Horse Chop Suey!

Good day, my friends.  Apologies again for taking so long with updating this blog.  And further apologies because this entry is going to be long.  The past couple of weeks have been a total whirlwind of fun upon fun upon even more fun.  I am currently writing this inside a cabin aboard the Atlantic Vision which is the ferry that runs between Argentia NL and North Sydney, in Nova Scotia.  That’s right – our Newfoundland portion of this adventure has finally come to an end.  These last three months while on the island have taught us many things and changed us in so many ways.  The things that we did, the places that we saw and, most importantly, the people we met….those are all things that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.  We absolutely fell in love with Newfoundland in just about every way shape and form and we have every intention of coming back next summer.  It won’t necessarily be with the same scope as this visit but it will be just as spectacular, no doubt. 

Anyway, when we last left off it was a chilly Monday afternoon in Trinity East.  Everyone from the hostel had gone up to Two Whales for lunch and I had the place to myself.  That is, until this one guest arrived.  It was a crazy old lady from Barcelona named Mercedes and she just kinda hung around the hostel for several days and she would ask all sorts of ridiculous questions all the time, but her English wasn’t all that good and she didn’t make sense most of the time.  While I was proofreading the blog she sat and babbled to me for a right long time.  One of the few things I got out of her was that she was a mycology buff and was part of a group of mycologists back home.  That is the study of mushrooms, if you don’t know.  She said she wound up in Newfoundland because she had a dream of a green place with lots of cliffs.  This woman was a trip.  Every day she would go hiking in the woods and come back with a bag of the craziest mushrooms I’ve ever seen and then she would look them up in her book and identify them.  And then cook ‘em up.  Our theory was that she’d eaten one too many funny mushrooms.  It would not be off the mark.  Anyway she ended up staying for about five days or so.  The last two days we had this other guest who was from Taiwan and she was just as nuts.  Would ask just as many crazy questions, all the time.  The two of them became fast friends and we all eventually had to hide out during the day to avoid the onslaught.  We were very glad when, come the weekend, they decided to go to St. John’s together.  I can only imagine that car ride.

I honestly can’t recall what happened the rest of that day but I am sure it involved beers and some kind of games.  We were playing a lot of Dutch Blitz as well as a game called The Resistance (which we’ve played a lot of at home with a special deck – here we were playing just with a regular deck).  It’s a pretty awesome game where you have to go on these “missions” and determine who in the group is a spy, sabotaging the missions.  We would go on this game for hours.  Another game we got hooked on is called Werewolf and is somewhat similar in nature but instead you are a village trying to figure out who is the werewolf before everyone in the game gets killed off.  These games occupied a lot of our time, as did puzzles.  Now, I can’t stand doing jigsaw puzzles but Krissy and Martha got on a big kick and they would spend hours, sometimes days, working on puzzles.  Johanna would often join in, and others would pop in and out to help a bit.  I think by the time we left they’d done five or six puzzles.

Krissy, Martha, and Maurice hammer down the puzzle while Dan and Adam pay no mind in the background.

 Those were all fun ways of passing the time, especially since the weather in August was pretty awful.  It rained, or was at least very moist, almost every day of the month.  There were only a couple of days where we saw the sun.  Otherwise it was wet and cold.  There was not much hiking going on at all.  Krissy did the Skerwink trail a few times but that was pretty much it.  Which is fine since we did all that stuff when we were there back in June.  This was just good time to hang around the hostel and bond with all of our newfound friends.

And there are so many of them.  We met a lot of people when we were there in June, and made some good friends then, but August is when these people became family.  And so many more wound up in our circle as well.  The people we met and hung out with are some of the best people I have ever known in my life and we had a blast, time and time again.  It is because of these people that we intend on coming back next summer, and maybe every summer after that.  It is also because of those people that we never really left Trinity East during the month of August.  Remember, we were only supposed to go back for two weeks and then we were going to bugger off for a couple weeks and then come back for Mel and Melanie’s wedding, at the end of the month.  When we last left off we were still planning on doing some sort of getaway.  Friends, it never really happened.  We did get away to Terra Nova for one night, the following weekend, which I will get into further down this blog entry, and we had a great time.  But we missed our friends in Trinity East and were happy to get back with them for one more week.  While we would have liked to revisit some places, and see some new ones, we do not have a single shred of regret.  How could we?  We were having too much fun.

The day after the last blog entry, Tuesday, it was a special day at the Skerwink Hostel.  It was the first annual Foosball & Beer Pong Tournament.  We got the little house next door all prepped up, with a foosball table in one room and a beer pong table set up in the kitchen area.  Teams were drawn from a hat and there were brackets and everything.  At least thirty or forty people showed up and it was a hell of a time.  Kent even came back for the event and it was most excellent to see him again.  He arrived early in the afternoon, which was one of the rare hot & sunny days, and we immediately got a group together and went down to the waterfall to go swimming.  I think I mentioned the waterfall before – it’s about a thirty minute walk from the hostel and is on the far side of a pond that is great for swimming.  And what a day to go swimming.  We had maybe a dozen people there and several of us climbed up the cliffside and jumped in.  I went up a few times as did Krissy.  The water was chilly but very refreshing and we stayed in for maybe an hour or so.  I cut my toe on one of the rocks at some point and that got kinda nasty but it was totally worth it. 

Since it was to be an awesome night I declared it to be Taco Tuesday and we had ourselves a good feast.  That’s another thing that was different for us this time around.  Most of our meals were communal.  Before, and also at the City Hostel, we would all eat on our own and then hang out later.  This time it was all about the big family style feasts.  And most people would contribute at least something, or we’d take turns spearheading the meals.  Sometimes it would just be me, Krissy, Martha, and Johanna, but often Alicia would be there with her kids, Dan would sometimes be there, Henning and Johannes (“ze Germans”) were often around, Mel & Melanie occasionally….just all the good people gathered around the table and having a time. 

So anyway, this night was tacos and I am getting hungry just thinking about it.  Soon after we ate, the big festivities began and everyone came around and we tore it up in the little house.  Now, I totally suck at foosball and Krissy is not too hot either.  We wound up as a team and it did not take us long to get eliminated from the running.  Krissy, however, got lucky and, due to an odd number of players, wound up on a second team with Melanie and they wound up making it to second place (Maurice and Johannes took the title).  For beer pong I wound up playing on a team with Kent and, even though I hadn’t played beer pong in about twenty years, we wound up making it to second place.  For our second round we ended up beating out Krissy and Mel but then lost the final to Bjorn (a guest of the hostel who is a professional travel blogger….look up The Social Traveler on Facebook or Twitter….he lives a fascinating life) and Ty, who wound up winning the game after sinking the ball into the cup that Kent was drinking from….the most badass win and one that I gladly conceded.  I mean, they were already beating the hell out of us and were going to win anyway.  This just made it much cooler. 

The first foosball round of the night.  Maurice & Johannes vs Ty and Mel.  

The first beer pong match of the night.  Dan lays it out for Henning while Kent looks on.  It paid off as Kent & I beat them in the second round.

Kent is poised to make the shot that does not win the tournament.

Bjorn & Ty, not too long before winning the tournament.

 My runner-up prize was a scratch-off ticket and I won five bucks.  But then I lost the ticket.  Boo.

Other highlights of the night included about a thousand Black Horse as well as the “pepper party” with Johanna, wherein we went up the hill and ceremoniously ate a red pepper (an inside joke with very fuzzy origins but a delicious outcome) and – perhaps the greatest highlight – a screech-in ceremony, performed by Melanie.  For those who have forgotten, the screech-in is what makes tourists into honorary Newfoundlanders (we got screeched-in when we were in Twillingate, on a particularly fuzzy night). It traditionally involves the subject taking a shot of Screech (an awesomely terrible local spiced rum that i am not ashamed to admit that i love) and kissing a cod on the lips and declaring your allegiance to Newfoundland.  A screech-in can only be performed by a true-blood Newfoundlander and the verbal exchange goes exactly like this:

Q:  Is ye a screecher? / Is ye a Newfoundlander?

A:  ‘Deed I is, me old cock, and long may your big jib draw.

And if you mess that up you have to take another shot of Screech.  And if you mess up again…well, that can go on for a bit.   This is especially hilarious when the subject is a) very drunk, b) a non-native English speaker, c) both.  Melanie went all out for the screech-in.  With a frozen cod and waders on, she decked out the screechers-to-be in waders and a sou’wester and set them to work.  Some of our guests were screeched-in (Christine, Maurice, and Daria) as well as Johanna, Paul, Henning, and Johannes (who now-famously said “I can’t remember the text – I just want the free alcohol”…classic).  Everyone got a signed certificate and became honorary Newfoundlanders and all was well. 

Melanie + cod = awesome.

Henning screeches in like a champ.

Johannes got his free booze.  And a certificate.

Paul was defiant but made for a good closing act of the screech-ins.

