Tuesday August 11 South Brook to Bishop Falls 105 km (Total 7519km)

During the night, the wind blew  hard. When we got up, it was still blowing but it was the rain that we were concerned with. We had time to eat and start packing before the fog turned to rain. The wind just died and it started misting. It was kind of refeshing to ride in. If you got cold, you just pedalled harder and warmed up pretty quickly. It was perfect moose spotting weather and we were looking hard. With no wind, it was fun to ride today. As we entered the next town, we located the nearest retaurant and had a booster breakfast. The waitress couldn’t believe the amount of food we were putting away. The next town was Grand Falls-Winsor and we had a list of things we needed. First it was the info centre for directions. We got pedals for Zack who had been cycling with one and a half pedals for the last two days, then the bulk food store, then the library for internet business. When all the errands were completed, we headed for Bishop Falls campground. It was still misting and the traffic has picked up. The boys were cycling in a tight formation when the leader, Dylan, spotted a moose. He instinctively braked and that is when the action started. Garett was behind Dyland and hit one of Dylan’s back panniers before stopping. Zack was behind Garett and hit Garett. His bike stopped but he went flying over Garret and landed on the back rack of Dylan’s bike. Martin veered off and missed the pile up. No one got seriously hurt but the moose stopped in his tracks to watch the whole thing. Garret finally got a chance to see a moose but I am not sure if he was in a state to focus on what it was. A second moose popped out of the bushes after the incident and stuck around for a bit before trotting off. We were all lucky that this incident was not any more serious. We continued at a more relaxed pace to Bishop Falls. Since it was still misting pretty hard, we had supper at a mexican restaurant hoping the skies would clear. Our wish was granted since the skies cleared up as we left the restaurant. The Bishop Falls campground turned out to be a great place to stay. The attendant charged a flat fee of 15 $ for the group. There was a nice gazebo on the grounds and André asked if we could pitch our tent in the gazebo. The reply was well crafted. The attendant said she could not give us the ok to stay in there but she had seen tents in there before. As we were setting up camp, one of the nearby campers came by to chat. When he heard we were from New Brunswick, he started laughing and said we must have talked to a lady in front of the Quebec MEC store about our trip. Turns out that a cycling friend of his had told him to look out for us in Newfoundland. She said he may come across us and that he should say hi on her behalf. He did better than that. He took his cell phone, called her and passed the phone to Charline. Denise at the other end of the line was very suprised to say the least. Mr. O’Keefe and his wife then offered us some wine and chatted about their cycling adventures. They were impressed with our family trip and invited us to their home on our next trip to Quebec. The gazebo looked like a wagon roundup with the tents on the outer perimeter, the picnic table in the middle and a clothes line hanging from the four entrances. Life is good.