by this point, which might have had something to do with it. There weren't any trees, just open spaces with rocky patches and dark lakes, and it looked like the backdrop to a fantasy film come to life. I have got to go back there and go hiking.

Anyway, we came into St. John's and found a B&B and then found the pubs. George Street rocked. You could stand in the middle of the street and hear rock music from one pub, a fiddler in another, country down the way, dance music from the second floor on the corner. And people spilling onto the street, which is ok, cause it's all closed to traffic. It was really like a huge party. We ended up in Trapper John's - home of the St. John's Screech-In which we didn't try last night, but watched. Something we'll have to get into before we go. Anyway, we listened to Gregg Bolger all night. He's part of the band Fuse (fuseonline.ca) but was doing a solo show that night. So far, we haven't heard any "traditional" music here, but the rock is awesome.

Anyway, today we are taking a much needed break. Part of that includes AFI’s 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award to George Lucas. I got sucked in by William Shatner's intro and the dancing stormtroopers. You have to watch it to believe it.