Day 9

Kona Beach Campground to Deer Lake Campground
Distance: 135km
Cumulative Distance to date: 811km
Cycling Time: 7 hrs 20 min
Average Speed: 18.5km/hr
Weather: WIND WINDY WINDIER WINDIEST. Ugh.
Terrain: Rolling and flat-ish
Mechanicals: 1 (at the worst possible time ever)

Before we left for this trip I was only really worried about one thing - the wind. I have a very intense dislike for wind, and would rather find myself in a frigid, snowy winter day than battling the wind. When I shared this fear with folks in St. John's upon our arrival, they all laughed at me and told me I was crazy to come to try and bike across Newfoundland if I don't like wind. I somehow thought that if I survived hiking through the "windiest place on Earth" (Patagonia in 2008) I could survive cycling through Newfoundland. It also appeared to me to be a good opportunity to inspire a positive relationship with wind...... Well, all I will say is that I formally and completely retract my earlier comment that I would prefer a headwind to a sidewind when cycle touring. After battling 25 - 35km/hr headwinds with 45km/hr gusts for 70 km straight, with a brief interlude of "strong breezes" for 10km, followed by an epilogue of 55km of more headwind, Wind and I do not have a very good relationship at the moment. Today was a challenging day, to say the least. We didn't even get a break when going downhill as we had to keep on pedalling to maintain any kind of momentum! Ridiculous. (I bet you the St. John's folks are really laughing at me now....)

Given the treacherous conditions, it was a sure good thing we were well-stocked with banana bread and chocolate bars for ongoing motivation, in addition to my food-daydream of the day: Deer Lake Irving Big Stop Coconut Cream Pie. I am starting to notice two resounding themes in the blog thus far - Hills and Food. As I reflect on what I have written so far it seems like these are the dominant topics of discussion. At first I thought I should try to diversify my writing a bit, but then realized that these are really the two main factors in the trip - one the most challenging and the other the most motivating. In keeping with this theme, I should explain my food dreams of previous days. On Day 3, Sean's craving for Mary Brown's became a mutual food-dream until it was satisfied in Clarenville (included an extra 2km uphill to get it), Day 6 was donair pizza at Pizza Delight as we entered the "big city" of Gander, Day 7 while cycling 100km in the pouring rain, it was seafood chowder keeping those sopping wet feet moving, and Day 9 it was thoughts of that pie that kept me from letting Wind win the battle.

It may seem odd to crave a coconut cream pie from a gas station, but the Deer Lake Irving Big Stop is famous for this particular pie. I had sampled it on our previous trip to Newfoundland, after hearing story-upon-story of Sean eating an entire pie himself, I knew exactly what I had to look forward to. When we rolled into the Irving, exhausted, grumpy and starving ("Hangry" if you prefer - hungry and angry), it was a good thing they had a full pie left as we satisfied our hunger with a "light" meal of seafood chowder, overflowing clubhouse sandwiches with homefries (with hamburger meat and gravy for Sean) and an entire coconut cream pie. That creamy, perfectly sweet, full of coconutty goodness and a melt-in-your-mouth crust made everything better.

Keeping with the theme of the blog, it has also been of interest to me the quantities of food that I have been able to consume on this trip. Everyday might have well been Thanksgiving Dinner, but the most amazing part of it all is that it has been the glutton (twice over!) of Thanksgiving Dinner without the post-dinner bloating and general symptoms of overeating. It is like trying to shovel the sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard - our bodies are absorbing the food as quickly as we are able to put away bite, after bite, after massive bite and we can never quite get ahead of the hunger. Intriguing isn't it?

Today we met another cycle tourist who was in the last few days of a two-month long trip across Canada. He was from Norway (unfortunately we couldn't quite decipher his name) and very proud of it! When we asked him where he was from, he proclaimed: "Norway [while pointing to his vintage Norwegian bike jersey], home of the best skiers in the world!". I then saw him repeat the act 5 minutes later to the girl who worked at the gas station. We had a really interesting conversation with him, as cycle touring is pretty much his life. He works at a tire recycling factory in Norway for 5 months per year and then takes the rest of the year to do a cycle touring trip somewhere in the world! He has already cycled across South America, Mexico, Australia, Europe (multiple times), Iran and is heading to Russia next year. When we asked him why he chose Canada for this trip he said that after cycling through Mexico last year he "wanted a safe place where he could camp anywhere, relax and let his guard down". This brings the grand total of cycle tourists we have seen so far to seven:

- 3 American guys travelling from St. John's, NL to St. John ,NB
- A Scottish couple travelling around Newfoundland
- 1 man from Toronto cycling through Ontario, Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland and back through the States (we didn't actually talk to him but we passed him going opposite directions on the T.C.H. and heard of his route through the cycle-touring gossip channels)
- The Norwegian man cycling across Canada

The day could not have been complete without a few other events... 10km outside of Deer Lake, Wind decided he really wasn't interested in having any sort of relationship with me whatsoever, so he brought along his friend, Rain. Battling both Wind and Rain after 120km + was almost a bit too much.... good thing for that pie. After the feast we headed to the Deer Lake campground (still in the pouring rain), which was only a few km from the Irving. However, this day wasn't going to end without a few additional battles, and 2km from the campground Blanco gave up and got the first flat of her trip. Worst timing ever. It was just starting to get dark and the rain was not letting up, so Sean biked ahead to get us a tent site and I unloaded my panniers and gear on to the side of the road and half-rolled, half-carried Blanco to the campground (no use fixing the flat in the dark when we were so close to the finish line). Fortunately we were lucky to experience yet another bout of that good 'ol Newfie hospitality when a red pick-up truck pulled up beside me, the yellow-hooded driver opened the door and exclaimed: "Get in, girl!!". Well, I had to stop for a moment and remind myself that I wasn't in Calgary and that in Newfoundland it is okay to accept rides from complete strangers. So I got in and found out that Gary (official campground security guard) had decided to be our saviour for the day and he helped us get the rest of my gear, pick up Sean with his bike and took us to our site. After setting up the tent and tarp in the pouring rain, he even drove us down to the showers and back to the tent. What a relief!