The highway between Fortune and Little St. Lawrence is one of my favourite stretches of highway in this province. Following the coast along a barren land, it seems like you can see forever.

Without much in the way of plans for this afternoon, evening, or night; I was happy to slowly meander and check out villages I'd hadn't studied closely enough on previous ventures.

One of those villages was the tiny hamlet of Taylor's Bay where the population is only 10. The problem with Taylor's Bay though, was that someone was outside the most picturesque house, so I acted like I wanted to take a picture of the ocean and moved on.

Another reason I'm enamored with this coast is the fun names you find along the way. Place names like Calmer, Lawn, and Lories. I drove through Calmer without stopping years ago and that made me want to stop today, but it came and went before I knew it. I thought that there was a lot more to this coast and I needed to keep up a certain pace, but I soon realized it's only about an hour's drive from Fortune to Little St. Lawrence.

So I made a point of stopping in Lord's Cove, which I consider another fun town name. The only problem is that I forgot that back in 2012, I made this same point about fun town names and only stopped to photograph Lord's Cove. God damnit!

At least today I went for a walk out on the headland where they bury their dead of Lord's Cove. You can see the white dots of headstones in the above picture.

I reached my stealth camping site at Sandy Cove quite early in the evening, partly because I now knew the smoother road to get here after failing last time on a much rougher road¹.

Standing here, this was a lovely cove, but I just couldn't get over the fact that tonight was the kickoff of the NFL season, lol. I really hate when I can't acquire or partake in life's simple joys because of where I live and here this meant that I couldn't stop thinking about leaving Sandy Cove behind, heading to the big 'city' down here, and grabbing a motel.

Except that I called the Ocean View Motel in St. Lawrence and the cheapest room was $171 with taxes. That wasn't happening.

1 - The key is to come from the Lord's Cove direction, not Lawn.

If you're hoping for Sandy Cove sunset pictures now, you're not going to get them since St. Lawrence also has a municipal campground with sites for the fantastic price of $20!

Now I could head down the road and into town as the NFL season was kicking off with the Buccaneers and the Cowboys!

The first place I eyed was the Trophy Lounge, which confused me from the outside. Located in St. Lawrence's recreation centre, I saw the sign for the lounge, but opening the door, there were lockers, a gymnasium, and, oh, a lounge.

Turns out the Trophy Lounge is run as part of the recreation centre and some of their revenue goes to local sporting groups. It was funny when I needed to use the washroom, in that I looked confused and the bartender pointed me out into the hallway to the rec centre washrooms. Once out there, it felt like I was back in grade school, lol.

I asked the bartender to put on the game and he put on the Blue Jays game.

Not having the heart to tell the friendly fellow that he got it wrong, I checked my phone and realized I was early for the start of the Bucs/Cowboys anyway.

This is a funny day to look back on now, as I can't remember who won the game, or even the score of the game. And it's not like it had implications for my Chiefs as the Cowboys/Bucs aren't in the same conference. It all seems a bit silly that I wasn't camping at Sandy Cove instead.

That was all true until I started reminiscing while looking at these blue hour shots from out on the smokers' porch. One of my favourite things in Newfoundland is finding myself in one of these smallish, obscure, seaside places just as the last light of day disappears. Quiet and stillness add to the enjoyment. Places with a fair number of houses and businesses too. St. Lawrence was a perfect spot for this savouring of nightfall.

No matter how good or bad the Trophy Lounge was, of course I had to head over and check out the other option here in St. Lawrence: Bud's Bar.

Bud's Bar had the game on without me even asking! That's how you get in my good graces!

I liked Bud's and it wasn't just a matter of them having the game on. The bar top was renovated and forgettable, but there was some old signage, the chairs felt like they got them from a school closing auction, plus there were different rooms stuck together to create this odd space. It had the feeling of somewhere that must be rocking when everyone in St. Lawrence comes out.

Tonight though, Bud's had about ten people inside. They didn't say anything to me though and I was left to watch the game. Even as I wandered around checking out the deck and the dance floor, they didn't seem very interested in the random guy. It's not what I expected so far off the beaten path.

I ended up going back to The Trophy Lounge, where the friendly bartender simply handed me the remote to put on whatever game I wanted. The one hiccup though was that he then knew I was spending the night in St. Lawrence and was curious where I was staying. Sheepishly explaining that I was tent camping in the RV campground hoping no one would care, he laughed and rolled his eyes, saying it wouldn't be a problem.

(I was the only person there, so really, it's not like I was taking someone's site.)

And oh yeah, one more thing, one of these two bars asked if I was heading out and if I wanted a traveller where they wouldn't take the cap off. Not one to turn down a greasy clandestine offer, of course I took them up on it and eventually walked back to my campsite through the streets of St. Lawrence with an open beverage.

The next day I discovered that St. Lawrence actually has a skatepark!

This made for a pretty fantastic morning with getting NL skatepark #39 by surprise, even if the best part was using the box jump like an oversized traffic island.

Actually, the best part was the bartender from The Trophy Lounge being out for his morning walk and the confusion on his face as he saw "that stranger from last night" riding the local skatepark at 9 in the morning.

Leaving behind the exciting and stark portion of the Burin boot, the road returned to forests and ponds instead of treeless vistas looking out over every cove and island.

That was alright though as I was headed up to another big goal of mine on the Burin: the resettled community of Corbin. I'd been here back in June of 2011 after hearing you could drive from Epworth to Corbin, but after only a kilometer on the Corbin Road, I gave up and wondered yet again about Burin people and their tolerance for driving on jacked-up woods roads.

(I'd later learn that Hurricane Igor did a number on this road in September of 2010.)

