Dave and Redbone invaded Canada...

[Redbone]

Now it's day whatever of our travels, and we're getting ready to head across. The schedule for the day was... GO FIND PUFFINS!!! Brian had never seen them, and I knew that in Elliston there's a puffin festival every year as they have thousands of nesting pairs on this big rock out in the bay there. So we headed up across the isthmus onto the Bonavista Peninsula. We made it up to Elliston, got to the puffin island spot, and hung out watching birds and whales for a while. We decided to stay in Clarenville that night, since it was supposed to rain (I think). There were two big groups of side-by-side drivers there. Those things are pretty cool, but I like two wheels. We had a good dinner, gave the waitress a hard time, and got some good sleep. The next day we planned to ride up through Terra Nova park and up around the next land hump/peninsula thing.

While we were riding in the construction zone we took a little detour for some, uh, gastronomic irregularities, and were on our way pretty fast. The construction wasn't as bad as we'd been told by Uncle Dennis so we made pretty good time. We went up and over, and back down to Gander for lunch at Mary Brown's (chicken place -- good stuff). Then we figured we'd made such good time, we could make it up to Twillingate to look for icebergs and camp somewhere up there. We had this great plan to go to Fogo Island the next morning, but the ferries were apparently really wonky, and decided we'd just camp and head on the next day. There was only one campsite up there with space. It was, ummm... way better for RVs. We did find the flattest available spot on the "tenting field" which was really about an 8% grade hill. Some French people came and camped next to us. The guy had a really loud voice, and was aimed right at us, but we had moos bologna and crackers for dinner, told some more stories, watched the girls across the road, and made fun of the harley guys who were acting like they owned the place. We were greeted by one of them with a "How are the yammies workin?" We told him they were great, and that I had a little fuel leak. He was like, "That's pretty bad, you better go get it checked out." When I told him I was 9,000 miles into my trip, and the leak was from plumbing in my own aux fuel tank days before the trip, he shut up pretty fast. He and his buddy had come across from Nova Scotia on the ferry, and were heading back in a couple days. I'm glad they were out riding, but they had really drunk the kool-aid with the matching shirts, hats, and attitudes purchased new from the dealer (ok, rant over).

Good times, either way.

And find Puffins we did! They are a curious looking and acting bird, when they fly sort of remind me of what a penguin would look like if they flew. Their short little wings beating furiously until they are close to the water, then a short glide onto the water. Our viewing of them were partially overshadowed by an appearance of 2 possibly three humpback whales that were feeding near the rocky islands that were just beyond the rocky perch the puffins called home. The whales were very impressive to me even though I have seen orca’s during the time I lived in the state of Washington. The first glimpse of the whales was the burst of water from their blowhole which initially puzzeled me because it was so far from me. It was from that first sighting that Dave and I concluded that we had just made up the new international hand signal for whale sightings!
Just to be clear it wasn’t the fault of the construction zone that I had gastronomic issues, more than likely it was the previous evenings dinner. I wonder if our giving the waitress a hard time had anything to do with it? Nah, a couple guys like Dave and I were probably the nicest “hard time” she had on a shift in a long time! We even tipped her quite well, shame on me for thinking “she may have doctored up our dinner”!
Fogo Island, we had a couple people say it would be worth the trip to go over, but we ran into very few people that had gone over, at least recently. It was kind of comical after a while to say the least but we decided that even if the ferry did actually get us over to Fogo, would it leave us stranded for a couple of days? In the end we decided not to chance it, so-no-go-to-Fogo!
Our nights lodging in Twillingate we thought we’d camp so we found a RV campground that also had tent area. The campground host was away at dinner or something and for our entertainment we had an aptly dressed Harley rider filling us in what was happening with the host. He was sitting on the deck outside of the office tossing a few down. Like Dave said he asked how our “Yammies” were running, we really got a chuckle about that, especially after Dave shut him up by telling him we actually worked on ours!
Ah yes, the incline campground. Like Dave said we were lucky enough to get a somewhat level spot that I only had to reposition 5 or 6 times to keep my blood from pooling in one extremity or another! The dinner may have sounded somewhat spartan but it was actually really good tasting moose sausage on some fancy crackers, along with an energy bar it probably just what the doctor ordered, gastronomically speaking. We did some shopping in a grocery store called Bidgoods which had all kinds of ocean sourced and local wild game/ berries offerings. Such exotic tastes as cod tongues, seal flipper (which I tried and liked!), seal loin’s, rabbit and partridge this is amongst other standard Newfoundland fare.
Good times indeed!

