Day 136 , back to days 14 and 15, Newfoundland.

While I am on hiatus in Summerland, I have been trying to catch up on the missing days from the beginning of the relay. I do believe I have found the final missing 2 days, Day 14 and 15 from Stephenville, to Port Aux Basques Newfoundland to Sydney, Nova Scotia.  This was the morning of day 14, at the shores of St. George Bay, in Stephenville, also part of the Atlantic Ocean, and the St. Lawrence.

The once vibrant Stephenville aiport which was once run by the U.S. airforce in the 40's to the 1960's, apparently the air strip is long enought for the space shuttle to land on.

Rainy downtown Stephenville, population about 6500

This highway going out of town was once part of the airport, you can kind of make out runways and tarmac on either side of the road.

derelict hanger, the town has been on a steady decline since the air force pulled out.

I was part of the event team today, our first stop was in Stephenville Crossing, a short drive from Stephenville.

Working with Jordan and Barn today, at the local fire hall.

Pretty handy parking for the medal bearer shuttle bus today.

3 young medal bearers get a chance to view a replica medal of the one they will soon be carrying for their segment.

apparently their is no age limit for new recruits.

they will take anyone, won't they, Andrew.

The Bay of St. George.

Shhh, don't bother Andrew and Josh, they're very busy right now!

This was our last day in Newfoundland, we all headed for our end of day celebration in Port Aux Basques, where we would soon be taking the ferry across the Atlantic to Nova Scotia. This stretch of road was foggy, rainy, and blowing very hard, apparently quite typical.

Getting close.

Another gorgeous spot on the east coast. Here is the view from our hotel. We were not scheduled to go on the  ferry until 1130pm, so we had a couple of rooms for the crew to crash in .

There are only 2 ferries a day out of town to North Sydney

A real fishing village.

Do they have to wait until low tide to work on those telephone poles?

After the end of day celebration in Channel- Port aux Basques, Ross and I grabbed a couple of the medal bearer escort bikes and cruised around town checking out the sights.

It was an amazingly beautiful and rugged coastal town.

Quite a view out the back door.

The wind eventually took Ross's hat right off.

The local taxi stand. The Newfie people poke fun at themselves, when you are calling for a cab they expect to here, call 695- tree, tree, tree, tree (their joke, not mine!)

When it gets stormy like this, there is always a fear the ferries will not be able to run.

Looks a little angry.

So, finally it was time to go down to the ferry terminal, which was about 5 minutes from the hotel. It was so dark and raining so hard, I missed the turn, and it took me about 15 minutes to get down there. Then the bad news. It was so windy, the ferry could not get into the terminal (too narrow, too dangerous), we had to wait about 6 hours in the parking lot before we could load the vehicles.

Finally at around 5 am , we could finally board, I was driving one of the shuttle busses.

A quick meeting. Sitting in the lobby, but not for long.

Because, depending on the weather, the sailing time was between 4 1/2 to 8 hours, we were all assigned sleeping bearths.

Comfy cozy, 4 bunks to a room, but when your that tired, it just doesn't matter. They actually had showers as well!

Just before bed time, hey look at that, the sun is coming up over the Atlantic.

Okay quick pic of Don, Pat, and A|ndrew and then bedsy-bye time!

Okay, me too.

approx 6 1/2 hours later, I get up to take a peak to see where we are.

Jake is already up and enjoying the ride.

Pulling into the terminal in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, approx. 14 hours later.

We finally made it. Thanks Marine-Atlantic Ferries!

A view of the harbor in Sydney, Nova Scotia from my hotel room. A lot of cruise ships come in here during the summer time. Well I think that is the last of the pics I have not posted from the early days on the relay, back to the now!