day 10 -Monday, July 16th
Got up at 7:30 and walked over to Jungle Jim's for breakfast.
Not bad.
While eating breakfast, I was wondering how I was to pack the bike today. Already full and after buying a few things and having left over beer... oh boy.
After breakfast, I packed up the bike. Somehow, I managed to repack the bike with room to spare and I didn't forget anything. ok... odd.
I drove around Corner Brook to get a feel of the town. Industry type town, a port town. Had a coffee at the downtown Tims and spoke with an oldtimer there. It was hard to understand him with his accent and the use of 'boy' ever 3rd word. Nice enough chap.
Looking over the map, I hadn't decided if I wanted to go down to Blow Me Down Provincial park. First things first, go to the Kawasaki shop and see if they can fit me in for am oil change and clean and tighten up the chain.
On the ride there is started to rain. Crap. It's calling for rain for pretty much the whole week. With the prevaling winds, I'll be in it all week I think. No real pics or GoPro today. Too hard too take pics in the rain and the GoPro will just fog up.
Unfortunately the Kawi shop couldn't do it today, but could possibly fit me in the next day. Damn. There was a Suzuki shop a block away from the motel, so maybe they can do it. If not...
Rode all the way back to the Suzuki shop and huzzah! They were able to do it right away. about 40 minutes later, I had a shiny clean chain and new oil in the belly of the beast.
Now I could ride with confidence and without fear that the chain will come off and derail me or break all the casters.
My top box was moving quite a bit. The Top box mounts are cracked and have been before I left home. It was an inch long before I left home, now they were about 3 inches long. something else to worry about. I found the culprit to be a bolt securing the top box plate broke through the plate and wasn't secure anymore. I headed to Canadian Tire (again) in the rain and a 15 cent washer and 5 minutes later, it was fixed. I had another coffee at the Tims nearby and decided to not go to Blow Me Down. It would take me about 1.5 hours there, 1.5 hours back and it was already noon.
I headed east (north really) on the crappy Trans Canada Highway (TCH). The road has major tire ruts from all the trucks coming and going to the port au basque ferry. These ruts were filled with frothy water, about 2-3 inches deep. It doesn't seem like much, but this is the perfect scenario to hydroplane. I've done that once before and it was the scariest 20-30 feet i've ever ridden.
There's only two options. Ride the hump in between the ruts or pass everyone in the passing lane.
I rode the hump for a while but as it was so rounded, I decided to just give more throttle and pass everyone. Die in the slow lane, live in the fast lane.
Now riding towards St Johns on the TCH I decided to pull off to a location to make a purchase. It's a surprise. Let's just say I had to get it shipped. heh.
I wasn't that hungry, but decided to go to for lunch at the Irving Big Stop which has Newfoundland's largest moose. It's not that big. No pics due to rain.
The place was packed. I found a table and waited a long time just for a menu. They were out of a lot of things due to the truck not making the stop on time. Guess that's life on the Rock.
After a club and fries, I headed east into the rain.
It rained pretty hard and felt the wool socks suck up as much water as possible until they were saturated, then it was just water in the boots. Enough water that if I shook my feet you could hear the water sloshing about.
It poured liberally from the skies. 30km from the Irving, my GPS went all wonky and looked like it fried itself. crap. After another 30km or so, I pulled over to see if I could fix it. Even out of the cradle, it was frozen with freaky line across it. Only option was to pull the battery and see if that reset it. Pulling the battery it seems that the contacts shorted themselves out. There was that much water.
I cleaned it best I could and put the battery back. success!
I decided to not visit the Majumder Manor as it was quite a bit out of the way and when it's pissing rain, one does not want to make many detours.
I made my way to the Tims in Grand Falls-Windsor and the rain mostly stopped. Must be a sign from the gods. lol. Maybe I just finally outran it.
Seems Aerosmith / cheap trick was in town for Grand Falls day. WTF? We can't even get these acts in Ottawa! We get... skrillex. yip.
One guy at the Tims really liked the bike and asked if he could take pictures. Lol. Beast is such a ham for the camera.
Got myself a room at the Peyton Hotel. It was a trade off between wifi and in the main building or across the highway and no wifi, but a smoking room.
I took the smoking room... Don't judge...
After relaxing for a bit, I headed over to the Corral Steakhouse inside the Peyton Hotel. Classy joint with wagon wheels, a full on wagon in there and country music playing. With the low lighting, I couldn't get a decent picture. Mood lighting, candlelit tables, with the full cutlery set (2 forks, 2 knives, spoons) a real tablecloth and cloth napkins.
I ordered the 16 oz ribsteak medium rare with a salad instead of a starch. I need some vitamins somehow.
A small loaf of bread was served on a wooden platter with butter. Nice warm bread and ate almost half of it. I needed to keep room for supper.
The steak and mixed veggies came served on a metal/wood platter, akin to the ones you see in most tex-mex places. This was a metal plate, not cast iron. I|t was still sizzling when served. The steak, easily an inch thick was cooked beautifully. Tender, so tender in fact that they don't have a big clunky steakknife but one which resembles a butterknife with a very little serrated edge. I guess they trust the chef enough for that. I actually asked the server to compliment the chef as the steak was cooked perfectly.
The garden salad with raspberry vinaigrette was pretty good as there was only romain and leaf lettuce and other mixed vegetables. No iceberg lettuce here.
The only thing missing would be some spices but a little salt and pepper was all it really needed.
Back to the room across the highway swimming through the rain, where no internet access is to be had. There I shall slumber and hopefully wake with a more sunny disposition.
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