Perfect Storm

We know we will awake to gentle rain as it has rained during the night and our grand old house has creaked with the wind. The breakfast menu this morning at Rolling Hills B&B is waffles with fresh blueberries and partridgeberries and whip cream. Yummy!
We’re not eager to leave but we are eager to get to Barry’s brother Gene and family in St. John’s about 260 kms away. Our wonderful host, Ed presents us with a huge piece of fresh cod to take with us - for Barry’s birthday, he says smiling. The food fishery is open which means that all Newfoundland residents may catch five fish a day for a set period. Newfoundlanders eagerly await the food fishery that occurs a couple of times a year because it provides one of their traditional foods and it means the cod stocks are very gradually coming back. All of our B&B hosts have been fishing in the evenings and limiting out within minutes. They scrupulously adhere to the limit because they have all had very sad experiences with over-fishing. But right now their freezers are brimming with fish and they’re generously giving it away!
The weather does not improve, in fact it gets ugly once we hit the TCH. If we weren’t expected by Gene we might seek shelter but decide to push on. By the time we get to Whitburne, we’re both wet through and miserable but we stop for a late lunch and revive a little. We are only 82 kms from our destination but the wind and the rain have intensified. We study one another carefully - for different reasons we really want to be at Gene’s and Marlene knows a secret that is a further compelling reason to keep going. Our oldest son David, is flying in from Vancouver tonight, to join us for 5 days in Newfoundland. It is a birthday surprise for Barry and a long awaited opportunity for David who hasn’t been here since he was a little boy. We manage to wobble out of the parking lot onto the highway- getting started in high wind is always tricky. Marlene plugs in her heated jacket, turns up the audio book in her Ipod and tries to imagine she is somewhere else. Barry fights the weather and the grooved pavement as some sections of the TCH are being repaved (although no crews are working today). There are no signs warning about uneven road surfaces or drops in road level and in these conditions he can’t see ahead so we ride very slowly. This is the second worst ride in our experience and the worst yet on this trip. We pass two vehicles in the ditch and really regret ever starting out this morning.
We finally arrive, completely soaked through all layers but safe. Gene is making his famous chilli for supper and the clothes dryer goes into action. David’s plane is delayed but still scheduled to land tonight and the world is unfolding as it should.