By now I've found all three of the flattest cycling routes in Corner Brook, allowing me to go on pleasant bike rides, instead of spending the whole time going up hills gassed and then racing down the backside immediately into the next hill.

Still though, riding the same three routes over and over for the whole year can get occasionally boring after 50 or 55 rides. With nothing else possible in Corner Brook because of its topography, I decided to drive out to Deer Lake for an fun jaunt around the more comfortable town.

Cruising around on a bike, I had more time to appreciate the passing houses, although in a place as small as Deer Lake I still didn't photograph as many as I would have liked.

There really are some fun homes which haven't seen any updates in a long time; as well as some weathered and extremely modest shacks.

And then there was this thing, which I absolutely loved.

Passing a junkyard, I couldn't believe my eyes, but I was pretty sure this was the same Benzo I saw on the way to Twillingate over a decade ago.

(Except that as I now look back at my old photo, it clearly isn't. I've never claimed to be a car guy, haha.)

Continuing on my recent quest to check out Anglican churches, Deer Lake's St. Michael and All Angels probably isn't going to go away anytime soon, but it still looks like a cool enough building that I'd like to check it out sometime.

In addition to Anglican churches, I've also been stopping at random convenience stores, as they also seem to be going away. Everyone wants to shop at the bigger Irvings and North Atlantic gas bars these days; plus almost everyone drives now, so the local walkable store suffers.

In Corner Brook alone, I can think of eight neighbourhood shops that've closed in my time. Not to mention that two of the ones that've survived, currently have for sale signs posted.

So, at the sight of Lou's Variety tucked into the neighbourhood at the corner of High and Sixth, I decided to go in and check the place out.

Chickening out on taking any pictures with the store owner standing right there, I snapped a couple as I went for an 8-pack of Busch in the beer cooler. This wasn't one of those wood grain, heavy door coolers that exist in some of these shops, but I liked the chicken scratch handwriting marking where each beer went.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and I called it.

Lou's Variety looks like its being converted to housing and in the meantime, has exposed the classic "outport seafoam" colour that it used to be.

I came across another closed in convenience store called P.Beck and Son, this one with an even cooler sign.

I would have liked to get a better picture, but that front window was someone's living room as P.Beck and Son has long ago been converted to housing.

The best part of this bike ride had to be discovering that Deer Lake was changing at a Manhattan-like pace, as evidenced by their renowned Rockwood bar also having for sale signs posted.

Wrapping up my bike ride and seeing that I'd served myself 41 kilometers (25.5mi) of sweet Deer Lake residential street cycling, the next item on the agenda was letting Isy know that we needed to come back and check out The Rockwood before it was gone.

Luck was on my side here, as within the week, we were shopping at the local furniture store and they told us some item we wanted was actually in Deer Lake, but not available in Corner Brook.

Well there we go! After cruising out and picking up whatever that furniture thing was, I pulled open the doors to The Rockwood and found a space much bigger and open than I expected.

This was such a weird time to be checking out dive bars, since there were plenty of rumours about some town and their flippant attitude towards masks, or this other town and their stringent attitudes or whatever.

Obviously having no idea what Deer Lakers were like¹, Isy and I walked in masked up and found three people sitting at the bar, occasionally exchanging words with the bartender. No one was wearing a mask as they sat there.

1 - Our visit to The Rockwood was about a month before that
Deer Lake hockey party that resulted in another lockdown.

In a place like The Rockwood, where I'm basically inviting myself into a locals-only club, I don't care about masks as it's not my place to say anything. It's just that I'd like to avoid being harassed, but thankfully there was none of that. Isy and I were able to grab a couple Dominions from the attentive bartender, then we just went and chilled at a table, while everyone else went about their drinking.

This was nice. And especially in Newfoundland where it feels like every local is shocked to find any outsider in their town. I pondered if it would have went as smoothly if I showed up by myself after cycling, sweaty and in my yellow Under Armour raincoat.

If only I was chattier, I would have found out about Lou's Variety and these Seinfeld posters. Maybe The Rockwood is where we should have went on Halloween when we dressed up like David Puddy and Elaine Benes, as maybe more than one person would have known who we were supposed to be.

Guess I should've asked the 8 Ball!

The Rockwood was one of those places where you open the front door and enter into a space where you can then open another door to the lounge. There was also the option of going downstairs, but I didn't do that and I have no idea what was down there.

I'd say it's probably the bodies of mainlanders who dare go anywhere else besides Tim Horton's and The Big Stop in Deer Lake. Time to skip having another Dominion!

I now owe Isy one for stopping in here, as The Rockwood's story didn't continue with adaptive reuse or someone else purchasing the bar.

Nope, on July 28th 2021, The Rockwood was found ablaze with visible flames coming out of the backside. Firefighters arrived and kicked in the front door, as well as chainsaw'ed holes in the roof, which eventually led to them being able to extinguish the fire. This was all during a chaotic enough time, where the Trans-Canada Highway through Deer Lake was closed due to a washout - so all of the highway traffic was being rerouted right in front of The Rockwood amidst the firefighters and the cops!

In the coming months I saw the burnt out structure and it didn't look too bad, but then about a year later, I was surprised to find a vacant lot. As it turns out, they knocked down The Rockwood in the spring of 2022.

With the apparent similarities between Deer Lake and Manhattan, I expect a CVS or Citi Bank to take its place any day now.