Puzzles, Distractions, andandandand...Blitz!!!!

Happy Monday!  I will have you guys know that I started this blog entry last Wednesday but there are so many wonderful distractions here that it was a little difficult to finish.  But finally, at least for a spell, there is a quiet moment here, as everyone is off at lunch, or elsewhere.  The weather is grey and damp, as it has been pretty much every day since we've been back in Trinity East.  We have fully adjusted to being here again and have been having a blast.  It is still quite different than from when we were here before, and it does not diminish our time here in June in the slightest, but it has pretty much come into its own and it is different.  Which is what makes it great.

So, hmmm, what has gone down since our last report?  We said goodbye to Kent a couple weeks ago, on Wednesday, and then pretty much hung around the hostel the rest of that day.  The scout leader folks were still in full force so we of course made ourselves scarce after a while.  In fact I think that was the evening that I got kicked out of the kitchen.  See, there were ten of these folks, mostly couple I assume.  There was one lady who did all the cooking for the group.  She always wore an apron so I always referred to her as "Apron Lady".  Anyway, Apron Lady was in the kitchen working on the dinner for the rest of the group (which, by the way, never smelled that appetizing) and I went into the kitchen to get my food together to make my dinner and she asked me what I was doing and then reminded me that she had "nine hungry people to feed" and basically kicked me out of the kitchen.  I left, no big deal, just another thing to talk about behind their backs.  Eventually I was so starvin' that I just went in there and got in her way anyway.  I had some moose burgers to grill up and she was totally moose-blocking me.  That soon stopped being an issue.  As for the rest of the evening it was probably spent playing cribbage with Jess or just sitting around the living room and talking to people.  Sometimes it's the quiet nights that are the most blurry.

Thursday was a work day for us.  Krissy did cleaning and I drove up to Bonavista with a car full of empty bottles and a long shopping list for the hostel.  I managed to find everything that I needed which was great, and got to spend time driving and not working.  Of course, because it is Newfoundland - the the Bonavista Peninsula, in particular - I wound up spending about 40km (from English Harbour all the way to Bonavista) in the thickest fog.  It was like driving through really drab cotton candy.  The speed limit on the road is 80km but I was doing closer to 40.  When you can't see a damn thing and you always have the possibility of encountering a moose on the road (i didn't, but still) you must take those sort of white-knuckle precautions.

Came back to the hostel and just lazed it up.  Martha was keen to get people over to the little house to hang out, since it is in the midst of being transformed into a staff rec room as well as the place where Martha stays.  So we went over there and drank some beers and hung out and chatted.  It was far from a wild night but it was a lot of fun.  We were having all these deep conversations and there was a point when I was looking around the room and realizing that, aside from Krissy and I, everyone in that room had known everyone in that room for less than a week.  For a group of strangers to be able to talk so candidly on things like that is something that is very special about this traveling lifestyle.  In no other part of my life can this happen....I might be a friendly guy but I've never been so comfortable around new people.  That seems to be different now.  Of course that is because we are all travelers and, no matter what else we have going in life, that is a major thing to have in common at the same time.  I haven't found it difficult to talk to people while on this trip, especially in the hostels.  That is a pretty decent feat.

Friday was a day off but it was a bit of a gloomy day and we didn't really have much in us to do anything so I hung around the hostel.  Krissy and Erin had a booking with Sea Of Whales, for a boat tour, so they did that in the morning.  I met them afterwards at the Mercantile and we had a nice lunch outside on the deck.

We spent a good deal of the afternoon playing Dutch Blitz (the "vonderful goot fun" card game that i so dominated at when we were here in june) with Martha and Erin, who replaced us at the City Hostel but was here for a couple days of r&r.  Once again I emerged victorious.  I was unstoppable but I would soon meet my match.  Krissy went to hike the Skerwink trail and I went up the hill in back of the house, where we are camping, and foraged for berries.  See, this time of year Newfoundland is full of wild berries.  The hill where we are camping is filled with wild blueberries and raspberries.  One of my favorite past-times is wandering around and snacking along the way.  The berries that grow here might not be as big as the ones you buy in the store but they sure taste a hell of a lot better.  I hear tell that if you go way back into the woods (there is a trail that leads out the back of the property) you can find bakeapples.  Tomorrow I might make that happen.  Bakeapples, also known as cloudberries, are also really big in Newfoundland.  Bakeapples have a look and feel somewhere between a raspberry and a blackberry, but are sort of colored like a dark peach.  They are nice and tart and apparently a pain in the ass to collect, since they grow one-per-bush and only randomly.  I have yet to have a fresh bakeapple but I shall soon.  Another Newfoundland staple is the partridge berry, which is more commonly known as a lingonberry.  They grow in bogs all over the island but I haven't yet seen (or at least recognized) one.  There are many other berries growing right now but I am not sure what they are all called.

Anyway, so we lucked out in the evening and, as it was their last night of their jamboree thing, the scout jerkuses were out at a dinner all night.  And so we took advantage of the situation and had ourselves a FEAST.  All of us at the hostel (me, Krissy, Martha, Paul, and Stef - Jess left that morning to volunteer at the Folk Festival in St. John's) were here as were Mel & Melanie, Justin, the aforementioned Erin, and perhaps a couple more people.  Before that, as we knew it was going to rain, a bunch of us went up into the woods and built a fort out of tarps.  The idea was to hang out there and just appreciate the rain.  We never made it back to hang out and it is a good thing because we did a royally crappy job and the bottom tarp is totally wet.

