Trip cancelled.

It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I am writing my last post for my cycling trip of the eastern provinces. They say bad things come in threes and it seems that I am not immuned.

To start off, I would like my friends and family to recognize that I am well enough to write on my blog and that things could be worse, so please do not worry but I am currently in St. John's and will be flying home tomorrow to stay for the next two months. Unfortunately there is no exciting nor heroic story to go along with my reason for leaving it is as simple as this:

Yesterday I was enjoying a gorgeous ride along the coast from Boyd's Cove on my way to just past Musgrave Harbour, there was a wonderful wind behind me and the beautiful sun shining down on me I felt like I was enjoying the best life there could be. The road however had many twists and turns and I was enraptured too much in the moment that I was irresponsible and did not keep a mental note of which way the strong wind will be coming from. As I was gaining momentum down a hill a strong gust of wind blew at me from my left side causing my front wheel to wobble. Unfortunately I was unable to regain control and crashed face first into the pavement. Two cars pulled over and the people helped me up and unloaded my bike with me. Since neither had room for my bicycle one of the gentlemen hid it behind some bushes while the other marked the location with one of my bungee chords so that I could find it again. I was taken to a nearby clinic in Victoria Cove and the doctor there told me I would need to go to the hospital in Gander.

(Side note: I had been staying in Boyd's Cove with one the most lovely couple I have ever met. Bill and Michelle took me in for two nights and even took me up to Twillingate so that I could see the beautiful island. It was a wonderful time and I am so glad I met them. Michelle met me at the clinic in Victoria Cove and stayed with me right up until I got on the bus for St. John's. I am so grateful for her support. I left all my bags with her and she and Bill were going to get my bike later in the day. Unfortunately, when Bill and Tony -another new friend - went to find my bike it was gone. There were fresh ATV tracks right by where it should have been, so we suspect someone was riding around, found it and decided to take it back with them. Michelle is going to put a lost ad out for my bike but at this point in time I am assuming I have lost my Sonic forever.)

In Gander I received 6 stitches on my chin, the gash on my right temple was glued together and I was told that I had broken my jaw and the only oral surgeon who can fix it is in St. John's. Thank goodness I was out of the hospital in time to catch the bus from Gander to St. John's and arrived last night around 9:30 pm. I was picked up in St. John's by Brian, a friend of my god-sister's, and was taken to his friend Ian's house so that I would have a place to stay last night and tonight. Both Brian and Ian have also been more than helpful and so supportive I am so deeply grateful towards them as well.

Ian dropped me off at St. Clare's Hospital this morning where I waited to speak with the oral surgeon. He took some x-rays as well and I was informed that my jaw was in fact broken in two separate locations and that if I were to have surgery done today I would then have 6 weeks of followup in which I would have to see him again. The doctor suggested that I choose to have my operation where I will be willing to stick around for the follow-ups or be willing to travel back and forth to. Needless to say, I decided Toronto would be the best location for that. The doctor said that I should wait no longer than Saturday to have the surgery done, hence me flying out tomorrow morning. I will then go immediately to Mt. Sinai's ER and hopefully be done surgery by tomorrow evening.

For those who are curious the sum of my injuries are as follows:

bruise and scuffed left knee
bruised right thigh
bruised and scuffed arms
gash on right temple
gashed chin
chipped front tooth (that's right, I currently look like a hillbilly)
Broken jaw in two locations

Although I have only been able to enjoy Newfoundland for approximately 21 days it has been a fabulous trip and I am still looking forward to returning. I have made wonderful new friends and wonderful memories and, despite the accident, would not change this experience for the world. I know I've said this before but I must say it again, I am so deeply grateful to Bill and Michelle, Ian, and Brian for helping me out so much. I am forever indebted to them and only hope that I may become as selfless and generous as they are.

