Day 16 (Aug. 17) - Rocky Harbour to Twillingate, Newfoundland

After a busy day yesterday packed with activities, we had an easy 268 mile drive today towards the north central part of the island. We reluctantly said goodbye to Diane and Peter and wished them well on selling the B&B and starting their new dream life in Baja, Mexico. We said that if they are ever in the U.S. to let us know and maybe we can rendezvous on the bikes. Diane said she'd likely give us a week's notice to meet them in Utah. Rob said, "Let's go!" 

The weather was perfect this morning with blue sky, sun and a few clouds. 

We got out the door at 9am. Our destination was Twillingate. Take a look at a map to see where this unique place is. It's in a region called the Isles because there are so many. 

We drove highway 430 out to the TransCanadian Highway 1 East. We encountered some fog as we drove through the mountains. 

At Noon we arrived in the town of Grand Falls-Windsor at the Juniper Kitchen & Cafe. We shared a turkey sandwich on sourdough with a cranberry relish. When Michele ordered ice tea, the waitress said, "Just so you know, we make it ourselves with real tea leaves, it's not from a can. Do you still want it?" Why, yes! Michele asked if people really don't like the real stuff and she said yes. It was Rooibos, which has a distinctive taste, so that may be why. 

After lunch we had just two or so hours to go. We were warned by several travelers that the roads to Twillingate would be terrible once we turned off Canada 1. About 15 miles before we exited TCH 1, we passed this group of motorcycles pulling trailers. They looked to be on a great adventure.

We turned north at the Notre Dam junction to Highway 340. For the first 5-10 minutes it had a lot of potholes, ripples, patches and dips.

Near a construction area, Rob learned where his arm has been this whole time.

Then the road smoothed out and was very good for the next 45 miles to Twillingate. We only hit additional rough roads the last 5-10 minutes into Twillingate. 

We arrived at our B&B just before 3pm. The host texted the self-check in codes and we found our room at the top. It's a spacious room and we can see the cove from our little step landing outside. We opened the windows and relaxed for two hours. 

Right when Michele was thinking that this house is in a cute seaside neighborhood, the people who live in the house next door had a fight. It was loud, angry and lasted 20 minutes. They yelled over each other the entire time and repeated themselves, so clearly they weren't finding a resolution (nor wanted to.) Michele thought about hollering over to them to be quiet and take it inside, but Rob wisely warned that they would likely join forces to yell at us. He discreetly shut our windows instead. By the time we left for dinner all was quiet next door. 

Just a five minute drive into town, we found Annie's Restaurant right on the water. They had a nice table open by the window so we both had great views of the Twillingate Harbour. We ordered a burger with rhubarb jam, sweet potato fries and turtle cheesecake for dessert. These are views of the harbour and town.

Our room has Netflix so we watched a movie and ate our cheesecake. Rob also scoped out a few sightseeing locations and small hikes for us to explore tomorrow.