Soon after we had supper, all seated around the big table, and we were passing all kinds of food.  There was cod, salmon, potatoes, and split pea soup that Krissy made.  We were all chatting and telling stories and drinking beers and had a hell of a time.  There were two guests, these elderly-but-very-hip ladies named Maggie and Pat, who hung out at the table after dinner and they had us in stitches.  Maggie is Australian and just plain ol' doesn't give a shit.  She tells it like it is and is hilarious.  They were only here for one night but they made it count.  Later on we went to the little house and played foosball.  I really suck at it but it was fun.  My last game was with Melanie and we actually came close to winning but were stopped just short.  Bummer.  Her birthday rolled in at midnight and I promised her a win.  That's okay.  Because she was turning 23, I gave her 23 high-fives, spread out through the course of her epic birthday party the next night...and two epic high-tens, to grow on.  So it was all good.

Melanie and Mel - two of my favorite people on the planet.

Since it was raining all night Krissy decided to sleep inside the house but I opted to brave it in the tent.  I am happy to report that the tent held up quite nicely.  It's always a little damp in there, on account of all the fog, but there was no water.  The sound of the rain on the tent was soothing.  It was necessary because I usually sleep with earbuds in, listening to music but I lost both of my cell phones the night before.  I looked everywhere for them, inside and outside the house, up on the hill in the pouring rain, in the tent, everywhere.  They were gone.  The only place they could have been was the yellow store on the corner, because I had been there earlier and always have to take them out of my pocket when I am fishing for change.  But they were closed because it was late.  So it was the pitter-patter of the rain that sent me to slumberland that night.

Woke up Saturday morning and watched with exhausted glee as the scout jerkuses packed their stuff up and left.  It took them damn near forever because they had like thirty coolers and other stuff.  Finally they got out of there and I drove up to the yellow store and, lo and behold, there were my phones.  My cranky mood was suddenly lifted.  It was a work day for us and, after cleaning the house and stuff, I wound up driving back to Bonavista with three garbage bags full of empty bottles from the previous two nights.  Yeah, there is a fair bit of drinking going on here, but it's all in fun.  It's a happy bunch here.  But I wound up getting like $13 back for all those empties so it worked out alright.  I took Paul with me and it was cool getting to know him a bit better.  He's a cool dude, the kind of guy that I can easily picture as the inspiration for a novel - kind of like how Neal Cassidy inspired the character of Dean Moriarty in On The Road.  He's in his mid-20s, has traveled the world, is currently on a motorcycle odyssey through Atlantic Canada and is midway through a month of volunteering at the Skerwink hostel.  He plays a mean guitar and, though it took a while to happen, we've had a couple of pretty mean jams.

It took me a long while to get the urge to play any music but I slowly started picking up the guitar and have since spent a bunch of time playing, amassing an audio sketchbook of riffs and song ideas that will surely form the basis of the next FDM album.  There is one song that I've written in full, which I did after Paul and I got back from Bonavista.  Just took the guitar to the top of the hill behind the house and wrote.  It's the first new song on this trip and hopefully there will be more complete ones to come.  I recorded a demo of it on my iPhone.  I have a recording app on there and perhaps before the next blog entry I can get a tracked version recorded to post onto the blog.  But we'll see.  The song is called "Another Line" and is kind of in line with the kind of stuff I was writing on the albums I did earlier this year.

As I mentioned before, Saturday was Melanie's birthday and so there was a party.  It was also a housewarming party for Justin so it was at his house.  We started with a dinner for just the inner circle (me, Krissy, Martha, Mel, Melanie, Kate (mel's sister), Dan (a pretty cool local dude that we know), and Justin's new girlfriend Lena, who we were meeting for the first time that night.  Justin unfortunately got called into work and didn't arrive until after we ate.  He quickly made up for lost time and had quite a blast.  After dinner, tons of local folks dropped in (some we'd met before, some were new) and there was a pretty bangin' party going on.

For Melanie's birthday, Krissy returned her onesie.  She walked all the way down to Justin's house while wearing it.  Because Krissy is totally awesome.

Oh yeah, we got a new volunteer on Saturday, Johanna.  She is from Germany and has been hitchhiking across Canada, volunteering at places along the way.  She is hilarious and a total blast to hang out with.  One of the many awesome people we have met here.  On a more unfortunate note, she has totally unseated me as the reigning conqueror of Dutch Blitz. She grew up with a version of that game and she plays it hard and very very fast.  Needless to say there is a bit of a war going on.  I still can hold my own from time to time but it's tough.  She usually wins.  That's okay.  It is fun.

We were off on Sunday but it was yet another gloomy day so we stuck around the hostel for a while.  In the afternoon we got a group and went to Champney's West, which is two towns over, for their annual festival.  Specifically we went to see the cardboard boat races.  Yep.  One of the highlights of the festival features folks paddling in boats they made out of cardboard, duct tape, and (a limited amount of) tuck tape.  There was a lot of imagination to these boats and they all looked awesome.  Also, quite surprisingly, they floated quite well.  What they had to do was paddle the boat from the shore to a buoy, about 40 meters out, and turn around and come back.  Most of the boats made it.  A couple sank right at the pier, one sank when the guy was almost all the way back.  I don't know who won but at the end they have this sort of free-for-all when everyone goes into the water and tries to sink everyone's boats.  It is a crazy sort of thing that is not out of character in Newfoundland.  Krissy and I have talked about coming back next summer and building a boat of our own.  Of course, being that we are not Newfoundlanders, the water would be a bit much to take.  Not sure if you guys realize it but this is not a warm place.  Where that is most obvious is in those feisty North Atlantic waters.  But the locals were jumping in and horsing around in the water like we were in a lake in Florida or something.

A crowd gathers at Champney's West

Fishing stages at Champney's West

These folks had the best seat.

Despite being totally loaded with people, the Mystery Machine made an alright run.

This boat made it a lot further than anyone expected but it still got flushed.

The aftermath.

Our boat would be awesome.

Afterwards we came back and made dinner and hung out at the hostel.  Since we finally had a dry evening we got a fire going and it was excellent.  We burned off a lot of that fence that we took down and had a good time just shooting the bull outside.  Two of the local dudes we know, Adam and Shawn, stopped by and they amused us with tales of growing up here and all the crazy shenanigans they'd get up to.  They are good dudes.  We've hung out a lot with them since and it is always good stupid fun.

