King's Point June 12

We pulled away from the BnB at 9:30. As we left, the owner was working on the broken axle he got because of a pothole. You'd think that he would know where they all are, and would easily avoid them.. I felt sorry for him, because he wasn't having the best of weeks. Besides the car repair, where he was doing his best to make the car drivable so he wouldn't have to pay for a 700.00 tow, he had smashed his nose when we had first arrived, and the wound still looked fresh. Then yesterday, while he and his wife were outside, the glass on the door of his wood stove, exploded into smithereens. Glass and soot everywhere, but he had it all cleaned up while we were out.

Hard working people and they take care of so much by themselves. Years ago, the bays and inlets were full of fishing boats. Now most people have to leave to work in the mines, or the oil industry. They lives are very transient .

Within one hour, I thought I was going to die if I didn't get to a washroom. And there was plenty of scenery on this warm sunny day, but no services.

So when we saw someone puttering outside their home, Michael pulled over and of course, there was no problem, and we were invited in. Spoke to them for a little while to find out that they had this home across from a lake and they spent their summers here. So of course we asked where is their winter home? And they said in Burgeo, which we had just left. So we had to ask, why leave Burgeo, which is surrounded by water and beaches for another home just an hour up the road. Now I know that people in Montreal go up North and it may not even be that far but there is a distinct difference between the chalets up north and their homes in Montreal. But here it looks like he hadn't made any improvements to his situation, going from one resort to another. And his answer was, that the climate was MUCH warmer here. Could have fooled me. Eventually, we finally left the Burgeo Rd, so MANY potholes, and if anybody was to see our dash cam footage, they would have thought that Michael was drunk the way he was weaving back and forth. 

When we had last come down this road, a couple of days ago,it had been drizzling. But now it was much warmer so, surprised to see that there is still some snow on the tops of some of the mountains. While we were driving, one of the radio station scanned, was a French language station. This was near Stephenville where there is a trail called the French Ancestors Trail. So a French language station survives here, In Newfoundland.. 

Putting another station on, found ourselves listening to sea shanties.

https://youtu.be/j_poMZSUUyg. I must really be a goner now.

Also, not unusual to see Ukrainian flags flying, and in our restaurant tonight, there was a donation jar for the war effort.

A little over 3 hours later, we arrived back at Deer Lake, where we had lunch and filled up the gas tank.

Just as we were leaving the gas station, the sensor on the dashboard came on indicating low tire pressure and we pulled right back into the station. Of course we have a very fancy digital tire pressure gauge but the batteries were dead and first we went to Dollarama who had nothing and then another dollar store which had nothing but the store clerk found some tire gauges in the basement. Discovered that one of the tires was a little low so we went to put some air in it and continued on our last hour and a half to our final destination. So now we are at Kings Point. We are in a unit that has a little bedroom 

and then a full kitchen and mini living room area. What makes it special, is that it's right on the bay. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jojkqUcW8UehGQ1s6

If we were hunters or fishermen, this, like some of the other places we've stopped, would make a lovely place to settle in for a few days. But since we are barely walkers, and never sure about what the weather is going to be, we are just going to move on in a couple of days to our next destination.

Oh, and the odometer rolled over 5000km/3000 miles.

By the way, in case anyone is keeping a tally, there were no moose today. There were more chipmunks, but no moose. I'm wondering why we see chipmunks and not squirrels. But I digress.

The service here is very attentive, very sweet and I was party to my first real Newfie situation since we got here. I was trying to sign up for the free Wi-Fi, and nothing worked on any of our three devices. So I went back to the office to find out that, although the sign indicated that the password should all be in capital letters, actually was supposed to be inputted in lowercase. The reason it wasn't, it's cuz they didn't have any lowercase letters. Apparently I wasn't the first frustrated client to look a little puzzled at that, but she promised that she would get on someone to put a note indicating it should be lowercase.

We actually had to turn on the air conditioning in the car on the way here that's how warm it was for most of the day. But once we pulled in here, so did a mini gale of wind and the temperature dove 20°. For whatever reason, most of the guests, did not seem to be bothered by the cold and they were still running around in shorts and t-shirts. I celebrated the fact that I finally found my wool scarf, that has been missing since we left Montreal, and wrapped it tightly around my neck. Now if I could just remember what I did with my toque.

I spoke with the owner of a craft store across the street, and she told me that 100 tour buses are scheduled to come here this summer (not all at the same time, obviously). So that will be a definite boon to the economy.

We had supper at the hotel, where we were told that we had to make reservations, and yes, it was busy. Michael had ordered a piece of breaded cod, and when the waitress brought it, she said that the cook said that it was too small a piece and they were preparing another piece for him

After supper, the gale winds had calmed down and Michael went to check on the tire, that we had refilled earlier in the day, and the tire was obviously going flat. We called roadside assistance with no great expectations of getting any timely help, but we were told that help would arrive within 25 minutes. I don't care that it took 40; was just so happy that someone was coming. 

So now that we had become used to NOT dragging out all the suitcases, of course, we had to take everything out to get to the spare. All the while, I'm cursing, fucking potholes, goddam potholes, and some other variations in the same vein, and turns out, the problem was a STAPLE in the tire 

Anyways, the mechanic put on the spare, took our tire so that he can repair it tomorrow, and we'll drive over, about 20 minutes away and hope that that is end of that story.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nWrRFZb5XW3uMfYz7 a little local history