On my second day in Newfoundland I drove from St. John's up to Twillingate to see what was reported to be the biggest iceberg in twenty years (white blob in the photo behind me just before it start to rain, sideways). Along the way I picked up a hitchhiker and eventually we discover that he worked with my father 30-some years ago at Come By Chance and Bay "Despair." What's the Chance of that? You gotta love some of the names of places there too: Cupids, Blow Me Down, Dildo. There is something noticeably and wonderfully pleasant about folks in Newfoundland. It isn't just people in the tourist industry, but people in general. I imagine there are some cranky folks too, but not the ones I met. It is not unlike many of the people we met last summer in small communities across the Prairies during the David Thompson Brigade. I would be tempted to say it is a rural thing, but I continue to meet grumpy, miserable and rude rural folks in Ontario.
