1 Year, 2 KLRs, and a whole lot of open road...: September 7th-8th, 2010 pt.1

There were a few things that needed to be taken care of this morning before making our way towards Channel-Port aux Basques. 1. Bike needs an oil change. 2. Make a reservation for the ferry to Nova Scotia at Port aux Basques. 3. Stock up on food at Wal-Mart so that we don’t succumb to the overly priced food while on the ferry. We tackled the food errand first because we could hit two birds with one stone by picking up breakfast there at the same time. While at Wal-Mart, we happen to bump into ADV inmate kojack by chance. He’s been following our thread since the very beginning. When we made our way to Canadian Tire to change the oil, I noticed the GPS had stopped picking up the signal. I really do hope this is a temporary glitch and not permanent; otherwise we have to resort to the old school method of using maps. We were back on the road after running all our errands.

We stopped at KFC back in Deer Lake to take advantage of “Toonie Tuesdays”. For $2 you get 2 pieces of Kentucky Fried goodness and a side order of fries. We also ran into another ADV inmate (forgot his moniker) who had just come from the Skibum Soiree and is now on his way to tackle the Trans-Labrador Highway.

Shortly after riding through the town of Corner Brook, it started to rain heavily. We endured as much as we could and toughed it out by riding through it. Luckily Amanda was running low on fuel and needed to stop at the next service station; we needed a break anyway. Upon arriving, we find out that there’s a power outage in the area including Port aux Basques. All gas stations in the area are out of order. The distance to Port aux Basques is too far even if I siphon gas from my bike. We’re stranded. Thank goodness we made the reservation for us to board the ferry tomorrow morning and not for this afternoon. The game plan was to get to Port aux Basques and camp the night to avoid having to rush to catch the ferry. We waited in the restaurant along with other stranded travelers in need of fuel. Power was back on about 3 hours later and by then it was starting to get dark outside. We topped off on fuel and decided to camp where we were next to the gas station. The rain eased up which gave us an opportunity to set up camp and not get wet. Just as we were picking an ideal spot, we met a Harley rider named Ian who pulled in to get gas. We get to talking and the next thing we know; we’re following him back to his place in St. George’s to spend the night. You see, not all Harley riders are meanies.

This morning called for an early start in order to catch the ferry. Last night we loaded the bikes into Ian’s trailer because it had started to rain again as soon as we arrived to his place.