8/29/09: St. John’s, NFLD. 41 miles. Final Blog.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
Tom, Della, Judy and I went to breakfast in downtown St. John’s this morning, at a place called Thelma’s. This, Tom told us, it the best breakfast place in the city. Now, earlier, like yesterday, they had told us that we would go to town for breakfast, and by town, Judy and I expected some little place in Torbay. But we got ready to leave and found out that by “to town” they meant downtown St. John’s, and so now they have something to goof with us about. They thought that was pretty funny. Yup, just about as funny as wiffy is to Tom………long story short…….Tom sheepishly asked Della one day what wiffy meant when I was often referring to wifi in my blogs. And she just went spastic laughing about the wiffy. She told us the story and now we’re all wiffy’ing Tom whenever we can. So, now Tom and I each have something to get goofed on.
So, we get to Thelma’s and have our coffee and begin to order, and what do you know…..here comes Barney and Val shopping for a place to eat breakfast. I beat on the window and they saw us and came in. We all moved to a bigger table and had a wonderful breakfast together with the sun just gushing in through the café’s front windows. Oh, how glorious that sun felt this morning after yesterdays chilly winds and chilly finish. I ate like a guy still on the road while Barney just tried to pull back the reins a bit on the appetite. I got the Grand Slam with fishcakes, and then we ordered two toutons to split with the group, this fried dough stuff that’s really good. I buzsawed through the food like usual, and then finished one of Val’s fishcakes and one of Judy’s pancakes. God bless Bareny for his restraint, for he’s a better man than I being able to suss that appetite on day one of the end of the journey. It could take me a week to stop eating like a madman.
We set a time to meet at the Battery cottage and then all go back up to Cape Spear to get the real photo stuff done. At 1pm we loaded into the van, drove down the the Canary Bike Shop in downtown St. John’s, picked up Bareny and Ryan, I bought my “finish line jersey” and we headed off to the cape. Della was with all of us while time driove up on his own to meet us. Along the way we passed that infamous intersection from yesterday, the one with the bakery, and we all goofed on various themes of that stupid day yesterday. Someone wanted to stop for water and I suggested that they all go to the bakery and just “disappear” when the get their water.
This day just couldn’t have been more perfect for such a photo shoot, as the sun was blazing, there were cotton ball clouds floating through the sky and the wind was blowing just enough to let you know that you’re up along the ocean on the North Atlantic. And then the shooting began next to the furthest point east in NA sign…….shots of Ryan with bike, yak, tee-shirts, sponsor gear………shots of me of the same…….shots of us together……shots of the Hilleberg pearched on the cliffs above Cape Spear……..shots of Ryan and the Hillie on the cliffs…..shots of Judy and I……of Tom and Della…….of Barney and Val….of all of us….of three of us. We had my two cameras, Barney’s camera, Bill’s camera. It was crazy. Good gosh we had more cameras’ snapping than at a paparazzi stakeout at Brittany Spears house. All the while, Tom was telling the curious onlookers of what we were doing, why we were doing it. He was like our agent up there spinning the yarn of our cross Canada bicycle trip. THIS was the day that I had visions of. This was the real ending to a fantastic, amazing trip across one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever had the privilege to visit.
And that was it. We had spent about 1.5 hours up there just shooting smiling, congratulating and having fun together. Yesterday was a hiccup, a burp from over consumption….as Barney phrased it “a Gong Show.” There and then, in my mind, what with all the good vibes, the great friends together for that moment, for that little sliver of time that we captured on our digital cameras, I consider this trip officially over. I’m at peace with everything.
And now I’m back here at the Battery Street cottage, high above the waters of St. John’s Bay, with the clouds rolling in, the seabirds cresting above the rooftops of all these tiney little cottages clinging to the faded grey granite walls of this narrows. It’s a setting that is so picturesque, so aweinspiring, that you have to just stare out the windows, or stand out on the deck in total bliss, and kind of pinch yourself. The bright red, blue, green, and yellow fishing boats are lined up on the other side of the harbor, reflecting the last glimmers of today’s afternoon light. Their day is done. And evening creeping up again to end another fantastic day on the road.
One the road……..I’ve lived my life out of my yak & panniers for nearly three months, and then upgraded to my van for the final 8 days. I’ve forgotten what it feels like to just go home and go to bed, to get up and go to work like a normal person, to eat like a regular guy, to have a sense of normality to my life, to see my friends and loved ones on a daily basis. That was my old world. This new world I’ve been living, experiencing new places and new faces every day, of never knowing what the next day will bring, of pushing and working towards an new destination day after day afer day. Well, I can say that I’m glad to go back to my old world for a good while. I think I’m ready to re-enter the “real” world. The time is right. I feel just totally satiated with this effort.
This trip has been something that I’ve wanted to try all my life, to challenge myself daily, to see how I would handle the mental as well as the physical strain of pushing day after day after day. Some days I was a master of my environment; others – I was mastered by my environment! There was an ebb and flow to good vs bad. But never did I even think of just calling it quits. This was my singular focus for a year with respect to my own personal challenge. Today I have a feeling of total and complete satisfaction. No second guessing. No woulda shoulda coulda. We did it. Ryan, Barney and myself all faced our own challenges, and we did it! I believe we’re better men for it.
Finally, there was one intangible that I had not really dwelled upon before we began this journey, one final wonderful thing that has pretty much been the paint on the canvas of this journey - the awesome people who we had the privilage of meeting along the way, the new friends we made, often within the span of just a day or so, fleeting as these meetings were. These people who came into and out of my life within just an eye’s blink of time, these people have left me with memories and impressions that I’ll carry with me the rest of my life. I cannot name you all, but those of you reading, you know who you are. I love you folks. You were so wonderful to us, not only by what you provided in a material sense, but what you shared with us in a spiritual sense. THAT we can hold onto! And we will. I won’t get corney here. But that was just so amazing.
And then there ws all of you out there emailing us, sending us congrats, pushing and pulling for us, living each day with us through our blogging, waking up each and every morning and tuning in to the latest edition of the Ryan & Pete, or the Ryan & Pete & Barney, or the Pete & Barney show. Thanks so much to all of you for your interest and your great vibs and karma. You can’t imagine the sense of duty that I felt each and every day to keep the blogs coming after hearing from so many of you. That was a total surprise to me, but I absolutely loved it. So again, thanks so very much to all of you.
So that’s it. This blog has now officially ended. The website will remain open, and once I get home we’ll have the photo section completely updated and broken into province by province photo excerpts of the trip. And who knows maybe something else lies ahead for “4 the Health Of It.” Never say never!!
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