The next day was spent nursing our respective hangovers.  Krissy and Martha worked on their puzzle and I was glued to the couch for the morning.  We said goodbye to Paul, who hopped on his bike and continued on his own big adventure.  He was a good guy and we definitely miss him.  If we get a chance we will try and meet up with him in New York on our way back south.  Eventually I pulled myself from the sofa and took all the empty bottles from the previous night up to the bottle depot in Bonavista.  I made a nice chunk of change off those bottles, I’d say.  When I got back a few of us took Bjorn down to the wharf so he could do the ice bucket challenge.  It was a bold move to do it there….at least it seemed so at the time….we’d get ours in a few days.  The evening was spent playing games, as usual.

The next day Kent left us for good but before he left we went up into the woods and created a most awesome Hammock Point in a boggy little spot that looks like it should be in Lord Of The Rings or something.  It was most chill.  Unfortunately it started raining while we were up there and we had to bail.  I never got a chance to get back up there to hang out, due to the weather, until I went up the day before we left to retrieve the hammock straps.  Bummer.  Hopefully next year we can get it going again and actually use it.  After a delicious lunch at Two Whales we bid goodbye to Kent.  He was getting ready to head to the Netherlands for a semester abroad.  It was very sad to see him go.  We had a lot of good times this summer with him and we really hope our paths cross again one day.

Hobbit Kent cold chills in the hammock.

Skerwink Hammock Point, from the other angle.  It really is a shame that we never could make it back up there.

From there we started to make our way to King’s Cove, to do the hike to the lighthouse.  Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate with us so we turned around and instead went into Trinity and checked out a couple of the touristy spots – the old Anglican church which dates back almost as long as the town, and the Hiscock House which was the hub of an early important family in the town’s history.  We followed that with a walk around the town and the obligatory stop by Aunt Sarah’s Chocolate Shop for some of the best chocolate covered almonds in the world.  Delicious.

We had a ton of leftover tortillas from the taco night so I decided to make chicken tortilla soup.  I had to improvise the recipe, being that some of the ingredients aren’t quite easy to come by around those parts.  Despite being heckled while making the soup it turned out to be delicious…one of the best soups I’ve ever made, and a perfect one for a cold wet evening.  I definitely have to make that soup again, after we get home and have a better chance of getting all the ingredients.  Mmmmm.

It was probably around this time that we said goodbye to Stef, who linked up with a friend and went back to Woody Point.  With her and Paul gone we finally had a room inside the house.  Krissy had actually already pretty much moved into the house but I had been adamant on staying in the tent.  I quite enjoyed the peace and quiet up on the hill though the weather had been getting worse and the last time I woke up in the tent was during a hurricane-like storm where the damp walls of the tent were smashing in against my face.  That was enough to get me to move into the room which we were sharing with Johanna.  It was weird to sleep inside, and in a real bed, but I quickly adjusted and I quite enjoyed having a place to duck and hide out if I needed to relax a bit.  It was better than napping on the couch and yet it was only about twenty paces from the couch.  Good deal.

Friday was another relaxed day.  The four of us – me, Krissy, Martha, and Johanna – ran a bunch of errands and took a trip up to Trinity Loop, which is that old abandoned amusement park, and had a nice walk around.  From what I hear that place was pretty bangin’ back in the day but apparently the money ran out and it has sat abandoned and decaying for like fifteen years or so.  It has this really cool apocalyptic vibe to it….there should be a movie filmed there.  A really creepy movie.  It would be awesome.

The ruins of Trinity Loop.

Hans and Martha hang out on some old rusty machinery.

Captain Hans at the helm of this bizarro carnival.

Krissy takes the helm a little more calmly but those glasses shade more than the sun....

We also went back to the chocolate shop.  Because I just can’t get enough of that delicious stuff.

For dinner the four of us took Henning and Johannes to the Bonavista Social Club.  We tried sitting outside but it was freezing.  We were all wrapped up in blankets and the moment an inside table freed up we moved in.  I got a delicious pizza and we spent the whole time playing The Resistance.  I am usually accused of being a spy but I am almost never the spy.  The one time I was I didn’t get quite far.  Fortunately I am rarely the spy.

Oh yeah, while we were out on Friday we ran into Michael Jordan, who had finally come back into town, after a long trip to Colorado and back.  We hadn’t seen him since we were there in June and it was good to see him again.  Over the next week he would drive us a little nuts but he is still good people.  He had just recently sold his house and was getting ready to go to settlement and he needed help getting work done on the house.  I agreed to help him, paid of course, and discovered that working with him is not exactly easy.  It is often like those dreams where you need to get from A to B but have to traipse through the rest of the alphabet before never quite getting to B.  I was still happy to help because we love the guy but there were other reasons as well.  The women who bought the house are allowing Mel and Melanie to live there until their own house is finished and we wanted to get the house ready so it could be used for the wedding reception.  We and everyone we know spent a great deal of the next week getting that together.  It paid off, fortunately.  But we’ll get to that later.