 

[Fire-medic]

So you decided to forego Forgo! Some North Woods chupacabra/Bogfoot might take one of you away, leaving the other to wonder, "what was that in the middle of the night?" Beware things that go bump in the night!

Ugh, those mammal parts just don't sound right! All I can imagine is one of those cute seals swimming in circles because one flipper's missing. Do you know what lives inside a moose's nose cavities? You'll not want to eat any 'head cheese' once you discover.

I've very much enjoyed the travelogue, I hope you have some more snippets to share w/us, it makes for good reading, and while I have never been a 'tripper' on my motorcycles, the experiences you had would surely stay with you a lifetime. Great narration, good times, and safe travels.

 

[Redbone]

Right. So we left Twillingate, having not seen the ice berg that was apparently in Crow Head. We headed down towards Grand Falls-Windsor. It finally started raining on us. Not terrible. just steady, and we were supposed to go through a bunch of construction. That didn't happen, but we camped out in Burger King in GF-W for more than an hour just waiting out the rain. We didn't have a schedule to stick to, so it didn't matter. The rain sort of let up for a bit, and we headed out towards Deer Lake. We stopped at the Irving Truck stop there on the TCH and started looking for a place to stay. We saw a group of Victory Visions and a sweet KTM 1190 Adventure. As we were eating, the KTM guy came back inside after he'd left to talk to us for a minute about our ride, route, and whatever. Good guy. I ended up meeting the victory guys on my ferry back across. They were from Quebec, and had some pretty serious setups with sweet little trailers.

So we're sitting there calling places hoping to find a room for the night and not camp in the rain, and there's nothing open. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Finally, Brian found a place on the way out towards Gros Morne, which was out destination anyway. It was only about 30 minutes up the road. We took one wrong turn, but realized that it was these nice cabins with a cool property that included a gas station, convenience store, and restaurant.. I was like, "Wait a minute! I've been here before!!! That restaurant is awesome! They fry their sausage in the fryer, not in a pan." So good job Brian for finding this place. We ended up staying here for two night?
First night had awesome sunset from the rain blowing through. We got up and we to the Table Lands. This is where the roots of the Appalachian mountains are actually the surface. It's the oldest exposed rock. One side of the road is all orange, and the other is all green. The orange side is that way because of the way the ground minerals resist vegetation. The green side is where the ground is not nearly as old. It's a really cool place, and one not to be missed if you make the trip. Also the road heading out there is just stupid good. We went all the way down through there through some super-thick fog into Trout river before heading back to the cabin for a couple hours before we headed north to western Brook pond for our boat tour.

As Dave mentioned the rain wasn’t bad, for me it was the lightest rain out of the three rainy rides I had on the whole trip. The cabins that we found in Wiltondale, NL while waiting at the Irving truck stop was a great place to stay, a gateway to Gros Morne National Park if you will. The store onsite was convenient, and the restaurant was very good! One breakfast I had pancakes, a favorite of mine, and even though they took a while longer to cook were some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had! YUM! The sausage was good as well, as was everything we tried, great home-style cooking for a restaurant.
The table lands were spectacular; the road there and back would have been more fun if I wasn’t looking around so much of the time. This trip I spent a lot of time being a gawking tourist at the beautiful landscape unfolding in front of me. It reminded me on a ride back from Thunder one year with Trevor, Dale and Larry, Trevor and I kind of took off from Dale and Larry so periodically we would stop to wait for the guys and I remarked that I had a couple close brushes while gawking. Trevor responded in saying “that you’re either riding or sightseeing, you can’t do both!” I was riding the rest of the way! Such beautiful land we had the pleasure and good fortune to ride our bikes through. These are the types of trips I plan to ride in the future, here again in Newfoundland, Labrador, Alaska, Colorado and who knows where else!
Here is a link to the Gros Morne NP area we were traveling to: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Western+Brook+Pond/@49.521063,-57.9322146,51201m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4b79485c55c532b7:0x4a7849bc42506251!8m2!3d49.7634633!4d-57.8029525
Near the center of the map is Wiltondale right on the edge of the park, the Tablelands road (431) runs to the west of Wiltondale and we rode down to Trout River.
Our next area of adventure will be in the next post about Western Brook Pond which is near the top of the map. Hopefully but doubtful I’ll be able to capture in words the beauty and my amazement of this little corner of the earth. It would be well worth the trip back for me to show another this spectacular location as I’m sure it was for Dave.

