Bishop's Falls, NL : The Middle of Nowhere

Bishops Falls is pretty much smack dab in the middle of Newfoundland, about as 'interior' as it gets, far from the bigger coastal cities, in fact far from the smaller cities as well including Gander which is 200 kms away and where I landed at almost midnight on a rainy Sunday. I picked up my luggage and rental and drove into the dark streets. The Trans-Can Highway would take me to my hotel for the night as it has so many times in different provinces across the country.

With bleary eyes I speed down the dark highway, trying to stay focused watching for moose. The road was dark and edged by an unbroken wall of trees on both sides. I didn't see a light of any sort for over a hundred kilometers expect the lights of the occasional transport barreling blindingly towards me and one dim PEPSI sign peeking out through trees just off the highway. After an hour and a half I turned off the highway and entered the small town of Bishops Falls. I drove up and down the main street looking for the motel I had been booked at called The Exploits River Motel. I was not expecting much from the place but had expected to be able to find it. There was nothing on the road even resembling a motel, in fact I didn't see anything. No gas station, no restaurant, no convenience or grocery stores or banks or schools. Just sparsely situated  dark houses. Wow, this place was remote, and it was small. After driving the length of Main St one more time before giving up, I pulled over and called the motel phone.  A sleepy voice answered and I asked for directions to be told the place wasn't in Bishops Falls but back right on the highway. The directions made it seem impossible to miss and pulled back out onto the highway, anticipating being in a bed in just a few more minutes.

Half an hour later, after four or five u-turns I turned onto a barely visible driveway that led me to the PEPSI sign i had noticed earlier. As it was the only visible object within a hundred kms I would have thought they may have given that as a landmark to look for when giving directions. They didn't.

A woman answered the door marked 'Office' in her housecoat and slippers and handed me a key with saying much at all. She obviously had been in bed and as I was barely awake I didn't press her for conversation. She said I could check in properly tomorrow and closed the door.

I settled into the room that was decorated, most likely in the early 70's, with concrete walls painted pink, battered veneer covered furniture and outrageous flower patterned linens. The bed was comfortable though and I was asleep not long after my head hit the pillow.

I went to work the day next day with an empty belly as the small coffee shop/restaurant attached to the motel wasn't open yet and even in the light there was nowhere I could find to eat. Back at the motel later that evening I was more than disappointed to find the coffee shop closed already. I still hadn\t checked in and so walked over to the office and walked in. After giving the owner, who was dressed somewhat more professionally than at our first meeting, my credit information I asked about the possibility of eating while I was in town. I got excited when she mentioned there was a Chinese food restaurant in town but then she said it closed a t 5:30. 

As I was walking away, wondering if I might have a pack of airplane pretzels in my briefcase, the motel owner called after me asking if the Internet was working in my room. It was and that surprised both of us. Neither she nor any of the other guests could connect and she was waiting for 'd'boys' to come and look at in the morning. She mentioned in a not so subtle way that she needed to send an important email and before you could say remote-interior-Newfoundland-is-even-worse-than-remote-northern-Ontario a deal was struck. I agreed to let her use my laptop in my room in exchange for dinner, specifically two grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries. It was the first time I had been forced to barter for food on the road and aside from not knowing how to fill in the expense form for a bartered meal everyone was happy.

I spent the rest of the evening eat my sandwiches and listening to transports pull off the highway, gears and brakes screaming and into the motel parking lot and then got on my laptop and used the only Internet connection in town to find a way out of town. Preferably to somewhere that had food for purchase with money instead of bartering with favours. I would be finished work by early afternoon and was flying out of Gander so emailed my travel department and, paraphrasing the ol' Gunsmoke line, begged them to 'get me the hell outta Dodge'.

I woke up the next morning to about two or three inches of unexpected snow on the ground with more falling steadily. I tramped out into the snow, without breakfast, in my soft leather Sketchers (of course I didn't have boots. I still don't even own boots, and even if I did.. would I have packed them? ) and poked around the rental for a snowbrush which, of course wasn't there.  Cold hands, a credit card and a stick pulled from the bushes cleared the snow from the car and I pulled out onto the highway just in time to be hit by a wall of heavy slushy snow courtesy a transport truck that was careening by. Credit card out again I scraped off the windows and drove the half a kilometer back into Bishops Falls.

Normally I would've taken the afternoon to explore the town, meet some people, take some pictures and generally just hang out but the snow had continued, the town was small, and I was hungry so when I finished work early in the afternoon I debated stopping at the Chinese food place but opted to head right to Gander where I knew there was a Subway that would be less sketchy than the only restaurant in town. For some reason I turned the wrong way when I pulled out onto the TCH  and as I drove around the first corner looking for a safe spot for a u-turn I came across the most wonderful site I had seen in two days. In the middle of nowhere, on a deserted highway, inexplicably, and to my utter astonishment and joy the familiar Tim Hortons sign shone out angelically through the falling snow.

What!!  Why had no-one told me there was a Tims? I had asked a dozen people where I could get some food in town and no-one had mentioned it. Why? Because it was technically five minutes outside of town?

Fortified for the drive back to Gander with coffee and other treats I pulled back out onto the highway, in the right direction this time and was on my way.

The snow had turned to cold, wind driven rain by the time I took the exit into Gander. I had driven out of Gander two days ago in the dark so hadn't known what to expect from the town. In the dim rainy daylight there still wasn't much to see. I stopped at a fish and chips and seafood chain for lunch and wasn't anymore impressed with my lunch in Gander as I had been in the same highly recommended chain in St. John's and then holed up in my hotel room for the rest of the night finishing of the case of Black Horse I had picked up on my way to the middle of nowhere two days ago.

I arrived at  Gander International Airport the next morning with lots of time before my (delayed) flight was due to leave and was impressed by the displays that adorn the airport. Over the next hour I completed a crash course in the aviation history of the town, learning that it had once been the largest airport in the world and still has one of the longest runways. The airport was instrumental in early test flights with many aviation 'firsts' originating in the town and was later an important airbase during the second world war as well as an active NORAD center. Impressive history for such an unimpressive town.

I took off heading straight for Toronto, realizing that I had only taken three pictures while on this trip, a record low I'm sure.. but then what does one take pictures off when one is in the middle of nowhere?