That evening we had a nice dinner, just the four of us.  Krissy made her awesome curried split pea soup, Johanna made a salad, and I grilled up some steaks.  It was fantastic.  Martha and I had a plan to watch the premiere of the new Doctor Who that evening but got waylaid by all our favorite people coming over for beers and games.  We had some great rounds of Werewolf and went to bed a little later than we probably should have.  But we had to get a good night’s sleep.

We never got around to watching Doctor Who so no spoilers, please!

Sunday was the day that Krissy and I finally were able to bring ourselves to tear away from the hostel.  We headed to Terra Nova and stayed in a nice B&B in Port Blandford called Serendipity.  We fortunately had some pretty nice weather and we spent two days on some fantastic hikes, the most we’d hiked in some time.  Sunday we did about 6k, down by a beautiful pond.  It was most peaceful.  We had some shopping we had to do in Gander but we got that over with and drove around the area, even heading up to Salvage which is a beautiful little coastal village.  The next day we did three trails in the park, including a wonderful coastal trail as well as a 3k hike around a pond.  None of the hikes were particularly challenging but that’s okay.  It was nice to just walk and not get wet.  There were a lot of people swimming at that pond but we had no swimsuits with us so hike we did.

The view from the pond trail at Terra Nova.

We chilled out on this little beach for a while.  It was most tranquil.

These are the kind of trails and scenery that just never gets old.

And then there is scenery like this that just boggles the mind.

An old bridge from the days of the railroad, near Gambo NL.

Houses and a fishing stage in Salvage.

The water wasn't particularly rough in Salvage but you would never guess it based on the way the water was breaking on the rocks.

I mean....really.  Look at this.

Water, breakers, mountains.....all beautiful things in a beautiful place.

This was along the coastal trail, the first of our Monday hikes.  This was a fantastic hike and it was supposed to be quite a long one but the trail maintenance seemed to peter out about halfway down the trail and we had to turn back.

An unfortunate jellyfish and a lot of pebbles on the beach in Terra Nova.

Hans stays on the boardwalk until the boardwalk walked no more.

This weird puffy mossy stuff was all over the ground.  We were batting it around like badminton for a while and amused the hell out of ourselves.

We thought this stuff looked like cotton and apparently everyone else does too because we just found out today that this is known as "cotton grass".  Because even the weeds in Newfoundland are beautiful.

Our last trail was around a pond.  We were tired and it went on for a bit longer than we had hoped it would but with scenery like this there is no valid excuse for us to complain.

We got back to the hostel around dinnertime and found out that Martha and Johanna were both about to take their ice bucket challenges.  We were totally psyched to be able to take part in dumping the cold business on their heads.  Then, at the last minute, Krissy and I found out that we were both nominated by Adam.  So we decided to make it a hostel thing and we all posted up out front and went through it together.  Most of our good people were there and it was quite a show for everyone.  Oh man was that cold. We all flailed and laughed, except for Krissy who just stood there still, as if it wasn’t happening.  It was pretty hilarious. 

Oh yeah, that day we got a new volunteer, Elissa.  She was there for the last week, before heading to Memorial University in St. John’s, and was the final new woofer for the season.  She is really cool and we had some very awesome times over that last stretch.  It didn’t take much for her to know that she was in a very awesome place and she totally rose to the occasion.  Within hours of getting in she got to dump ice water on her new housemates, join in on an awesome dinner, and later on got invited to the wedding.  Yeah, she didn’t have to do much to fit in.

That day was also Martha’s birthday and we had another epic party in the little house with beer and foosball and music and all kinds of awesome stuff.  There were games and so much laughter with all of our excellent friends.  That was the night that Krissy, Mel, Melanie, Henning, Johannes, and I wound up back in the hostel at midnight cooking up a huge breakfast feast.  We made pancakes and scrambled eggs and Mel made a wicked pot of beans.  It was the best impromptu drunken midnight meal ever. 

Melanie, Mel, and Krissy do it up RIGHT.

Tuesday we spent most of the afternoon working for Michael Jordan, finishing up all the packing in his house.  We did probably one hour’s worth of work but it wound up taking over three hours, for all the detours and distractions.  I was totally wiped out and a wee bit cranky at the end of it.  Everyone else went for a hike afterwards but I took a nap for a couple hours.  Just had to.  When they all got back we had a delicious barbecue of moose burgers, wild boar sausage, and homemade poutine.  It was delicious.  Naps are never quite good with me and I went back down before long.  Necessary sometimes.

