April 4th – Labrador City, Newfoundland
Apr 4th, 2018 by rallyadmin
Another day. And hopefully the truck is fixed and we can get going again. But this extended stay is starting have a distinct Groundhog Day feel to it. Get up. Look out the window. Blue, cloudless sky. Did I mention cold. Probably.
No calls from the shop. I call about 10 and Scott says that the parts have come in and the truck is on the rack. “it should be ready in about 30 minutes. I’ll call you.” (Stop saying that. It never happens.)
Check out is 11 AM and the hotel desk is already pestering me about checkout. I can keep the room if I need it but I have to let them know by noon. They’re being good about it but they have a high school hockey team that’s wants any room they can get. (Did I mention the hockey tournament that’s in town this week?)
Back to the room and wait for the call. The checkout time of 11 comes and goes with no phone call. I wait until nearly 11:30 slowly convincing myself that the delayed call doesn’t mean something else is wrong with the car.
I egt Scott on the phone and before he can tell me what’s the status of the truck, the wifi calling drops the call. Grrrr. Call back. “I’ve been trying to get you for the better part of an hour but you never answered.” Grrrr AT&T. (Gotta check out Google Fi when I get home.) “Your truck’s ready. Come on over and pick it up.”
Getty drives me over and comes in to pay the bill and and say goodbye to Scott. He’s gotten very intrigued by these lunatics that have come up here from the States just for the hell of it. And he’s even more intrigued by the stories of our trips and my different racing. “Ya know, I’ve never me a real race driver before.” No expect not.
I pay the bill. The parts and installation are actually cheaper thatn they would have cost in the States, even with air-freight thrown in. The towing bill is memorable. But not as bad as the one in Alberta in 2014. It comes with the territory.
The bill does get me a complementary cup and a set of precision screwdrivers in a case with Performance Automotive printed on the front. It’ll come in handy someday.
Back to the hotel. Load the truck. Pay the bill and were on the road by 12:30. Labrador City here we come.
Though there’s a storm forecasted to come in later today, now the weather is beautiful and cold. The road to Labrador City is paved and clear all the way, all 530 kilometers of it. But it’s a fast road with no traffic and we’re soon doing 120 kph. It’ll be only about 5 hours to Labrador City.
We stop in Churchill Falls for fuel and snacks and continue on to Labrador City. We had passed an RCMP SUV on the way into Churchill Falls and though we were doing about 155-120 kph and the speed limit is 80 kph, the officer didn’t seem very interested.
The same thing happened on the way out of Churchill Falls and that officer didn’t seem interest either. We probably should tone it down a bit now that we’re closer to civilization. But then we get passed by some locals who are going faster that we are and that allows the next RCMP to focus on the speedster leading us.
There’s nothing eventful on the rest of the road to Labrador City and we pull in to the Two Season Inn. They have rooms so we check in. Then fuel and then food. There aren’t many options here so we end up back at our new hotel and have a quite good dinner in their dining room.
Tomorrow, we hope to make it off the Trans Lab at Baie-Comeau, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River. The only wrinkle is a storm that’s been pummeling Ontario and Quebec as it moves east over Canada. The forecast is for substantial snow south of us but only 5 to 10 cm here in Labrador City.
But the road is pretty good for the rest of the Trans Lab. There’s only 120 kms of gravel in the middle of the leg to Baie-Comeau with about 200 kms of paved road on both sides of the gravel section. We’ll take it as slowly as necessary.
Obi-wan