Day 6: Awesome!
Today was a great day on many levels. 1., I made it to Goose Bay in one piece, which has been my goal for over a year. 2., I got on the ferry headed for Cartwright. 3. Tonight will be another first for me in that I’ve never spent the night on a ship before. 4. I got to witness an amazing sea rescue training activity right aboard the ship today while underway. You can look for a YouTube video in the next couple of days of that one. This huey helo came right over the top of the ship and started to send down rescue swimmers onto the deck, one by one. Then they would fly off, come back and pick them up again, all of this while the ship was probably doing 18 knots and maneuvering between navigational buoys. It was awesome to see. The helo was maybe 40’ above the deck of the ship and in maybe 30 mph winds. The guy was rock solid on the stick and made not one mistake in over an hour of training.
OK, enough about the Canadian Air Force. The last 165 miles of my trip today was sort of for my two buddies, Deacon Chris Rehl, and Tony Budnick. Deacon Chris and I became friends about a year ago when he was at All Saints. He began to come over the KCHS and help out with reposition and preach occasionally at our daily masses. Now, Deacon Chris is at our parish, Saint Albert the Great. Chris has been a good friend to me, and a confidant in church stuff. I bounce ideas off of him and ask him his opinion on various things. We get into heated discussions about all matter of things and though we sometimes disagree, we have a mutual respect for the other and I know we both grow from our conversations. Tony Budnick is a producer for Channel 8 TV and is the guy behind Rick Russo making things happen for all things VOLS. Tony is a parishoner at SATG and a good friend. Tony recently sold his home to a friend at a reduced price, and had to find a home for his cat and many other things. He’s not suffering from financial hardship but he will be unemployed shortly. Tony will be entering St. Meinrad Seminary in the fall, and will open himself up to God’s call to the priesthood. All of us at SATG are so proud to have the next seminarian for the diocese of Knoxville, even though we still don’t have our own worship space completed yet. There is something really powerful about a vocation coming from a parish. It’s something I’ve never experienced before and is very exciting. When you figure we have 50 men show up with chain saws to a work-day, I can only imagine the care packages Tony will receive in Indiana this fall and winter. He could stand to gain a few pounds, that’s for sure! I prayed a rosary for each of my buddies today and prayed for their ordination/formation, respectively.
The last 165 miles today were not as good as the prior days’ rides. The road got a lot wider about 50 miles in and there was a lot of gravel truck and grading activity which meant slow speeds in dangerous heavy gravel. So I’d spend 30 minutes running in 3rd gear at idle making maybe 28 mph, and then I’d hit a long stretch of road where I could run in 6th at 55 mph. I let everyone who could get behind me pass by hitting the hazards and pulling over. Most would slow down to a crawl to pass but a few showered me with rocks and huge dust-clouds. The scenery was beautiful today, but the cherry of this trip was definitely Rte. 389. My only regret is that I never even saw Goose Bay. I rolled into town and had to go straight to the ferry to waitlist my way on board.
This ship grumbles and vibrates constantly which should be good for sleeping. They tried to sell me a berth when I bought my passage, but I declined. They have a room setup like a huge airplane with reclining seats packed in. With my snoring, that did not seem to be the best option. So I spoke quietly to a woman in the cafeteria tonight after dinner and asked if I might lay down my bedroll on the floor there for the night. She smiled, told me they are not allowed to let people do that, winked hard, and told me to have a good night and showed me where the light switch was. So, I’ll have the largest sleeping berth on the ship tonight, thanks to her kindness.
OK, so the ferry left at 5pm on July 6, but it won’t arrive in Cartwright till 6am on the 7th. I will ride off the ferry first because I was the last one on, and I will go find a laundromat as I am in NEED. I have one more days worth of clothing and that’s it. Then I’ll have a 4.5 hour ride on all gravel roads to get to where the ferry jumps off to Port Au Basque, Newfoundland. So, God willing, I’ll be there tomorrow, as long as I can get to the ferry in time. Once in Newfoundland, I will ride south along the northwest coast to make the next ferry crossing which will take me to Nova Scotia. From there, I’ll ride south again to a last ferry to Bar Harbor, Maine, where the lobster rolls will be wasted on this landlubber. Then it will be time to punch in, “home,” on the GPS and go straight to Hack Road in Powell ASAP. The grass has been growing, the pool awaits cleaning, there will be a lot of unpaid bills, and a little boy who happens to share my name who is waiting for me. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves! There is still a lot of gravel, pavement and ocean in front of me before that day comes, but may it come soon!
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