Here are some shots from Krissy's trip to the Skerwink Trail, while I was knocked out:

Wednesday was a beautiful day and we had planned on going hiking but wound up down at Michael Jordan’s, doing work for most of the day, in preparation for the walk-through that evening.  He was being a bit of a pain but we were really there for Mel & Melanie and there were a ton of people there working.  Still we had no idea it was going to take so long.  I spent most of my time cutting the grass with a whipper-snipper.  There was a lot of very tall, thick grass that needed coming down and Dan and I, and Mel’s dad Heinz on the lawnmower, really whipped that lawn into shape while the rest of the crew got the inside scrubbed down and emptied.  Unfortunately I was just beginning to come down with a nasty cold and, paired with being wiped out from all the work, ended up going to bed at like seven that evening and sleeping for about fifteen hours.

I wish I could say that I woke up feeling great but that wasn’t the case.  As I write this blog I am still not totally over this and it really is annoying.  Ugh.  I have no idea how I came down with the cold…probably some guest that came through.  No one else got sick though which is something that only adds to the mystery.  Hopefully this will soon pass.  It sucks to feel sick while on holiday.

Thursday the rain came back and it was a nasty nasty day.  So we got some stuff done around the hostel and then Krissy, Johanna, and I drove to Clarenville.  The plan was for us to get haircuts before the wedding.  Every place was totally booked up, due to school getting ready to start and only one place was willing to take me only (and it turns out it was the same girl who cut my hair back in June….she remembered us and was excited to hear about our adventure).  We were also there to run a bunch of errands like getting food for the wedding and stuff like that.  I was feeling really crappy so it was hard going but we got done what we needed to get done and then got the hell out of Clarenville.  As you should. 

Thursday night we went to Two Whales (the amazingly wonderful coffee shop and café that is in Port Rexton, just down the street) to see a show.  The main act is a guy named Brandon Wolfe-Scott who plays in a somewhat well-known BC band called Yukon Blonde and is also the boyfriend of the owner, Dave’s, daughter.  I was feeling really crappy and I didn’t want to go but I forced myself.  There was a dude that went on first, some guy from St. John’s named Gary Somethingorother.  He is still very much at the amateur level as a writer, singer, performer, etc.  I always give performers the benefit of doubt and do my best to support anyone who is up there playing.  But sometimes you just have to draw the line.  And sometime it’s drawn for you.  He’d had a Classic Country Song kinda month – he broke three ribs, his girlfriend dumped him the night before the show, and one of his best friends died the previous week – and all of his songs made that abundantly clear.  Angry songs, heartbreak songs, all poorly written and a jumbled mess.  One of them he totally ripped off U2 with a refrain that went “I can’t live with or without you” and another was like “our love is only good dead”, or something like that.  It was during that song that both Elissa and Martha erupted into a giggling mess for the rest of the show.  He didn’t notice or anything but I still felt kinda bad for him, in a way.  He really sucked. 

I was all prepared to leave after that but I am glad I didn’t.  Brandon was fantastic.  Some of the most well-written songs I had heard in quite some time.  Very clever wordplay, cool changes, and a diverse style.  Folky, fingerpicked numbers and rockier ones, some semi-poppy elements in there, and he even went down the Dixieland road on one song.  He has a fantastic voice that really fits the music (it reminded me of how Dylan sang during the Nashville Skyline / New Morning era).  Dave (owner) played percussion behind him for a few songs in the end and it just added to the fun of that set.  I really wish I had recorded or filmed it.  I checked out his band and they are okay.  I was bummed to find that he is not the lead singer nor the main songwriter in that band.  I really think he should create some sort of larger outlet for his solo material.  It is far better than the band and I would really like to hear it again someday.

Much of Friday was spent cleaning the hostel.  I took one last trip up to Bonavista with a couple bags of empty bottles and made a good few bucks.  The plan for the evening was to have a sort of “hen” party for Mel & Melanie at their new place.  Martha went to Bonavista Social Club and got like twenty pizzas and we had a bunch of beer and stuff.  At the last minute we wound up having it at the hostel which was quite alright.  The house was packed full of people.  All the regulars as well as several others who came into town for the wedding.  Met a lot of great folks that night and got a wee bit busted up.  I was still fighting with that cold (and losing) and was so stuffy that I never got to sleep.  Finally at about 6am I got up and cleaned the kitchen and started in on making food for the wedding – the classic Anderson sausage cheese balls (a bitch to make but delicious).  Got that finished and put the bread out and then finally crashed from 9-noon.  Needless to say my Saturday was a little rough startin’.

