No soup for you!

Today was an interesting one. I went to bed thinking I needed to get up and go snowmobiling. When I got to the dining room, Carl informed me that not only would there not be snowmobiling, as the guide's babysitter got sick, but we also wouldn't be going anywhere because the roads were closed. Awesome. Actually, I was pretty excited, as I loved the little hotel we were at and was kind of pleased with the idea of sitting around doing nothing all day. I had breakfast and we noticed people deicing the helicopter right outside the window. It was a good hour and a half of them prepping this thing, and during that time we decided to head to an eastern route, taking us to the easternmost road in continental North America. As we were ready to pull out, the helicopter took off. What is apparently a common occurrence there was a source of much amusement to us, and the cameras came out in force.

It wasn't much outside of town before we hung a left onto the Iceberg Alley. The roads here have such great names! It was obvious that the wind was whipping and we encountered some blowing snow along the way. But it was nothing compared to the frost-heaved, cratered road as far as hindering us. Finally, we came upon the town of St. Lewis, our destination. After getting sandblasted on an open plain taking pictures, we drove through town to check things out. We saw something called Main Rd and figured that would be a good place to head. It was a very steep slope of pure ice, and once one car lost momentum, several others required a restart from the bottom of the hill. Once we made it to the top, we were greeted by the wind, a stunning view of the bay below, and burning garbage. That's right, we found the town dump. In the middle of this pristine land, where there are signs everywhere telling you not to litter and do your part to keep Labrador beautiful, here was a man shoveling bags of garbage off his truck and lighting them on fire. Then he drove away. It was seriously the saddest thing I've seen.

Enjoy our stunning views!

Don't worry, the fire hazard is low today

 After that bit of depressingness we turned around and headed back to the hotel. Along the way we saw an oil truck going out of town. The driver was a guy we had spoken to at the hotel, and he was heading the same way we were. So when we saw the truck, we knew the road must be open again. At this point it was early afternoon and we knew it was a short-ish drive to the town we needed to get to. Apparently some people felt that a lunch break wasn't a good idea in case the road closed again, but honestly I think we could have. There were some drifts, but really the roads were fine and visibility was better than when we'd driven up the day before. However, it did provide us with some great sunset lighting over the gorgeous landscape. Today made up for yesterday's borefest and then some. It reminded me a lot of the road from Eagle Plains to Inuvik last year. Rolling hills, little to no trees, whipping winds, and massive snow banks!

We came across a guy clearing the road. He said he'd been working since Monday and hadn't been home in all that time. I guess that means I can't complain about storm duty at work anymore. He was more than happy to let us take pictures and check out his awesome snow-eating machine. Once we were frozen, we went on our way again. Eventually, we broke out of the plains and made it to the coast, and were greeted with more great vistas. Thankfully, we found asphalt again, which made driving much more comfortable. We found the B&B and learned that 3 people would have to stay in a separate cabin up the road. Carl, Blaine, and I took that option, and we're loving it. It's the most modern thing we've stayed in all trip, complete with kitchen, LCD flat-screen, two bedrooms, bathroom, and fold-out couch.

Taken while standing out of the sunroof. Yeah, it was a bit chilly.

Connecticut needed this thing after the blizzard

Before the sun totally set, we headed just outside town to find a big sign welcoming us to Newfoundland and Labrador. Took a few pictures and FINALLY were able to eat something. But not just anything! That's right, we finally found some caribou on the menu, along with bakeapple pie. Bakeapple is also called cloudberry, and as the name implies, is a berry, orange with large seeds like a black berry. It wasn't super sweet and I can't say it's my favorite, but they apparently love it up here. Also of note, Carl ordered the first-ever bacon poutine in Forteau Bay, Newfoundland. Because as we all know, bacon makes everything better.

Tomorrow is a 20 minute drive to the ferry, but we have to be there by 6am. Then it's a 12 hour ride to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, then a mad dash to Port aux Basque to catch the second ferry to Nova Scotia. If you recall, this is the ferry I got stuck on in 2006 for 32 hours. So do whatever happy sea dance you know and sacrifice something to Neptune, because I swear I'll jump overboard if I get stuck on this boat again!