On Monday we all changed our work schedule here back to the three-hours-every-day scheme and that is working out much better.  Less chance to get burned out.  But Krissy and I actually ran the hostel for the day as Martha took a much-needed day off.  It was a pretty simple day, and another rainy one, so we get done what needed to get done and hung out for most of the rest of the day.  Mel and Kate were out of town so Melanie came over to the hostel for dinner and brought ribs (because she is the best ever).  I pulled out some moose sausage and grilled that up as well and made some potatoes and we had ourselves another great feast.  Justin was here as was Melanie's sister Alicia and her two kids and all of us from the hostel.  Once again it was a great time.  I had intended on taking it easy that night but wound up staying up until about three in the morning, drinking beers and playing Dutch Blitz with Johanna, Paul, and these two German volunteers from the Two Whales cafe, Henning and Johannes.  That was a very fun and funny night.  I would pay for it the next day.

Usually I sleep like a baby up on the hill but I did not sleep well that night and I spent Tuesday very tired and in a cranky, cranky mood.  I got my work done in the morning and went for a walk with Krissy down to Job's Cove and that area.  She had to drag me out of here and I will admit that I was a bit cranky about it all.  Sorry about that.  As much as I love being surrounded by people while we are here, every now and then I start to crack and need some elbow room.  And surely it's amplified when I am exhausted.  That was definitely the day and after we got back I hopped in the car and went for a drive.  I stopped into Trinity and got some chocolate covered almonds from Aunt Sarah's and then drive down to New Bonaventure, which is a long ways down an often busted-up road.  I took a photo of the bar, which was a fixture in The Grand Seduction, and then headed back to the hostel.  That drive calmed me down a bit but I was still quite tired and had to take down a great deal of caffeine to get up to speed.

This bar played an important role in The Grand Seduction.  Obviously.

We had another feast on Tuesday night, this time Alicia made a big put of chili and Krissy made cupcakes.  It was pretty much the same cast of characters as the night before, except for Justin and Paul who weren't there, and with this girl named Lauren who is from Michigan but is working in Trinity as a kayak guide.  Her parents stayed here last week and they are all very nice people.  The food was delicious and later on we played an iPhone-based game called Heads Up which is a game where you pick a category and hold the phone on your forehead and everyone has to give you clues to guess what the word is on the screen.  Henning and Joahannes were here again and we were also playing with Martha and Johanna.  None of them are American so they did not know a lot of the celebrities and other things like that.  Also it is a lot like Taboo, except even easier, so it's pretty obvious that Krissy and I totally dominated that game.  I loved it so much that I wound up buying it and I can't wait to play it at CAMP LICHY.

Wednesday I woke up very early and got the bread out (i may have mentioned before that this hostel serves fresh-baked bread every morning) and started my work super early so to be done early as well.  I wound up working a lot more hours today than planned but that's okay because it was another rainy day and it was super quiet in the hostel.  After lunch Krissy and I took a drive. We wanted to hike a trail somewhere down the road but we went into English Harbour first and it was beautiful there.  Had fun relaxing on the edge of a cliff for a while.  We also drove down a long gravel road towards a place called Horse Chops but we didn't go all the way because you really need a 4x4 to get there.  It is supposedly one of the most beautiful spots in the area.  In fact that is where Mel and Melanie will be having their wedding in just a couple of weeks.  Needless to say we will be hitching a ride.

English Harbour

English Harbour

English Harbour

The view from English Harbour

Horse Chops (or somewhere close to it), taken from English Harbour

Another photo that deserves to be on the cover of the Newfoundland travel guide.

Fox Island, taken from English Harbour

Anyway, so we got done with that and headed down to do that trail that we wanted to check out but by the time we got there the fog had rolled in and it started raining so we gave it up and headed back to the hostel.  We had a reservation at the Bonavista Social Club, and a group of nine, and had a fantastic dinner.  Krissy got the cod and I got a pizza with pepperoni, chicken, and hot peppers.  It was pretty amazing.  We were there for a very long time and had a blast.  Drove back in the dark and through the fog and hung out at the little house and played foosball as well as a little Dutch Blitz.  The crowd dispersed early but I ended up staying up quite late, writing these very words (which you are now reading almost a week later).  I may pay for it tomorrow.

Thursday I woke up early, and very tired from staying up so late, and sorted out taking my car to Clarenville.  I didn't have to go until the afternoon so I did some work around here, cleaning the house as well as helping Paul build some stairs.  We mixed concrete and built them right, though I can only take credit for a little of the project.  It is far nicer to walk down them than to walk down the wobbly old stones that were there before.  Took my car to Clarenville and wound up having to replace two of the coils, to the tune of $400.  At least it wasn't more but it still sucked to have to part with that much cash while on holiday.  But it is what it is and at least my car is further away from crapping out.  So that's a plus.  Got home and was in a bit of a crabby, anti-social mood.  Everyone went out in the evening, for one reason or another, and I took advantage of the moment by playing guitar and singing my ass off in the mostly-empty house.  I was tired and it took a great deal of energy but I got it done and it was good.  Everyone came back and I hung for a bit but I was too tired to really be up for anything so I went up to the tent and slept for about nine hours.  And it was fantastic.