Me and Krissy...Steve & Lisa....all smiles at the night-before bash.  I am pretty sure I was on the Screech by this point.  

When I finally got up it was time to get going with preparations for the wedding.  Krissy started in on the sausage balls and I ran to the store for beer.  Got waylaid and wound up picking up Ze Germans and driving them to Trinity, because they were trying to walk there and that is nuts.  Got home later than planned and took over on the sausage balls and cut up some watermelon while Krissy and Elissa went to hike Fox Island (they had to rush but they had a blast).  Everyone was cooking something in the kitchen – Martha was making spanakopita from scratch and her mom, Sioban, was making meatballs.  Maybe some other stuff too.  The kitchen was a wreck but it sure smelled wonderful.

Sausage balls in the oven.  I am very jealous of the version of me who was there at the time.

 

Martha with her blob of homemade phyllo.  I suggested she put this photo on the Skerwink Hostel website to illustrate the fact that we make fresh bread every morning.  The idea of Martha in a 1950s apron making bread from scratch warms my heart in ways that our drunken arguments with the bread machine often does not.

Meanwhile, at Fox Island:

Eventually the time came to head out to the wedding.  And that’s when it all began.

The wedding ceremony was at this place called Horse Chops, which is a very remote spot on the coast, up the peninsula from English Harbour, which is a few towns over from Trinity East.  Krissy, Elissa, Johanna, and I piled into Attila and followed Martha and Brigid (her sister) and several others, in a Jeep.  There was a huge caravan of vehicles headed up there.  Eventually we got to a point where Attila could make it no further and we bailed and piled into the car with everyone else – there were nine people in there!  Made it up to Horse Chops and the crowd was huge.  Everyone we knew was there and tons more that we didn’t.  We were all on blankets in the grass and it was windy and c-c-cold.  But it didn’t matter because we were all there together and were witnessing the union of two of the most extraordinary people we know.  The ceremony itself was short, and was officiated by Sydney, who worked at the hostel a few years ago and is the one who introduced them in the first place.  They read notes they’d written for each other and we all cried when Mel spoke.  It was easily the second most beautiful wedding we’d ever been to (besides our own totally awesome ceremony). 

l-r front: Elissa, Marieke, Tree
l-r back: Johanna, Henning, Johannes
Our excitement hides the fact that we were freezing.

Payton & Jake proudly sip their non-alcoholic champagne.
We spent a lot of time with these kids this summer and they are a trip.

Melanie, Sydney, and Mel. 

I have no idea who took this photo (I stole it off yer page Melanie, sorry) but this is such a great shot of the newlyweds.
We both love these two so much.  We are beyond thrilled that we were able to be there for this amazing day.

With champagne in hand and new rings on fingers, it was time to head back and tear it up!

Oh yeah, I have to talk about the dress code at the wedding.  The request was for jeans and a colorful shirt.  The first time I ever met Mel and Melanie, way back in June, I was wearing my super badass tie-dye.  They both came into the kitchen of the hostel, about five minutes apart, and I was at the table.  They each saw me, did a double-take at my shirt, and knew I was alright.  We’ve all been friends ever since.  Damn right I wore that shirt to the wedding.  Anyway.

From there we all headed back to Trinity East and made our way down to Michael Jordan’s old house, which is now their house, and commenced to throw the biggest, baddest wedding reception that has ever been thrown.  There was so much food on the front porch and so much beer out back.  Krissy got on the wine that night and decided not to even bother with a cup.  Just clutched and swigged from the bottle.  And when it was empty, she refilled it from the tap on a wine box.  She would pay for it dearly later but she held on for a good long while and had herself a time.  Me, I was on the Black Horse all night….put back nearly a dozen….and danced my ass off in the barn, more than I think I’d ever danced before (old man alert:  I popped my hip while dancing and ended up limping for a couple of days….worth it).  The music, at least in the beginning, was a wide and varied mix of everything from techno to traditional Newfoundland music, with lots of pop, country, and classic rock thrown in.  No chicken dance, no electric slide, none of that bollocks.  Just a good throwdown.  And there were so many awesome people there and we were all there having a blast.  We gave the little camera to Johanna and she took about a million photos….most of them were selfies with people so she is in like 87% of them, but pretty much everyone we know is represented and it is great to be able to remember them like that.  There were some omissions at the party, unfortunately, and we really missed Justin, Shawn, Kent, and Dave.  But it was still a fantastic last hurrah. 

Hans gets on the Black Horse and anything goes.

Ze Germans!!!  Johanna, Henning, & Johannes.

Hans, Krissy, Johanna, Johannes, Melanie, & Henning.

The M&M Barn was rockin'.

