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| (L) Rita the general manager and her assistant manager, Enid |
The Comfort Inn in Corner Brook is no different than any other Comfort Inn; it is motorcycle friendly, filled with incredible employees and wonderful people in management.
Rita, the general manager and Enid, the assistant manager were both in when I arrived. After introductions and hugs I was checked in and meandered to my room. I opened the patio door, then went and rode my bike to the stall in front of the room where I unpacked my bike.
After I got my cameras and cell phone charged I chose to eat at the restaurant attached to the hotel. Jungle Jim's is a chain you can find all over Newfoundland.
The food and service were more than decent and the place was full to the rafters. I sat at the bar to eat after giving up my table to a couple. The bartender was quite the gal. She expressed that she was moving to St. John's to go finish her education - she is going to be a physical education teacher when she is done university and intends to continue working for Jungle Jim's because she loves the work and the tips.
I went to my room, tagged photos and answered emails and returned phone calls and then fell into an exhausted sleep.
When I got up at 4:30 in the morning it was to dreary skies that were still drizzling and wet pavement. Ugh...
I sure didn't want my first time in Newfoundland to be all rain.
I sat down to write and deal with the photos and video of the day before, and before I knew it, the sun began to shine. I was a much happier gal as I headed for breakfast.
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| The Lobby - all of the Comfort Inn's are being renovated across the country, this one is scheduled for early 2014 |
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| The view of Corner Brook from the front of the hotel |
Dave and George, my escorts for the morning were to arrive at around 9:30 am. George showed up first, riding a white 2013 Ultra. A short time later Dave showed up on his Yamaha. I was in the process of packing the bike up and importing video from my external hard drive to IMovie to do rough editing. The process took longer than I had anticipated and it was 10:30 before we were actually on our way.
Today's morning destination - Lark Harbour!
The ride to Lark Harbour was utterly lovely. The roads were good, the company was excellent and Mother Nature smiled down on us with a great big golden grin...we were on the Captain James Cook Trail filled with lovely curves and spectacular seascapes.
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| George in front of the restaurant |
The village of Lark Harbour is a post card, picture perfect fishing village.
The colors and characters make you smile!
We stopped at at place called Marlaine's Tide Watcher's Cafe.
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| Lovely quilts and artwork grace this tiny restaurant |
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| A board of knots |
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| A wonderful bit of art on the side of the restaurant where the whale watching deck is |
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| One of the most spectacular things about this place is the view |
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| Across the harbour is the search and rescue |
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| Fisherman's Brewis - cod and hard tack with pork scrunchions and bread with molasses |
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| Amazing scenery all around you makes Lark Harbour a gorgeous place for a meal |
I ordered a coffee and Fisherman's Brewis which is a traditional dish of cod and hard tack bread served with pork scrunchions, bread and molasses.
I figured if I am going to be here in Newfoundland, I want to experience the local foods and traditions.
Now according to Dave, Fisherman's Brewis came to be because of fisherman who were out in their dories who got creative. Instead of just having the cod and hard tack bread to eat, they would take their Southwesters and fill them up with salt water, soak the cod and chunks of the hard tack in the water over night and then cook it up on their little stoves just to give them a different taste. If they had molasses with them, sometimes they would pour molasses in with the brew. If they had pork scrunchions with them, they would pour that in too.
Pork scrunchions are made from pork rind and fat - the rind is scored into little cubes and then cut off the fat, fried until the fat is rendered out of the cubes and the cubes are crunchy.
Now one wouldn't think that sounds all that appetizing, but I am up for trying almost anything and I was delighted by the meal. It was yummy! I had to laugh at the lady who served us - when she saw me putting butter on my bread she expressed that there was no way a Newfoundlander would put butter on their bread if they were planning on eating it with molasses as I had expressed that I would be. I showed her my dad's trick - put butter on one side, flip the bread over and pour molasses on it - it gives the molasses a wonderful flavour - she laughed and said my Dad must have been a Newf in another life. I teased right back and said he must have been as he taught us kids to love fried bologna!
The guys of course, being locals had burgers!
As we shared our meal and looked out over this lovely, lovely bay, the guys told me about the whales that come into this harbour. They told me a little about this town of 500 and its offerings; like hiking trails and a good sized provincial park called Blow Me Down Provincial Park with close to 30 campsites. They and their ladies often come here on Sundays from Corner Brook for a day ride.
I can see why - it is positively gorgeous.
After coffee and dessert we headed back to the bikes and were off towards Corner Brook again.
I find it interesting that even though you have to go over the same road you came in on, the views are so different in the opposite direction.
I supposed if you lived here it might get boring, but I sure was not!
Just outside of Corner Brook, the guys and I parted company but not before I got an interview for our TV Show, Ride Like a Local, about our ride from George.
I want to thank George and Dave for sharing the highway with me for a while - I truly enjoyed my time with these two guys!
I continued on my journey to Gros Morne National Park...alone, and I had no idea what a treat I was going to be in for....
To find out more about:
Comfort Inn Corner Brook
41 Maple Valley Rd,
Corner Brook, NL A2H 6T2
Phone:(709) 639-1980
Marlaine's Tide Watcher's Café
Lark Harbour, NL
May-September Open Daily until 5 p.m.
(709) 681-2140
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