Friday I woke up and was totally energized.  Which was a good thing because we had a big day ahead.  We did what we needed to do for the hostel and hung around for most of the afternoon.  I believe that was the day that Krissy and Martha began their latest puzzle addiction.  Much of the down time in the days that followed were spent working on that puzzle.  Sometimes people would sub in and help but not me because I hate doing jigsaw puzzles.  So they were doing that and I sat around picking at the guitar for most of the day.  Friday was the start of Trinity Fest, which is the local three-day town fair.  There were a lot of events going on in the town such as workshops, competitions, games of chance, raffles, and other types of things, all throughout the weekend.  We didn't make it to any of it until Sunday except for the late-night events, at Rocky's (the only real bar in Trinity).  The party started at the hostel around 5pm or so and there were fajitas made (delicious) and lots of drinks going around.  It was pretty loud and crazy in here and there were games and guitars and all sorts of shenanigans.  There were at least 25-30 people and we eventually piled into cars and headed towards Trinity.  The first stop was at Dan's house, where we inadvertently crashed a high school party (except that we got there first).  That place was a lot of fun but was a total shitshow.  I raged harder than I had since college.  But the night was not yet over.  Eventually we all piled into sober cars and made our way to Rocky's for the Irish Descendants.  The place was totally packed and the band was kickin'.  There were many more drinks and lots of dancing.  Even by me.  That's right, the guy who doesn't dance spent two nights tearin' it up on the floor.  It's just the kind of thing you have to do when you are here and surrounded by all these awesome people.

Eventually it was time to leave and Shawn sorted out his dad's fishing boat and we all piled in, at least a dozen of us, and set aim for Trinity East.  I wish we had photos of that.  That was the most awesome ride home I've ever gotten.  We could never thank them enough.

Got back to the hostel and promptly passed out.  Slept pretty hard but I think it's just about a given to assume that there were a lot of very hungover people the next day.  Krissy and Martha ensconced themselves in puzzleland and I spent a good deal of time sleeping on the sofa.  I tried to break myself of that by driving all the empty bottles up to Bonavista, to the bottle depot.  It is a long drive anyway but it felt way longer that day.  And then when I got there, there was a paper sign in the window, saying they were closing at noon that day.  What a dagger.  So I turned around, with my car full of smelly bottles, and made my way back, stopping at Mary Brown's for some chicken along the way.

Got back and helped Paul with the stair project again for a bit and then took a good nap.  The hostel was a bit quiet for a while and so I decided to start a fire outside.  Before long there was a group of about twenty, all sitting around the fire, arguing stances in Would You Rather?  As I've said many times, I love how places like this can bring people together so quickly, that you can have both intelligent and silly conversations and act like we've known each other for years.  It's always a blast.  Due to the lofty heights of debauchery that we scaled the previous evening, it was a bit getting beers down, a more relaxed evening.  Well, for a while at least.  There was another crazy time going on down at Rocky's and we had a group pile into cars and head on over.  It was a much smaller group than the previous night - me, Johanna, Maurice, Paul (it was his birthday), Christine (one of the current guests), Henning & Johannes, Shawn, and Melanie. Ran into Adam and Dan there, and even one of our checked-out guests from the night before who did not get very far on her hangover and wound up staying somewhere else in the area for another night.  There was a DJ there and he was playing everything from clubby techno to traditional Newfoundland music, with a lot of classic rock and country in the mix.  It was insane.  I spent much of the evening drinking Screech (a famous local rum), socializing, and dancing.  I love being stupid with these good people.  The ride back was a bit of a debacle that involved Johanna and me in the back of Shawn's car with a woman who had just gotten sick.  The ride was fine but we were a bit unnerved.

Woke up Sunday and spent another day hanging around the hostel and playing games.  Krissy and Martha had finished their first puzzle and spent the day getting started on their second and I lounged around and played guitar for much of the day.  In the afternoon we got a group and went down to Trinity so that we could at least see a bit of the actual Fest.  The main reason for going down was to get moose burgers and that was a wise choice.  I had two and I could really go for another now.  Krissy won a tiny deck of cards while playing games of chance and then she and Martha decided to enter the log-sawing competition.  Yes.  There was one of those.  They were up second and, well, they did not finish last.  But they had fun and it sure was fun to watch.  Stopped at the mercantile for milkshakes and made our way back to the hostel.  Spent some time just hanging around and playing The Resistance (which is an awesome card game that we play at home).  I usually got accused of being the spy but I never am the spy.  Eventually people started flooding into the hostel and it was time, once again, to have us a time.  By around 8 or so we all piled into the back of a pickup truck, as well as other vehicles, and made our way down to that same schooner and we got taken out into the harbor to watch the Fest-closing fireworks.  There were oh so many people on that boat and it was a hell of a time.  The fireworks were excellent - honestly some of the best I've seen.  Went back to shore and dropped off most of the people but then they took the rest of us, the inner circle I guess, back out for a ride.  Being dark it was hard to tell exactly where we were some of the time but it was awesome.  We were out there for a while and it was one of the coolest thing that I've been a part of.

We got back to the hostel and played a few more hands of the Resistance - with Krissy's tiny new cards - until a guest came down and told us to be quiet.  That was the first time that had ever happened and I kinda felt like a bit of a jerk but whatever.  It's a hostel.

Today has been another quiet one which has been nice since it's given me a chance to get caught up on this as well as my monthly column for the Old Town Crier.  There is a game of Settlers of Catan going on in the other room right now, and I have to go to the grocery store.  That is pretty much the extent of what I am willing or able to do today.  After the last several days, it is well earned.  Tomorrow will be another wild time, I am sure.  A day of rest, I suppose, is necessary.

It's been very wet here so I haven't been all that inclined to do the kind of hiking we were doing when we were here in June.  Krissy, however, has hiked the Skerwink a few times and taken many other short hikes in the area.  The scenery usually stays the same, and there's nothing that wasn't photographed in June, but here is a sampling of some of what Krissy has come across in her walking travels:

We still don't know when we will be leaving here.  This place is getting increasingly difficult to leave.  We have to be here by the end of the month, for Mel & Melanie's wedding, and the gap between then and the ever-changing now keeps getting shorter and shorter.  Originally we were to leave last Friday, which would have given us about two weeks or so, but we had to stay for Trinity Fest....we simply couldn't miss that and all the craziness that went with it.  And that was a pretty wise decision.  So anyway, then we were going to leave today.  But....

