We are officially on our way home! We have driven as far East as this trip will take us, and so now we must turn around. In fact we are over 1000 kilometers further from home in our own country, than we were at the very Southern most tip of the Florida Keys in the U.S. Having said that, we are still 6,800 kms from home (including 180 kms of open sea for which we must again take a ferry!) As the Arrogant Worms so eloquently sing, "We're the second largest country, on this planet earth, and if Russia keeps on shrinking, then soon we'll be the first - as long as we keep Quebec!"

Our adventures in Newfoundland have been unusual and wonderful. We have experienced many extremes including the weather which went from 4 degrees to 28 degrees in the week we have been here. We were fortunate to get to meet Ennis at the Iceberg Festival and totally enjoyed the strong Celtic flavor of the Island. Maureen and Karen are a hoot, and are proof that sisters can survive travelling together! In Gros Morne, we ventured on yet another boat tour, this time up a Fjord that once began at the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The water was glacial, pristine, and only 3 degrees. We even hiked the northern tip of the Appellation Mountain Range as well as the Tablelands.

On one such hike near the bottom of a glacier in the Tablelands, we stopped to relax and enjoy a small waterfall. Dangling our feet (or some of us, our heads) in the icy cold water of the glacial pools and compensating the chill with the heat from the warm rocks and sunshine was a welcome break from the climb and scramble over rock and water as we had once again ventured "off road."

Eventually we pried ourselves from our sunny rocks, and with our water bottles filled from the fall itself, began the descent along the stream. Within a half an hour we noticed a peculiar sight. Caught in a little pool, were two somewhat buoyant chocolate bars, neither melting nor sinking. The wrappers, not torn, were floating nearby. We mused over such wonton waste! Further along, we noticed round wafer thin paper like petals floating over the rocks and our musing was replaced with disgust at such blatant lack of respect for nature. It wasn't until we saw the bobbing heads of red carnations that an "awakening" took place... the subtle realization that we may be walking with the dead. At this point our perspective seriously altered. What appeared at first to be disrespectful litter may in fact have been a deep respect and the final resting place of the dearly departed (of whom we almost drank!).

Newfoundland has been a place of fascinating, diverse, and crazy memories for us - the place that is always half an hour different!