Some Days You’re the bug . . .

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

June 27, 2011

. . . and some days you’re the windshield. Just because you’re cruising doesn’t mean you won’t have that day where nothing seems to go right and yesterday I was the bug. What’s worse is that ultimately I’ve got no one to blame but myself.

Port Aux Basques lies at the southwest corner of Newfoundland and it’s where the big Marine Atlantic car ferries dock. We were saying good-bye to Josh here as he caught the ferry and began his trip home. It’s been a great and a rare gift to spend that much time with our grown up son.

A bad weather forecast and Russ got the idea to travel with Josh to Baddeck and bring our car over. Mission accomplished we left the car in Port Aux Basques and sailed overnight to Corner Brook. This town was created by lumber and its mill still goes through a LOT of lumber!

Arriving just in time, I hitched a ride to the bus depot and headed for Port Aux Basques. I think driving back was the most dangerous thing I’ll do on this trip. There were 660 car/moose accidents in Newfoundland last year. All advice I got was to slow down. If my speed started creeping over 50 mph it only took skid marks in the road to remind me to keep it down. I didn’t see another car heading my way on the 2-lane Trans-Canadian highway and would go for 30-45 minute stretches without seeing a car coming from the other direction. Never saw a moose though.

The Bay of Islands Yacht Club is a ways out of town and the car made it easier to support the local economy at Walmart, Canadian Tire, the incredible bulk food store next to Walmart, and several grocery stores. This meant the boat was in a state of chaos as we tried to find a place for food for 6 weeks and everything else. It wasn’t doing a lot for our mental state!

Wednesday morning I took our jerry cans to the gas station to fill up on diesel. Russ cautioned me to be careful . . . taking a turn in town I heard one of the cans move and should’ve stopped to check. Getting back to the Bay of Islands Yacht Club I realized that not only had the can tipped over, it’d leaked diesel onto the carpeting in the back. What a mess and the carpet was a total loss. No way would that smell come out.

The day before I’d been vacuum bagging food stores and using the common area at the marina building. Tables to spread out on, power . . . it was perfect. Unfortunately, I was a little too trusting and had left things in the unlocked building overnight. Walking in to clean up from the diesel I noticed that my bright green bag was gone!

This bag is very distinctive. A friend living in Indonesia gave it to me. Made of pouches that contained cleaning products with text in Indonesian, it was my workhorse bag and was even a prop in our last film production. And not only was the bag gone but well over $100 worth of contents.

I’ve thought that Newfoundland is a taste of what the world would be like if there was no crime. People loan you their cars. They help each other out . . . I still think that. But I was stupid to just leave stuff sitting around like that.

It’s a lesson in safety, not being attached to things, and not letting one incident ruin your experience of a place. The generosity and kindness we’ve received here far outweigh this one thing and maybe this person really needed that food.

But if you see anyone walking around Corner Brook with a bright green bag made of sewn together plastic cleaning pouches with writing in a foreign language . . . grab it for me would ya’?