We are holding a massive foosball / beer-pong / darts / Dutch Blitz tournament at the hostel, with a very large expected group of people.  That was to be Sunday.  So that would have been a great send-off for us.  Then we get a message that if the tournament were to be pushed back two days then Kent would be able to attend.  Seeing as Kent worked here longer than anyone this Summer, and because he is awesome, his presence is required and I am looking forward to seeing him one last time.  There will be some great powwows on the hill.

So that now means that we will be here at least until Wednesday.  Which is two days from now.  And I do not want to leave in two days.  I don't think either of us are ready to leave this place.  We have been having way too awesome a time.  Martha doesn't want us to leave either.  So don't be surprised if we end up staying through the wedding.  We'll see what happens.  We might try and nick off to Fogo for a day or two, sometime in the next week or so, but I think our plans to get to Gros Morne and, especially, Burgeo are pretty much dashed at this time.  Which is fine.  We are in such a good place that I would happily sacrifice some of our plans.  That's how the best travels work.

There is also the chance that Michael Jordan might be back in Trinity on the 20th.  If that really ends up being the case then our break is pretty much toast.  But we'll see.  After that there will probably be something else that we just can't miss.  Such is the nature of this place.  And it is our job to just roll with it and have the best time we can.

Until next time...

Whipper Snips to Pow Wows

Well, well, well.  I know it's been a while since the last blog entry.  Sorry about that.  So much has happened in the past ten days or so that I barely know where to begin or how to finish processing it all.  As I sit here at the Skerwink Hostel and think of the last week it almost seems like a blur.  In fact, much of the last month or so seems as such.  This place is very different than it was when we were here before, that I am quite sure of, but it still also feels like home.  We'll get to that a bit later.  I admit that I really do miss St. John's...a lot...but I am also enjoying being here.  It's so quiet and the air is so clean and crisp and it is not so bloody hot and humid all the time.  Just like it took some time to adjust to being in the city it has been quite an adjustment being out of the city.  I do enjoy the shock but it's always a bit jarring at first.

When we last left off it was a Saturday at the City Hostel and I would be hard pressed to be able to pinpoint exactly what happened in our last week there without racking my brain a bit.  From what I can recall, I made it through my shift on Saturday and kept a pretty low key evening.  I had plans to order the webcast for the Phish shows at Merriweather, which I was very sad to be missing.  Instead I got wrapped up in the office, drinking scotch and beers and hanging with my fellow floppers.  It was a going-away party for Val, the handyman at the hostel who was leaving to go to Ottawa.  We had a great time.  Yet another reason why that common room was such a good idea.  It definitely helped to bring everyone closer.  Sometimes it could be bummer if there was someone hanging out in there that perhaps you wouldn't otherwise want to hang with but it was good for having a place where the staff could hang out and bond.

Sunday was another working day.  Opened the office and Krissy did the cleaning.  No big shakes on that front, as far as I can remember.  We were a little antsy and had to take off after our shifts finished up.  We tried to go to Pippy Park and see the botanical gardens and other stuff but the parts that keep operating hours were closing up when we got there and we really couldn't find anything else to do so we went to Avalon Mall and saw a movie - "Sex Tape" with Jason Segal and Cameron Diaz.  It was silly but pretty funny.  Got dinner at some barbecue-type place called Montana's, deep in the St. John's sprawl, and then headed back to the hostel.  Again I had planned on tuning in to the Phish show at Merriweather but we got back too late for that so we just hung out, maybe had a beer or two in the office and then a quiet night.

We were off on Monday and we made the most of it.  Woke up at 4am and drove down to Cape Spear to see the sunrise.  Cape Spear, you may remember, is the most easterly point in North America, about 20 minutes south of St. John's.  It's typically one of the top things to do as a tourist in the city but we were one of only three groups there.  It was most peaceful.

This future FDM album cover says yes, waking up at 4am is totally worth it.

Sunrise at Cape Spear,

The first glimpse of the sun in North America.

And the day is ON.

One of the best parts about seeing the sunrise in Cape Spear is that we were back at the hostel and back in bed by 6:30.  Since we were off that day we had a right good sleep-in.  Once we got up and together we headed over to the Quidi Vidi brewery for a tour and a tasting.  We got to sample five of their beers and hear some stories about the brewery and about beer in Newfoundland.  Some of the interesting info we came across:

1)  Newfoundland accounts for the highest beer consumption per capita in Canada with something like ten million dozen beers sold per year or something.

2)  Light beer is the big thing in Newfoundland.  You can drink more of it, they say.  Most of the beer you find in the stores is light beer.  Very few IPAs and other varieties.

3)  There is a standardized beer bottle in Newfoundland that is generally not found elsewhere.  The reason for this is that the refund on empty bottles in Nova Scotia is higher than in Newfoundland and too many people would load up trucks of empties and take them down, just like that episode of Seinfeld, to get an extra five cents per bottle.  So these bottles are manufactured by Coors and are distributed to all the other breweries.  That also means that empties of any brand can be returned to the brewery and reused.  Iceberg beer, which is made by Quidi Vidi, is the only exception.  That comes in an awesome blue bottle and, at least until I make my next homebrew, it is the only beer in North America that comes in a blue bottle.

4)  Black Horse, brewed "Only In Newfoundland" by Molson, is not as unique to this area as we thought.  The beer is brewed in St. John's and the labels are printed here but it is the same recipe as other provincial exclusives.  So you can go to Alberta and drink the local beer but it's the same as Black Horse, but just brewed there instead, with their water.  That doesn't necessarily keep me from drinking Black Horse, because it is still pretty awesome, but I am finding myself buying Quidi Vidi more often, for authenticity's sake.

We also learned about their brewery process and all that.  It was a fun use of ten bucks and an hour.  One of the hostel guests, Omri, was there so we hung out.  Cool dude.  We also enjoyed the scenery there as well.  As I have probably mentioned before, Quidi Vidi is an old fishing community nestled within a tiny, almost hidden harbor.  And it has been preserved to look the way that it's always looked.  While it is not in use for commercial fishing anymore it is still in use by private individuals.  To have a little enclave like that in the midst of the city is pretty awesome.

