Two of the many benefits of boondocking in very remote locations, are darkness and silence. This was one of those occasions.
I woke to a Loons call, their mournful sound travelling far across the still lake. Lying in bed, I could hear other birds waking up, early morning light finding its way into the trailer, the trees standing silently with the absence of breeze.
I climbed out of bed, got dressed, then headed outside to see what gift nature had in store for me.
The hint of a beautiful sunrise, shifting from a light pink blush, to yellow and orange, gradually turning the low cloud to blood red.
I sat in silence, taking in the stunning sunrise, thankful for another day, and an adventure on the road.
I returned to the trailer, made tea for myself and a strong coffee for Susan. We had breakfast, then prepared for another day of travel.
We headed a few kilometres into the hamlet of Howley, filled up our gasoline tank at the only pump in town in front of a store that sells a bit of everything. We returned to Highway 1.
Compared to the previous days driving conditions, we found ourselves gliding along on road surfaces that were dry and as smooth as glass. What a pleasure.
We set the cruise control, the miles easily rolled past, and we made good progress.
We stopped in Grand Falls to pick up some groceries. Another motorist advised us we had a burned out headlight. I bought replacement bulbs at Walmart, and immediately changed them in the parking lot.
We continued east and noticed a sign on the side of the road advertising Botwood as the mural capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. We couldn’t resist a small detour, headed into Botwood, and drove around looking at them. The work is incredibly detailed, and the scale of them is breathtaking.
We headed back to Highway 1 and continued east while Susan called ahead to a few campgrounds. They were closed for the season or didn’t have wifi. We needed to catch up on our blogging.
Eventually, she struck the jackpot and found an open campground. She called the office but they were closed for the night. After a few rings, someone answered the phone, gave us directions, confirmed the good wifi, told us to take any site and we could check in after 10am the following morning. Such trusting people.
What a lovely site. Lots of open spaces, strong wifi signals and good bandwidth.
We set up for the night, made supper, and started blogging. After a while, I watched some Netflix, my eyes growing heavy, I shut it down and called it a night.
The next morning, I was up early, made some tea, and continued blogging while Susan had a chance to sleep in without me pestering her so we could hit the road.
After breakfast, our morning consisted of blogging, laundry, recycling, blogging, paying for the campground, more laundry, defrosting the freezer, reorganizing cupboards, route planning for the next two weeks, cleaning out and rearranging the trailer storage bays, blogging, wrestling in a confined space while we put the fitted sheets back on the king sized mattress (quite an aerobic exercise) then a snack for lunch. A productive busy morning.
It was time to post the blogs, make supper, and check the weather forecast.
With our chores done for the day, and the blogs posted, we settled in for an evening of watching some Netflix, while keeping an eye on the storm heading towards the Maritime provinces.