Continued from Part 1...

After a subpar breakfast in Clarenville, I continued down the road and made a right at Goobies in order to get in a mountain bike ride.

The conditions were downright frigid on the Burin Highway and I've rarely had my hands hurt more, but I was at 1187km (~738mi) of cycling for the year and I needed to go over 1200km.

My mountain bike's back brakes had stopped working about a year and a half prior to this, but I responded with bike skills and being able to finesse the front brakes without going over the bars.

Then the front brakes went out about 6 months ago, so then I avoided crazy hills and put my foot in the front tire during emergencies. This was all better than dealing with the actual problem and getting a maintenance lecture at the local mountain bike shop.

A third problem, which I didn't think was much of a problem, was that my headset - the thing that holds the stem to the forks - was a bit loose. Loose headsets are something I've dealt with for years on my BMX and all it means is some extra noise that annoys nitpicky BMX riders who would rather polish their bike than ride it.

Today on the desolate Burin Peninsula, I fought my way up a sizable hill, but one that I thought would be fine enough to ride back down on the way back. I'd be cooking and white-knuckling it a bit, but it was totally doable without brakes.

So I went about my ride, stopping to photograph Snow Buntings and frosty bogs, before returning to said hill and making sure to really slow down before diving in. Just as I was getting to a hair-raising speed though, the front wheel went into a terrifying speed wobble.

I tried to stay calm. I strong-armed the bars to stay straight. I sized up my options for bailing into the ditch, but of course there was a guardrail to somersault.

For what seemed like an eternity, I fought with the bars and cursed being unable to simply pull on my brakes, until the hill thankfully, mercifully ended and I slowed to a crawl with the beating of my heart drowning out the surroundings. Getting off the bike, I stumbled with weak knees and couldn't believe my luck in narrowly escaping what would have been a trip to the hospital.

So kids if your headset is loose on your mountain bike, it may be that the forks are broken. In mountain bike forks, for some reason they make two parts that are fitted together, and that weld can weaken and the play in the two pieces can shoot your wheel back and forth at high speeds.

With time to spare in the afternoon, I drove the western side of the Baccalieu Trail (NL-80) and planned at stopping at whatever mediocre skatepark I came upon.

Sure enough, without even trying, I ended up at the Dildo Skatepark. You really think they'd have a pole jam into a funbox here.

More bicycle shenanigans happened here because I was wearing my good winter coat due to running out of dry clothes. Since I never ride in this winter coat, I hadn't noticed that the breast pocket fails to hold your phone when you do things like jump on an A-frame rail.

Thankfully Dildo's A-frame rail is low and chill enough that I was able to sit down and cradle my falling phone with my legs - meaning that I successfully avoided getting fucked over by Dildo.

Just up the road from Dildo, I noticed Saint Augustine's Anglican Church in New Harbour, which seemed worthy of a stop and look around.

New Harbour was pretty quiet, so I was able to slip in the front door and check out the inside without any worry. Once again, this interest in checking out Anglican churches here in Newfoundland paid off, as I loved the gorgeous wood ceiling of Saint Augustine's.

A pleasant interior for something built in 1972.

I needed to get moving towards St. John's, but I also couldn't help but stop at this abandoned house, also in New Harbour.

I'm guessing I can now update my Newfoundland towns visited page, where New Harbour currently reads, "Hopeall/New Harbour: I drove through these two places a bit on that 2012 trip to help my friend see them, but I didn't include a picture."

The house in New Harbour was almost entirely gutted in what looked like a failed renovation job.

It wasn't only about needing to get to St. John's, as I also had a mandatory stop in Harbour Grace to finally check out the interior of their Ridley Hall ruin.

I made a point of coming here in 2012 when news broke that the town would let anyone demolish this 1834 structure if they bought the property, but eight years later, the land remains unsold and the Ridley Hall still stands.

Teens used to hang out here and they brought with them the destruction that comes with constantly opening a vacant property; and then of course, you had some jerkoff set fire to the place in 2003.

I don't think Ridley Hall has suffered any fires since then, so it was neat to see how much the backside room had collapsed just from time and the elements. Of course the chimney toppling doesn't seem as shocking.

Even though I thought there was a bed & breakfast next door, today I wasn't going to leave checking out the interior for another day. Making my way inside, I was left wondering if this place had a basement and how far I'd fall if this collapsed any further.

Back in 2012, I lamented the fact in places like Europe, Ridley Hall could be turned into a ruin garden by stabilizing the walls and removing other hazards - but of course that wouldn't happen in North America and especially Harbour Grace.

I've always found Harbour Grace to be a strange place as they have plenty of old buildings, history and scenery to be one of those Newfoundland historic destination towns like Trinity, Brigus, or Bonavista. Except that the local government never seemed to encourage this and Harbour Grace focused on building more and more new structures out by the highway and totally ignoring downtown.

Harbour Grace is a hidden gem in that way, where I walked around marvelling at the gorgeous structures and wondering why they weren't interested in self-promotion or preservation.

As it turns out, it's fantastic that some unknown buyer never showed up to tear down Ridley Hall, as Harbour Grace released its 2022 development plan and part of it includes preserving Ridley Hall as a ruin, along with a garden and a ghost structure that'll show the roofline as it once existed.

And not only that, but they're also creating a shipyard walk, which I think is fantastic because there's a great, old stone house down there and the boats really are impressive. Lastly, they're creating another walk that features the historic pedestrian laneways throughout town with signage and directional guidance.

Stone buildings, guided laneway walks, and some access to the giant boats? I can't believe Harbour Grace's 180 and I look forward to it becoming a Newfoundland destination if everything works out.

I needed to hurry to St. John's by this point, where we had a great dinner at Cathedral Street's No.4 Restaurant, then a nightcap at the Trinity Pub on George Street. It was a strange change of pace from the isolation of Corner Brook, but remember that even though this was in the midst of the pandemic, we were still getting daily reports that NL had two new cases, zero new cases, zero new cases - leading things to be somewhat normal here on the island.

The next day was New Year's Eve and leaving town to head back, Isy called and told me that she knows how much I love doing my own thing on New Year's and that I should stay in St. John's. The only problem was that Rosie was going to a "Lesbian New Year's" and as much as I wanted to argue with her that I could show up and respectably discuss the vagaries of everyday lesbian life, I also got what she was saying. It wasn't really a place for my usual party behaviour of sloppily dominating the conversation with tales about the 8.1% Hurricane 40oz I had brought from Maine, sprinkled with a prolonged meandering rant about the hotness of Taylor Rooks.

I hung up the phone, pulled back on to the Trans-Canada and headed west.

The last hours of 2020 ended up being alright, as I quite enjoyed the snowy campfire while watching the minutes to tick away. While I wasn't on the mainland, I still hold this New Year's in high standing as it was pleasant in its unique and remarkable way.

On to 2021.