Pretty much all you need to live in Quidi Vidi.

A well maintained fishing stage in Quidi Vidi.

A detail of Quidi Vidi's label hall of fame.  If you place an order large enough, like for a wedding or something, they will do custom labels for you.  

From there we went to Pippy Park and checked out the botanical gardens.  We only had an hour or so before it closed and I really wish we had a full day.  The gardens were really beautiful and we saw all of that but there are also lots of trails that go through the park and we didn't get a chance to do much of that.  Just one trail that went down by the pond.  When we got there pretty much all the ducks in the park swam over to us....they probably thought we were there to feed them.

From there I dropped Krissy off at the Rocket Bakery so she could read and I went back to the hostel to clean up and rest a bit.  Ran into Regine, who was back in St. John's, and we walked down to meet Krissy and went to YellowBelly, which is a brewpub down on Water Street.  We sat in what is known as the Underbelly, which is a pretty sweet spot in the basement level that is set up like an old speakeasy, with beautiful dark wood and candlelight.  I got a sampler flight of all their beers, most of which were quite delicious (i wish i could buy that in bottles) and a great burger.  It was a grand old time.  I tried to take pictures there but it was way too dark.

While we were walking back we stumbled upon an outdoor movie which they show every Monday evening on Water Street.  The movie is shown on the side of a building that faces a parking lot and the lot was totally full of folks in camp chairs and much of Water Street was closed as well.  It was wall to wall people when we got there but we were determined to watch the movie because it was Goonies.  We climbed onto some scaffolding as well as a fire escape but they only offered obstructed views.  We eventually found the ledge on a roof and even though it was dirty up there it was a good spot and we watched the movie.  That was actually the first time I'd seen Goonies since I saw it in the theater when it was new but it was exactly as I remembered it.  What a silly movie.

Krissy worked the office on Tuesday and I did the cleaning.  We were having a party of sixteen checking in, some tour group, and were a bit antsy about that.  And with good reason since a group like that tends to come and go as a whole which means that I'd be in the middle of dinner and all of a sudden there are a dozen people in the room.  They were nice enough so that was okay.  I hung around the hostel while Krissy went to get the second part of her tattoo.  That is now complete and it is pretty awesome.  Photo to follow.

We spent the evening in the office with Stefan, Martin, and Felix, drinking beers and playing Taboo.  It was the two of us versus the three of them and we killed it.  Of course the odds are ever in our favor so it would have probably been more fair had we formed different teams but it is always fun to play with Krissy.  Team Anderson rules.

Wednesday I opened up the office and Krissy did the cleaning.  It was our intention to spend the afternoon doing all the stuff that we had meant to do before leaving town but hadn't gotten around to yet.  That didn't happen.  Instead it was spent dealing with laundry and packing and stuff like that.  While Krissy sequestered herself in the hostel's apartment annex (across the street) to read and do laundry I rove down to Goulds to stock up on moose sausage and moose burgers.  It was a wise trip.  I also spent much of the afternoon calling family and it was great to hear their voices.  Spent most of the evening just hanging out and trying to avoid all the tour group people.

Thursday was our last day of work at the hostel.  Krissy worked in the office in the morning while I went out and dealt with buying new duffel bags (not traveling any further with bags that entered a place where bedbugs were found, no way) and packing a couple of boxes of random clutter to be sent home.  I worked the office in the afternoon and Krissy took care of the rest of our laundry and such.  We had a nice last night in the city.  We opted against going out and instead had a nice little soiree in the parlour with us staff as well as Sophie and Connor, two hitch-hiking travelers who had just come off from volunteering at the Skerwink hostel.  They were both quite hilarious and we had a good time hanging out with them and drinking beers and we ordered pizza and the whole bit.  I was up late hanging out with Martin and that was a blast.  I miss those folks.

For all the ups and downs of our time at the City Hostel it was definitely made better by our fellow Floppers - Martin, Felix, and Stefan.  And Chloe, in the beginning, as well.  And then there is Dennis, who lives in the hostel and runs the city and whale tours.  They are all good people with great stories to tell.  Thanks to all the above for helping to make our St. John's leg of the odyssey that more enjoyable.

Oh yeah, so the owner (Dave) tried to book our room for guests and move us on our last night.  It took a great deal of work to get it smoothed out but we were livid for quite a while.  Stefan wound up being our roommate on the final night but that was okay since he's cool.  But there had to be one last shakeup during our time there, you know, to make it easier to leave.  I suppose.  Anyway, it was good to have those folks around.  And Jarjar.  We miss that cat tremendously.

Anyway, Friday morning we woke up casually and got the car totally packed up and hit the road, probably around noon or so.  We stopped and got an oil change and also got lunch and then started making our way back to Trinity East, stopping in Clarenville to do some grocery shopping.  We got to the hostel right around dinnertime and it was quite surreal.  The house was full and we could not find anyone we knew for quite some time.  Turns out there are a lot of volunteers here at the moment and I will admit that it's a bit odd.  We were used to being the only ones.  Everyone who is volunteering here is really nice but we don't hang out and bond like we did back in June.  At least not as of yet.  Maybe (hopefully) that will change.  The work schedule is a bit stiffer than it was before - six hours a day, every other day.  It balances out to be the same but it's easier to do three hours every day than to have to deal with a six hour stretch, especially since we are usually doing some sort of manual labor.  Of course the stupid thing is that we are technically entitled to stay here for free, since we have a letter that says we worked at an HI hostel.  But we are still volunteering because we are pushovers, I suppose, and we also love this place.  We are, however, considering cutting our time here short by a few days but the verdict is still out on that.

