When You Wake Up To The Promise of Your Dream Coming True

We anticipated being more excited when this day arrived as this is the day Barry will ride the motorcycle on the Rock! The ups and downs of the last few days have drained us of some of our zest for the journey but we’re sure we’ll regain it. It is a beautiful morning: the sun sparkling on the water and the lavender bushes all around this heritage house perfuming the air as we load up. We have a bit of luggage rearranging to do as no one is permitted on the car decks during the crossing so everything we think we might want for the 5 to 7 hour trip needs to be stuffed into a backpack that we can carry to the upper decks.
Arriving at 9:30, two hours early as directed, we wait with the other bikers on hot asphalt until 12:20 when we’re finally loaded onto the end of the truck deck - so much for being the first ones off! All the bikes have to be securely tied down as this can be a wild stretch of ocean. The ferry, MV Caribou, finally departs. Never will we complain about the BC Ferries again! Not only do you have to have prepaid reservations for these wickedly expensive ferries in the East, the whole concept of schedule seems to have escaped them.
The crossing is uneventful, the ocean is very calm, and we arrive shortly after 6 pm, Nfld time in the very foggy harbour. There aren’t many motorcycles on the ferry, one other older couple from Quebec (with whom we’ve not conversed much due to language difficulties) and three younger single riders who are throwing caution to the wind and riding on. The unloading is accomplished much more quickly than the loading and we observe the Quebec couple slipping into the first moving car line and comment to ourselves that they must be in a hurry. When we arrive at the Port Aux Basques Hotel and the same couple have secured the last room we understand their hurry!
The hotel offers us an in-house telephone and Marlene quickly phones every accommodation possibility in the area listed with the Nfld Traveller’s Guide. Nothing! We are beginning to feel sick. Port Aux Basques is a small town with a lot of accommodation - almost 200 rooms, one of which we were sure we would get. One kind hotel clerk sees Marlene’s distress and says she knows a couple who take in guests in overflow situations. She calls them and a few minutes later Dan Mushrow, 61, arrives on his scooter to guide us to his modest home, where he and his wife Emma have already welcomed another couple from Ontario and will welcome us and another traveller before bedtime.
Our room is small and we are all sharing one bathroom but we spend an evening in what can only be described as authentic Newfoundland hospitality: we all sit around in the living room and Dan entertains us with wonderful stories and songs. Emma urges him on, requesting favourite stories she thinks “the crowd” might enjoy and although Marlene doesn’t catch all of his words, we both appreciate the genuine kindness and love of place this couple, who have lived here all their lives, so generously share with strangers.
There is a framed cross stitch quotation on the bedroom wall that conveys the essence of Dan and Emma - “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” We’re very glad to be safely in Newfoundland, up to now we’ve been tourists, seeing what we wanted to see, for the next two weeks we will be Newfoundlanders and we will see what we see.