Bottle of wine in one hand, fireworks in the other.  It was a time.

The one and only Michael Jordan....the original.

Dan and Kate

With Alicia and Adam.

The last of this year's Skerwink woofers - Krissy, me, Johanna, & Elissa

Kate and Tree

Mel & Melanie - the two most awesome people in the world.

Yep.

It totally looks like I was photobombing this otherwise lovely, grinny photo.

It totally came down to this, and so much more.

Henning and Johanna totally need to form a band so this can be their promo photo.

You can only see part of  the label of my Black Horse but we totally made Adam turn his beer around so you couldn't see that he was drinking Coors Light.

I can't even begin to explain what is happening in this picture.

Me and my honorary sis.

Oh yeah.  There were speeches.  And it was lovely.

Krissy, Marieke, and Mel totally fake you into thinking they are not as blurry as the background.

This is Elissa.  I told you she was awsesome.

This is us with our good friend Dan.  I can't tell you which number Black Horse this was for me but I am sure it is towards the upper end of my evening.

There was a lot of this going on.  Hard to tell with hands in front of faces but I am pretty sure that is Taylor, Ty, Alison, & Elissa, totally tearing it up on the barn floor.

Andersons are lushes.  Mel and Marieke agree.

I really hope this is not the last time we see Michael Jordan.

This is us with Alicia.  Sister of Melanie, she was as much a regular around those parts as we were and we had a great summer getting to know her and her awesome family.  We are going to continue to browbeat them into coming to DC for a visit.

That pretty much says it all.

Oh yeah…there were fireworks too.  It was so windy that I am surprised the ones setting them off still have eyebrows and that Trinity East did not burn down but they sure did look awesome.

It was around 3am when Krissy finally pooped out and I walked her back to the hostel and put her to bed.  I got her all taken care of and worked with Elissa to get the bread made for the next morning….and then I went back to the party.  It had pretty much descended into madness by the time I got there but I knocked back one more Black Horse, danced a bit more, grabbed Krissy’s camera case (which we had left and was the main reason I went back) and Johanna and Alison and headed back to the hostel and to some much-needed sleep. 

Because, of course, it was 4:30am and I was totally busted and already operating on three hours of sleep and we had to leave at noon the next day….oh, and I told all the inner-circle people that we were going to make a big breakfast at 10am.  And I still had so much packing to do.  Yeah, I kinda burned myself on that one.  It all worked out in the end so it was still a win and I would do it all again and again.

So yeah, I got up at 8 so I could put out the bread and get started on the packing.  I still had to take down our tent, which was still up on top of the hill, and take down the tarps and hammocks from the woods and reconfigure the car and all that good stuff.  Got that done and got Krissy up and we did wind up making a huge feast of a breakfast and it was pretty much awesome.  Krissy made like a thousand pancakes, Johanna made lots and lots of scrambled eggs, and I cooked a ton of sausage (because when I was shopping to make the sausage balls I forgot that it was sold in kilos instead of pounds and I ended up buying twice as much sausage as I needed).  Attendance was a little sparse – it was me, Krissy, Johanna, Elissa, Tree, Henning, and Johannes.  Martha grabbed a pancake but that was it.  For a while there, we had way too much food.  Eventually Mel and Melanie came by, so they could say goodbye (an amazingly awesome thing for them to do after getting probably even less sleep than we did) and they took down most of what we had left, so all was well and nothing went to waste.

So yeah, then it came time for all that last-minute packing stuff.  I had to get creative with the car packing because Johanna was riding to St. John’s with us, so we could drop her off at the airport.  Once again, all that Tetris I played when I was a kid paid off and I got that car packed perfectly (though we did donate our camp chairs to the hostel….we got them for like ten bucks each so it was no big loss, we’ll get more).  Then it came time for the goodbye which was pretty heartbreaking.  Like I said, Mel and Melanie stopped by and so did Alicia.  Martha, of course, was already there.  Those people were such an important part of our lives for so much of this summer that it really hurt to say goodbye to them and we tried to hang on as long as we could but we had a deadline to get to town so we finally had to cut the cord and split.  We honked and waved and drove away and then were a little quiet for a while.  I think we are still trying to wrap our heads around leaving.  It had to come to an end sometime. 

We all made plans and promises to come back again next year and we have every last intention of making that happen.  I don’t think there is a way that we can justify coming up for an entire summer but we surely can come up for a few weeks.  So we will start saving now for that and plan to head up there so that we are there for Trinity Fest.  Krissy and Martha have a log sawing competition to win next year.

