Saturday 23 July 2011

Sometimes a Wrong Turn is a good thing!


23 years ago today, Marcel and I said “I do”.  I was awake at 6 and spent a little over two hours catching up on our trip diary. Great way to start the day.

We left Cabot RV shortly after 9 a.m. and arrived at Woolfrey’s Pond RV Park sometime after 1 p.m. Our drive was uneventful until we reached Lewisporte, when we had trouble following the GPS, got turned around in the Price Chopper parking lot – and ended up on the wrong road out of town.   

There was no place to turn around at all and we were on a 2 lane narrow route heading to Twillingate. I checked the map and found a village a short way down the road. I then noticed a sign with a picture of a very large lobster on it, indicating there was a stand ahead. We slowed down in anticipation and hopeful it would have a place where we could turn around. As we approached it, I doubted there was sufficient room, but Marcel thought we could make it. Had there not been two parked cars in the lot, we would have had enough swing space, but as it was we did not. By this point we were well in the lot and no place to go but to disconnect our tow vehicle from our coach.

While he disconnected, I went to check out the fish market. Well it was a stroke of luck. They had live lobsters ($7.99/lb); Mussels (5 lb bag for $8.75); Cod cheeks ($10/lb); Scallops, shrimp, crab, salmon and much more. We decided not to buy anything at this point, but told the woman we would return once we were set up. She gave us directions to the campground, so I led the way in the car. As we drove down the very windy gravel road toward the campground, I wondered if once again we had made a wrong turn. My only clue that we might be on the right road was that we passed a dump station near the entrance. Needless to say, I breathed a sigh of relief as we finally approached a clearing where I could see some trailers.

The campground is pretty much a gravel lot with good size sections of grass housing the water and electric hook-ups, picnic tables, a garbage can and a fire ring. There are no trees, but the campground is surrounded by trees and bush. We checked in and were told to go to site #29. When we got there, we found it was already occupied.  I drove back to the office and told the lady site #34 was free (which it wasn’t, but that was what Marcel told me). It actually was site 23 and she told me we couldn’t have that one as it was promised to someone who was checking in for a week.  After walking the campground with the proprieter, we discovered there were no empty spaces for us. There was a large space next to the utility house and I asked if we could park there. She was extremely apologetic and concerned our hoses and electrical cable wouldn't reach the closest hook-ups, but I assured her we would be fine. Our electrical cord could reach the utility pole on the opposite side and the site was long enough for us to fit. Marcel decided to drive back to the dump station before setting up. When he returned, I told him the fellow in the site next to us (site #30) told me he was leaving the next day, and I had already checked with the office and they had confirmed with me, we could have that site after they left.

Once we were set up we drove back into Lewisporte to check out the local restaurants and then drove to the local mall. We stopped in the Bargain General Store and found a white storage bench that will fit perfectly in our laundry room at home. This is a great find as I have been looking for months for just such a thing. Our next stop was Price Chopper where we bought the last loaf of French bread they had on the limited shelves and a large bag of frozen shrimp with cocktail sauce. We then drove back to the fish market, bought a lobster and although they normally charge $6 to cook the lobsters, she already had a pot on the boil for someone else, so threw ours into the pot as well and we weren’t charged. The cost is $6/pot, so regardless of the number of lobsters you want cooked, as long as they fit in the pot. We also bought a pound of cod cheeks (which were frozen) and a 5 lb bag of fresh mussels. We returned to the campground – had a drink and a feast of seafood for our anniversary dinner. I steamed the mussels, sliced the bread, melted some butter for the lobster, thawed some shrimp, added extra horseradish to the cocktail sauce and put the bag of cod cheeks in the freezer to enjoy another day.

After dinner we watched one of the two TV channels we get here. Our pick was the Winnipeg comedy festival before getting comfy with our books in bed about 10:30 p.m. We could smell the wood as neighbours all around us sat out with fires burning in the firepits.

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