I was happy to return in November of 2012 with greater determination, but there were three guys on ATVs having a chat and blocking the way. Instead of asking them to move, I turned around and looked forward to the next chance I'd have to cover the 7.25 hours between Corner Brook and Epworth.

Today, nine years later, I had my mountain bike and abandoned driving the Corbin Road before it could even get very rough. The frustrating thing was that the road wasn't too bad after that first rough kilometer, but this wasn't the end of the world as I only had 9km (5.5mi) to cover by bike before I'd reach Corbin.

The number one reason I wanted to make it to Corbin was because of the dilapidated bridge which connected the two halves of the village.

The bridge, constructed in 1970, was heavily damaged by Hurricane Igor. By 2011, the provincial bridge inspection report stated that the bridge should be replaced or removed as soon as possible. Oddly, even though the province since 2004 has had a policy of not replacing or maintaining bridges on "Class 4" roads such as Corbin Road, they still put out a tender call for a new bridge in 2012. Unfortunately, the lowest bid was over budget at $550,000.

There was then a proposal by the local Corbin committee to build a culvert for $250,000 - but the province instead put out a $85,000 tender to demolish the Corbin bridge.

The Friends of Corbin Road promised to block any demolition. The province still brought in demolition equipment, but eventually pulled the equipment out and instead blocked the bridge off with barricades. The problem after that became someone who nudged the barricade and created a little path around, as that allowed the locals to still cross the tickle via the dangerous bridge.

The news story that really grabbed my attention and made me focus on Corbin was that of a ill man's last wish to be buried here. Ignoring the state of the bridge, a cavalcade of former residents came down and buried the man in Corbin's cemetery. It's in that news story, that there was a video of a big ol' Ford F-250 driving on this rundown, wobbly bridge in order to get the coffin across and fulfill the dying man's request.

Of course I can't find that story or video after two hours of searching because the internet sucks balls nowadays and the idea of the internet being a repository for news has evaporated. Instead, above is the government's 2015 picture of the bridge.

(I eventually found the news link on the Wayback Machine, but they didn't save the video and NTV didn't email me back when I asked about access.)

The tickle, or strait, that divides the two areas of Corbin isn't exactly wide, but I wasn't about to try my luck at swimming across when I was out here all by myself.

Which is unfortunate because the majority of houses, two cemeteries, and the old Catholic Church all stand on the other side. There is a quad path from Little St. Lawrence to get to the other side, but it's a 15km/9mi boggy mess that would take forever on foot. It's been added to the to-do list.

Sticking to my side of Corbin, at least there was one prominent house that's quite the looker and well-maintained.

The school here taught up to Grade 11 until the opening of the regional high school. After that it was a K-6 school, while an actual school bus braved the Corbin Road and picked up students for Grades 7 thru 11. By 1990, the old school was converted into a store, which eventually closed with the last family leaving.

I'm not sure if these are the footings of the old school/store, but it's a fair possibility.

There used to be a what is known as a pepperpot lighthouse - similar to Hampton Nova Scotia's lighthouse - marking the entrance to Corbin. I also knew that reportedly the foundation of the keeper's house is still out there.

Except I just wasn't feeling it. I had been alone on the Burin Peninsula for a week now and I really wanted to head into St. John's and visit friends. In hindsight, my dumb ass should have got out there because I'd really like to see this cement foundation, but hey, it's not like Corbin isn't close to Corner Brook, right? It only took me nine years to get back after 2012, lol.

Leaving Corbin, I laughed at the idea of someone old enough to be named Geraldine throwing up their name.

Part of my motivation to head to the capital was that it would allow me to ride some better parks than the FreshPark in St. Lawrence. I was especially excited as I approached St. John's and a mist and drizzle set in...meaning all the little groms would be inside hiding from the conditions! Wuhahaha!

Wrong!

The scooter kids of Mount Pearl showed me. I guess it's like when you read interviews with English or Irish BMX pros and they say they have to ride when it's damp or drizzly because otherwise they'd only ride two months a year.

The big excitement in town was the coming of Hurricane Larry, which also served as more motivation to get off the Burin¹ and into a safer structure than my one-man tent. From Rosie's house in Georgetown, we awaited Larry's peak sometime after midnight.

First making landfall in Newfoundland at Long Harbour as a Category 1 Hurricane, the St. John's Airport reported sustained winds of 96 km/hr (59 mi/hr), with a gust up to 145km/hr (91 mi/hr). Sitting in the dark and looking out the front window, the trees on Rosie's street did their best to sway with the wind and hold on.

Around town, the April Wine concert had been cancelled in light of the forecast, and it's a good thing as part of the Iceberg Alley Festival tent collapsed. An elementary school suffered considerable roof damage and there were enough downed trees and branches that the city asked people to stay inside the next day to allow for cleanup.

1 - Larry wound up doing a lot of damage to many of the villages and cabin communities around St. Kyran's.

About the only thing that happened to Rosie's house was this branch that fell in the back yard. This allowed me to act like Bob Vila and rush out to my car for my saw, then make short work of the cleanup.

Another funny thing was when Rosie offered to wash any clothes that may need a wash after St. Kyran's & Corbin. Giving her my socks from the boggy St. Kyran's hike, she decided they needed a pre-soak before going in the wash. Ringing out the socks to get them ready, brown water was still coming out. So she did another pre-soak, and another, and after four times, she couldn't believe that these socks were still ringing out brown water from the highlands above Monkstown, LOL.

Anyway, as Ernesto heads towards the Avalon tomorrow night passed by the Avalon the other night, I wish I could be there to check it out. Which means I probably made a good call heading into St. John's for the weekend back in 2021.

Thanks for reading as always.