When we were saying our goodbyes to various people at the party, one of the last things our good buddy Adam said to me was “you know you always have family up here in Newfoundland”.  That meant a lot to me, especially since I feel it to be true.  Those people are family to us and we love them all dearly.  When we first crossed the border on the 12^th of May, the guard asked me if we had any friends up in Canada and I said “no, but I sure hope we do when we leave”.  Mission accomplished.

So before I move on, I want to give a shout-out to all the good people we met and got to know while we were in Newfoundland – Dave, Kent, Justin, Mel, Melanie, Martha, Johanna, Elissa, Paul, Stef, Jess, Tara, Dan, Adam, Shawn, Ty, Henning, Johannes, Alicia (and Payton, Jake, & Anna), Michael Jordan, Steve & Lisa, Marieke, Kate, Tree, Heinz & Sue, Tim & Sioban, Brigid, Gillian, Andrew, Lena, Bjorn, Maurice, Daria, Martin, Felix, Stefan, Chloe, Julia, Dennis, Steve & Len (from Green & Gold), George & Hazel Yetman, Josh & Shane (from Twillingate), Regine, “Mary Charlie”, Sydney, Alison, Brook & Jake, Kelby, Tyler, Omri, Crazy Lisa, Josh (with the sick friend), Alison from BC, Sandy from Austin, Sandy from Corner Brook, Sophie & Conor, Heather & Neil (who were so good to us in Nova Scotia but they are both from Newfoundland so they get included in this list), and probably so many more.  Some of you we were fortunate enough to really get to know and love you like family.  Some of you we simply had the pleasure of knowing for a short time.  All of you helped to shape our time in Newfoundland as the greatest adventure of our lives.  So much love goes your way from the other side of this blog.

Okay, enough of that.  So we left and it was sad, and we were all feeling very rough as well.  But we kept on and powered through it all.  Got Johanna to the airport with time to spare and then we made our way to the place where we were staying, which is Kent’s family home, graciously offered to us from Gillian (Kent’s mom).  We got settled in there and even though we were worse for wear we headed downtown.  Had a delicious dinner at Rocket Bakery, down on Water Street, and popped by the hostel to visit.  Felix had already left to go back to Europe but Martin and Stefan were both still there and they filled us in on the various ways that hostel continued to be a hot mess (yes, folks, we made the right decision on getting out of there and heading back to Skerwink).  My original plan was for us to knock back some beers and have a great time but we were way too ragged out for that to happen.  Hangover on top of no recent sleep meant that we hung out for about an hour and got caught up and then headed back to the house and slept like rocks.  It’s a bummer because I miss those guys but it was good to see them again, even for just a little bit.  They are both leaving the hostel this week and it will be all new woofers coming in to run the place.  Best of luck to them….they will need it.

We got moving by mid-morning on Monday, probably a little later than we had planned.  We wanted to get a bunch of shopping done before we left.  Mostly we wanted to get a bunch of Black Horse and Screech to bring back, for our big Newfoundland homecoming party.  What we forgot was that it was Labor Day.  And unlike home where the supermarkets still open on holidays, that was not to be here.  Even the big ones like Sobeys and Dominion were closed for the day as were many of the shops downtown (I never got to go back to Fred’s Records….which might be a good thing).  Convenience stores were open so I managed to get a couple dozen Black Horse (which some of you will get to drink in a few weeks) and we got a few silly souvenirs and then headed towards Argentia, to meet the ferry.  Fortunately we found a Needs Convenience store with a liquor store inside and we were able to get the Screech and Iceberg beer that we needed (so basically right now we have a car full of booze and we can’t drink any of it because we’re saving it all for home). 

From there we high-tailed it to Argentia and made it onto the boat pretty easily.  That pretty much brings us up to the point when I started writing this entry.  A few days have since passed.  Needless to say we arrived in Nova Scotia safely.  The boat ride was wobbly and while neither of us got sick we still did not quite feel right for much of that sixteen hour ride.  We had our own cabin which was nice.  It certainly helped.  We have now been in Cape Breton for a few days and there is a fair amount to report but, in the interest of giving the end of the Newfoundland leg the respect it deserves, I will save all that for the next blog entry. 

Since we are once again nomads and tourists and all that, I promise that the next blog entry will come a lot quicker than they have been as of late.  Apologies again for this (and other recent entries) being so long.  See, the thing is it is hard to find the time to write when there is so much fun being had.  We had such a good time in Trinity East, even when we weren’t doing anything much, that it was impossible to tear away and write about it.  Because why stop to reflect when you can just add to the story, right?

Again, to all our Newfoundland friends – thanks.  You guys are the best.  I can’t wait to see you all again.  Long may your big jibs draw, b’ys.