Oh yeah, so Friday night.  We eventually ran into Regine (who was out here yet again...she would leave for Europe in two days' time so this would be the last we saw of her, on this voyage at least) and hung out with her for a while.  After some time Kent, Mel, & Melanie showed up and it was hugs all around.  It was so awesome to see them again.  We wound up going with them down to a neighbor's house for drinks.  Justin was there and it was excellent to see him and catch up.  He's such a good dude.  There were others there who we recognize from other gatherings and goings-on about town.  It was a good time even though, in the dark, we walked through a field of stinging nettles.  Those things burn.

Saturday we woke up and walked down to the waterfall and swam for a bit.  The water was cold going in but it was easy to acclimate.  Rather than wade across, like we should have done, we went up the side of the bank, up the hill, and got there that way.  The reason for that was because Krissy wasn't supposed to get her tattoo wet.  The grass was tall and wet and, well, it happened anyway.  Our swim was short but very refreshing.  Came back and worked for a little while (this day was only three hours) moving some furniture and helping to sort stuff for a trip to the dump.  We also wound up setting up our tent in the back, up on the hill, because there were no beds for us.  Which is also kinda bullshit.  But whatever.  Not bothered because I quite like it up the hill and my air mattress is more comfortable than a hostel bed anyway.  Then again, it's a rainy day today so my tun may be changing sometime tonight.

This is our view from the tent if you look to the right.

And this is our view if you look to the left.  Who needs a dorm bed?

The evening was spent learning to play Cribbage with Jess and Tara, two of the other volunteers, and that was fun.  One of those games I've always heard about but never knew what it was.  There shall be more time spent playing that.  Had a nice powwow with Kent up by our tents.  He's a really cool dude and it's been a blast hanging out with him for so much of this Summer.  So much laughter when he's around.  Today he is leaving here to travel to Ireland before heading back to school in the Fall.  An awesome opportunity for him but a bummer for us.  We are both going to miss the hell out of him.

Sunday we had a bunch of work to do but first we went to Trinity with Justin and hiked halfway up Gun Hill and hung out.  Had some good long chats and then went to the Mercantile to get a tasty lunch.  He doesn't really hang out at the hostel these days like he did before so any chance to see him is a treat.  We got back to the hostel and did some work.  The day before we had dug some holes for wash-line posts so we got the posts installed and did the concrete on that.  And I spent the rest of the day taking down all the long grass with a whipper-snipper (which is what they call a weedwacker up here and is my new favorite word).

A bit of Trinity from Gun Hill.

The old Anglican church in Trinity.

After getting cleaned up there was a lively round of Dutch Blitz (a "vonderful goot" card game that i so triumphantly won during our first stay here). Mel and Melanie came by and they were in on the game, at points, as well as Krissy and Kent's mom, Gillian, and maybe someone else or so.  I once again came out on top.  Went out and hung with Mel for a while and it was good to have some one-on-one time with her.  She and Melanie are two shining highlights of our trip.  Even though we don't get to spend so much time with them we always have a good time with those two wonderful souls.  They are getting married on the 30th of this month and we are totally rearranging the next few weeks of our trip in order to come back for the wedding.  It is going to be an epic event and it will be an honor to witness it.  Stay tuned to the blog for further tales from that adventure.

Monday we had the day off so we drove up to Ellison to check in on the puffins.  They were in full force and have now gotten to the point where the will come over to where we are.  The last time we were there one came over for a bit but this time there was upwards of a dozen, just hanging out and walking on the ledges and, perhaps even, checking us out.  We could sit and watch those clumsy, classy birds all day.  Or at least for an hour or so.  Which we did.

Get ready for a whole bunch of puffins.

Puffins.

The bird islands.,

The baby seagulls have entered their awkward adolescence.

The puffin's good side.

Puffins look ridiculous head-on.

Puffin gives a good head shot.

Five puffins fly in the background while buddy looks on.

This puffin meditates on the ledge.

Two puffins, doing what it is that puffins do.

On the way out of Ellison we stopped at a small island that is dominated by a small but strong tern community.  Terns are very fun to watch.  They are not as well-crafted or as hilarious as a puffin but they have a style all their own.  There is still a fair amount of capelin in the area so they still have plenty to munch on.

You can't really see it here but there are a lot of terns on this little island.

Tern sings the blues.

Baby terns are much more adorable than baby seagulls.  Still awkward though.

Tern meditating.

A brief glimpse of Elliston.

On our way back we stopped at Two Whales for lunch.  It's a great spot, a coffeehouse and cafe that also hosts live music a couple times a month.  Mel works there so it was good to see her for a bit.  They are all vegetarian which is odd for me, I will admit.  But I got a fantastic panini that had peppers, hummus, and olives.  It was delicious.  From there we went back to the hostel and played cribbage with Jess and Tara.  Fired up the grill for dinner, grilled up some of that moose sausage.  It was beyond amazing.  I should have bought two packages.

Oh yeah, I should now take this moment to introduce you to the scout leaders.  There is a group of ten people, all at the tail end of middle-aged, all staying here.  They are somehow affiliated with the scouts, who are holding their jamboree in Trinity and Trinity East.  But they might only be the ones actually organizing it and not actually scout leaders.  No one really knows.  Either way they arrived here the same day we did and booked in for seven nights.  And they have completely taken over the place.  One of the wives does all the cooking for the group and most of the time she is commandeering the kitchen so you can't bake or cook or get around or do anything.  They act friendly enough but they are really pushy and apparently they complain a lot.  Um, I mean, you're staying in a hostel.  Get over it.  There is nothing to complain about.  They have like twenty coolers on the back porch and their own grill and they all take up so much room.  They aren't particularly rude but they are intrusive.  They are not shy or ashamed about taking this place over either.  It's like they just expect everyone else to deal with it.  I am looking so forward to them leaving.  My mood will surely be in a much different place then.

In fact, I came down to the house this morning at 5:30, specifically in the hopes of dodging them, and they were already up.  Commandeering the kitchen.  I mean....sheesh.