Thank you all for following me on my journey. I apologize that it has been cut short but perhaps I will change the title of this blog to Dina's Travel Adventures and write every solo journey I decide to have...you never know :)

Just about to leave the TCH

Oh my goodness!!! I am TWO days ahead of schedule!!! :) I made it to Deer Lake safe and sound and was able to start riding eastward by 3/3:30 local time. I thought being out of shape by not doing anything for a week would mean I would only be able to get about 45 km in, but low and behold it turned out I was able to get about 70-80 km (I think...in any case it was further than I thought I would get). When I headed out from the airport I thought "well, at least I'm heading west now so if there is a wind I'll be riding with a tailwind" HA! Of course that wouldn't be the case, I ended up having a headwind the entire time. Ugh! Whoever told me west to east is better clearly doesn't have my string of luck with wind :p it was still a great ride though because it was flatter than I've seen in Newfoundland.

Yesterday was even better riding wise! Although I still had a headwind it wasn't the entire time and the lay of the land remained mostly flat (by the way, when I say flat I just mean there aren't the usual hills I've been seeing in this province. What I used to think were hills are now just blips). It poured down rain and I got soaked but it was actually a good thing because this was the first time since I can remember that I was bored and the rain was a good distraction! The scenery was very non-descript, I couldn't take it at one point that I got off my bike so I could walk while listening to my iPod, just to break up the monotony of it all. And this was during a flat section!! BUT what made the day fantastic was that somehow I ended up cycling over 130 km! I made it to Bishop's Falls in a day and a half from Deer Lake and I'm so excited about it!!! :D I was so pleased I even treated myself to a campsite. I stayed last night at the Brookdale Country Inn RV and Campgrounds and for $20 I got a site with use of a pool, laundry, showers and flush toilets :) it's nothing too fancy but quite nice and definitely worth the money. An added bonus is that it's close enough to the highway that I didn't have to bike far to get to it! Awesome!

And now I'm just at the visitor centre a kilometre from my exit to Lewisporte, and so far it has been fabulous because I've been cycling with a ....wait for it.... A TAILWIND!!! I know, I can't believe it either, but now that I'm dealing with hills again it's been ever so helpful :) and as an added bonus it has turned into a lovely day instead of the foretold rain. Cross my fingers it stays like this.

So that has been the journey so far since I restarted my adventure. Let's hope I get to see an iceberg while I'm on my way to Gambo!

On the road again

So here I am at Pearson Airport waiting in the Premium Lounge (what up!) and ready to restart my journey in Newfoundland. My flight leaves at 9:30 am EDT and arrives in Deer Lake around 2 pm ADT (I think) and then I head east towards Port Blandford. I expect I'll be able to start riding by 3 pm which gives me about 4 hours of riding time, hopefully it's nice out and there will be a wind behind me so that I can cover a good distance. It's a beautiful morning here in Toronto and I hear it's quite sunny in Deer Lake as well so I'm hoping that stays true and keeps up for the rest of my cycling. Is it so wrong that I really don't want to cycle in the rain? Lol. I'll do it if I have to, but I'm still going to pray and hope I won't have to :)

I'm expecting to take a week to get to Port Blandford, because it's a bit of a longer route since I found a coastal way for some of the distance. I'll be taking the Trans-Canada Highway until the exit for Lewisporte and then I will be riding along highways 340, 330, and 320 ending in Gambo at which point I'll take the bus to Port Blandford because there is absolutely no way I am cycling through Terra Nova Park again...although I would get to go down that grandmother of a hill this time instead of up it, and that's somewhat tempting :) but there is also a time constraint as I have to get to a wedding in Bonavista for the 14th of July.

The next few posts will most likely be from my phone and will also most likely be short as I'm sure all I'll really have to say is: "I biked and biked all day today, it was fabulous!" and "I'm stil alive." ;) so anyone reading this will have to wait a week until something interesting pops up on this blog again, hahaha. :p Now I'm off to watch the airplanes while I wait to board because I'm a kid at heart and still think planes are fascinating and incredibly cool!! (hmmmm....maybe this is why people I meet think I'm so much younger than I am, hahaha, love it!) :-D