 

[davesax36]

I totally forgot the international sign for whales. We came up with our own symbols, which happened to be the exact same symbol. Totally hilarious, as we were probably at least two kilometers from the whales we saw that triggered our goofy hand-rollercoaster signals. Too bad we only got our communicators connected by accident and at the end of the trip. Next time we meet up, I'm sure we'll have that worked out before we leave.

I'm chuckling right now thinking of how silly we must have looked blocking the parking lot entrance pushing one gloved hand each against the sides of our heads to connect our Senas looking back and forth shaking our heads and alternately yelling to each other/talking to ourselves. Probably something we should have tried in a hotel room or HOUSE at some point.

There's always next time, buddy.

 

[Redbone]

I totally forgot the international sign for whales. We came up with our own symbols, which happened to be the exact same symbol. Totally hilarious, as we were probably at least two kilometers from the whales we saw that triggered our goofy hand-rollercoaster signals. Too bad we only got our communicators connected by accident and at the end of the trip. Next time we meet up, I'm sure we'll have that worked out before we leave.

I'm chuckling right now thinking of how silly we must have looked blocking the parking lot entrance pushing one gloved hand each against the sides of our heads to connect our Senas looking back and forth shaking our heads and alternately yelling to each other/talking to ourselves. Probably something we should have tried in a hotel room or HOUSE at some point.

There's always next time, buddy.

Lol, we must have looked half crazy! Good thing we left quickly or maybe they didn't want to mess with us, I did take my helmet off while I was getting gas!
This is what I think I look like when I'm paying for gas:


But this is how I must look to the cashier:
I JUST WANT TO PAY FOR MY GAS!

 

[scuff]

Great story guy's luv it ! The best of the forum stuff right here !!

 

[davesax36]

Pretty sure we got caught checking out this MILF on the ferry (sorry to be crude, but she was super hot).

 

[caseyjones955]

That is a great story, it illustrates the correct use of motorcycles.:cheers:

 

[Redbone]

Pretty sure we got caught checking out this MILF on the ferry (sorry to be crude, but she was super hot).

I think she kind of enjoyed it! She did smile a couple of times!

 

[davesax36]

I think she kind of enjoyed it! She did smile a couple of times!

Oh definitely...
The husband probably not so much, though.

 

[Redbone]

Western Brook Pond, “is a Canadian fjord or lake located in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. It is in the Long Range Mountains, the most northern section of the Appalachian Mountains.” By any definition it is natural marvel carved by glaciers and is a fresh water lake separated by a boggy strip of land from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Dave was correct saying that the walk into the tour boat dock was 3 km, which hustled down after the boat ride in a effort to get on the road back to the cabin before darkness fell. We knew not of the danger that may befall us if we were to stay out into the darkness of the night
Boarding the tour boat we were greeted with a chatty ticket taker who I found out later had driven through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at one point and remembered a couple landmarks, if I recall the conversation correctly. The man could play a mean set of spoons as well, to the delight of many of the bratty kids running, and I mean running everywhere with little to no adult supervision! The youngest ones worried me the most as they could have easily slipped between the railings and into the deep and cold water.
Onto the sights we saw which I will add some pictures at the end to save you scrolling back to the top of the post. The mountainous sides of the fiord were very impressive with several very picturesque waterfalls spilling over and around the rocky heights. I imagine that an earlier trip in the late spring would be even better due to higher volume of freshly melted runoff. I could imagine that the Pissing Mare falls would bring a real testament to its name in the spring! One of the story’s the guides toldus was of a tidal wave that washed down the Pond ripping trees up along its path then deposit the debris in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The wave went mostly unnoticed save for a few puzzled ship captains and crews as they navigated past the tangle of what was previously a forest, now floating in the seaway. It happened in the early 20th century when a large part of the fiords side crashed into ponds waters causing a near 100 foot wall of water to rush towards the gulf uprooting everything in it's path.
Should any of you venture this way this location is a not to miss site, it was just one of the highlights of my trip.

 

[Kronx]

I envy trips like this so much. They are straight out of my dreams. Very cool. Thanks for sharing.