So, Tuesday we got up and got to work.  Our big task was to take down a fence up on the hill where the tents are, as well as whipper-snipper all the grass up there.  It was good to carve out the paths a bit better but that machine was being really difficult and stalling out a lot.  I was in a pretty grumpy mood as well.  It's okay to be grumpy from time to time - so much of this trip has been awesome, and a whole lot of awesome in high doses, that it gets exhausting.  Also the work is tiring me out.  I am starting to think that this much woofing, without a break even, is wearing me down.  It's totally becoming like work and I find myself getting very cranky.  And that is a bummer because we are in Trinity East, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  I should not have to be cranky.  Mostly that crankitude is due to lack of sleep and too much work along with my left shoulder (an ongoing ailment that is nearing 25 years old).  It's gotten to the point that everything I do jostles it and it hurts like hell.  I definitely believe there is a surgery in my not-too-distant future.  So yeah, I was a right old bastard. It happens.

For dinner we went to a place called the Seaport Inn, in Port Union.  We've driven past it many times and were curious.  It was meh.  We got a seafood platter which was the most expensive thing on the menu and split it.  The good thing is none of it was deep-fried, which is big in Newfoundland.  Everything was either pan fried or sauteed.  The bad thing was it was all overcooked and just not plentiful.  We shan't go there again.

We spent the evening drinking beers in the living room with Kent, Martha (who runs the hostel now...actually her family owns the place), Jess, Tara, Zoe (one of the guests), and Melanie, who came by and made the best cod I've ever tried.  If only I had not just gone out to eat I totally would have snatched that fish from her.  I did take care of a good deal of it and it was fantastic.  Just writing about it is making me very hungry.

Had one last good powwow with Kent up in our little tent city.  It is always a trip hanging out with that kid and we are both going to miss him a great deal.  We definitely intend to stay in touch and hopefully it won't be too long before our paths cross again.

One last laugh out back.

We lost another volunteer today as well.  Tara went home to Ontario this morning.  But Paul, who had nipped off to St. John's for a few days, is now back.  So the balance is still not upset.  The other helpers we have are Jess and Stef (who is here from Germany and has spent time volunteering at the City Hostel so we've had a bit to talk about).  Also, speaking of the City Hostel, Felix is slated to come here on Saturday to volunteer.  He originally was going to come two days ago but changed it to the weekend.  It will be great to see him and work with him again.  If only they had enough volunteers there for Martin and Stefan to come out as well, if only for a weekend, that would be awesome.  I'd love to hang out with them in this place.  This is such a great place for hanging out.  It'll be fun for our two worlds to collide a bit.  I don't know what kind of work there will be for so many of us but I'm sure Martha will come up with something.  She's good at coming up with ways to kill our six hour shift.

Today we are off which is a wonderful thing.  It is my intent to do as little as possible today.  Finish this blog, maybe take a nap.  I might go into Trinity and pay Aunt Sarah a visit and pick up some chocolate covered almonds.  I have been greatly missing those.  That might be the extent of my travels today.  Tonight there will be moose burgers on the grill.  Hopefully those scout jerkuses won't get in my way.  I can't wait until next week when they are gone and we have a more wide range of guests in the hostel.  They are far more interesting and easy to handle when they are only here in ones and twos.

Also we shall see about how long we actually wind up staying here.  We are slated to be here until the 14th but now that we are coming back for the 30th plans are changing.  We had a plan to go to a three day music festival in Burlington, which is over near Springdale, but I fear that it might cut too much into the rest of our time on the island.  We were originally to take the ferry from Port aux Basques on the 1st of September but that is all the way in the southwest corner of the island and is a long drive to make from here.  So we will go out of the Argentia ferry on that same day.  That one is sixteen hours instead of seven but leaves from much closer to here.

The places that we intend to see between the time we leave here and the time we come back include:

Gros Morne - yeah, we've been there already but it was cold and there are a few major hikes that we want to do that weren't open/accessible when we were there last.  we'll only be there for a few days.  this is at the top of the priority list so other destinations will be based on proximity to this stop.

Burgeo - Burgeo is on the southern coast, about three hours south of Corner Brook...it's in the middle of nowhere but Sandbanks Provincial Park is supposed to have the best beaches in Newfoundland.  We really have to weigh our options to see if going there is the wisest use of our time.  Every time I decide to cut burgeo off the plan someone (usually Kent) reminds me of how amazing it is and how much we should go.  So it's still a contender.

Change Island - This is up near Twillingate and is supposed to be wonderful.  Regine was up there camping and found it to be magical.  Also in that area is Fogo Island which is also a choice destination.  Despite having been to Twillingate we have not been to these islands yet so that would be awesome to knock off the list.

St. Pierre et Miquelon - Not too far off the Burin Peninsula, about three hours south of where we are now, sits a small archipelago that is owned by France.  Those who go there say it is the most European place in all of North America and is a must-see.  Getting there isn't a hassle but it is not all that cheap.  You need a passport to go there, you need to change your money into Euros, and you can't take your car on the ferry.  Fortunately St. Pierre is a small island and all of it is walkable.  I also hear that the bakeries are phenomenal.  It would be very awesome to be able to make this work.

The Gathering - This is the three day music festival that is near Springdale, on the Baie Verte peninsula.  There are lots of traditional bands playing there but Sam Roberts is also going to be there.  This was more of an option when we had more time but it is seeming less and less viable.

Terra Nova - We are already slated to spend a few days here after we leave the Skerwink.  We might cut that down to two days.  Because Gros Morne is better.

As soon as I get the formula right I will report further on our future plans.  In the meantime we will continue to adjust to Skerwink, Round II.

That is about it for now.  I will do my best to not go so long without a blog post.  The gaps keep you guys guessing and makes these really long to write for me.  And really long to read for you.  So I shall now take my leave but before I go:

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road" - Walt Whitman
Apropos for this adventure and any further adventures as well.