07/07/2018

Happy Valley / Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (-:

I wish I could tell you it was a harrowing atrocious grueling trip from Lab City to HV, but it was not. Any county government in Texas would have been proud to have this highway for their 1st Class county roads. We averaged 55 MPH. The landscape was gorgeous the wx was not.

The only drama on this leg was when we stopped for lunch when there was a break in the drizzle. We had just finished lunch inside the camper and were getting out when the excitement began. The wind was howling, 25 gusts to 30 MPH. As we opened the door to the camper a hard gust of wind blew it out of hand and slammed it against the metal corner of the fuel can rack knocking out the rear window and splitting the lower half of the door in half. My screw and glue construction held. It was the thin Cedar boards I use to make the door lighter that split. That angle iron rack corner was just like a hatchet.

I had planned and packed equipment to repair almost every possible emergency I thought would occur on this trip but not a knocked out window and split wooden door. Some creative carpentry was required. We found a Spam can on the side of the road, put the window back in the hole as best we could and screwed the flattened Spam can over the worst split, After we closed and locked the door it all seemed to be pretty tight and would stay in so off we drive.

HV as its version of Home Depot which provided all the things I needed to make a solid repair.

We stopped in a park, took the door off and made the repairs the whole time being harassed by mosquitoes. It looks rough but will hold I think.

In celebration we splurged on a $100 dinner and a $200 hotel room for the night. (-: Damn that hot shower was wonderful and I'm going to really enjoy this queen size bed.

The best thing that happened on the Trans Lab was meeting Merv. We were trying to find the place where we could pick up our courtesy sat phone in Labrador City and got sort of lost. Out front of this building we find this guy in bibs and short sleeve T-shirt setting up barricades in building's large parking lot.

I drive up, roll down the window and ask for directions to the sat phone place. What ensued was a 15 min conversation about the wx, fishing, the charity car wash he was setting up for and oh by the way where your looking for is across the street. They don't get many strangers in town.(-:

Did mention that Merv liked fishing? When he found out were headed towards HV he suggested a spot for us to stop and fish at that was about 85 miles down the road. What endeared Merv to us was when he said "if the game guys get on you about anything tell them Merv said it was OK". Then Meve wrote his name and telephone number down on a piece of paper and handed it to me. Merv is the Fire Chief of the Labrador City fire department. (-: