Day 13

Cliff and Liz have arrived! Shortly after 1:30 Newfoundland time they landed in the rain and fog so God did not make a liar of me after all! No matter the weather we set out for Burin. Along the way we laid proof to the theory that if you don’t like the weather in Newfoundland, wait a minute, it’ll change. It rained, the sun shone, we travelled through a fog cloud at one point that caused instant condensation to form on the car windows. Cliff and Liz were undoubtedly puzzled but took everything in characteristic good stride. Travelling over the isthmus that connects the Avalon Peninsula with the rest of Newfoundland we hit the always anticipated fog, thick as pea soup. I have often wondered if there are folks in Come-by-Chance who have never seen the sun?!! The island in fact boasts several peninsulas and as you pass over the small necks of land that connect them, fog is common. The narrowest part of the land connecting the Avalon is just over 4 km wide. That tiny band of land, perpetually foggy, unites the peninsula that is home to roughly half the population of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the moments when the fog is not, Cliff and Liz were able to appreciate the beautiful, barren landscapes that are characteristic of this part of the country. We stopped for a typical Newfoundland “supper out” at the Irving garage on the highway in Goobies – pronounced just as you would think! We had been told the food was great. We had decided to go with the traditional roadside fare of a hot turkey sandwich with fries, dressing and gravy. Actually the food was very “OK” but the milkshake I treated myself to was exactly as I remembered them as a kid. Thick, creamy and delicious … would have made any cow proud! The lemon pie though was worth the whole stop. Sweet and tart at the same time, just as lemon pie should be. The meringue was a mile high and while David and Cliff did justice to the pieces they refused to share, Liz and I happily devoured our communal treat.

We made a brief stop in Marystown, home of the shipyards, and stopped to have a look at a drilling rig, in from Hibernia for some repair or other. An Amish couple from Pennsylvania was happy we stopped so we could explain why “a drilling rig would be so close to land and where was the drill piece”! Guess the Marystown harbor wasn’t exactly what he had imagined the Hibernia oil fields to look like!

The Wheel House Inn was discovered without delay. A stroll around a local pond gave our legs a grand stretch and while the liquor store was closed, Blackhorse from the local corner store worked well as a toast to Newfoundland!