CCCT Part II - Gander, NL

Monday, July 22 to Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - Rest Days 1-3
Or visiting days as Bev preferred to call them. Her main concern was to visit all her friends and former colleagues that she worked with at WalMart. Also, she needed to see a manicurist to have a pedicure as the ingrown nail on her big toe was causing her a lot of discomfort. Bev went off to a nearby Nail Salon after breakfast so I went out to the shed and after doing a bit of cleaning up I started changing Bev's rear tire. Her front tire was showing signs of wear and tear so my plan was to put her new spare tire on her rear wheel and to put her slightly used rear tire on her front wheel and keep the old front tire as a spare. I was able to remove the rear tire and put the new tire on without any trouble but when it came to removing the front tire it turned out to be rather difficult to remove. I managed to break the tip off of one of my plastic tire levers so I had to go to plan B and use a screwdriver. Marilyn was able to locate a flat bladed one but that wasn't enough to get this stubborn beast of a tire off. I had to go to the next door neighbours and borrow a second flat blade screwdriver. Finally I was able to get the tire off. That has got to be the most difficult bicycle tire I've ever had to deal with. The old rear tire went on the front wheel without any problems. After getting both tires pumped up to the proper psi I wiped down and oiled the chains.
While I was working on the bikes in the shed, Lawrence who cuts the grass for Marilyn, came by. He was quite surprised to see me beavering away in Marilyn's shed. I explained that Bev and I were visiting and would be going on to St John's in a few days to complete our Cross Canada Cycling Tour. He was quite impressed but still a bit dubious about my being in the shed. He went over to the house to check with Marilyn if all was OK. He came back a few minutes later and got the lawnmower out to went about the business of cutting the lawn.
Bev wasn't able to get her ingrown toe nail dealt with so went on to WalMart to say hello to all her former colleagues. She returned in time for lunch. In the meantime one of the Nail Salons had called and had a spot for Bev at 1:30 due to a cancellation. After lunch she left again to get her big toe taken care of. She was only able to get her big toe seen to and was soon back home.
While in Gander Bev also wanted to sort through all the stuff she had left in storage with Marilyn. She brought up on storage box from the basement filled with old photos, etc. She soon decided that it would be far to expensive to send everything she wanted to keep back home to Ottawa by Canada Post.
Tuesday we went for a ride on our bikes to visit more of Bev's friends. Edith wasn't home so we went by Guy's place and stopped in for a chat. Next we cycled over to Walt and Ginny's. When I mentioned that I worked for Foreign Affairs before retiring in 2001 they said they knew a Pam Saunders from Gander who worked for Foreign Affairs. What a coincidence!!! I worked with Pam and her husband Colin Suter in Bonn, Germany between 1994-97. Walt, who is heavily into photography, showed me his picture framing/photo editing studio. Wow, it was very impressive and to die for. He took several photos of Bev and I and our bikes.
On Wednesday I went on-line and booked our return home flights from St John's to Ottawa with WestJet. We are scheduled to leave on Wednesday, July 31st, at 12:35 PM and arrive in Ottawa same day at 5:00 PM. Bev also called a bike shop in St John's to inquire about bike boxes that we would need for packing our bikes in for shipping back to Ottawa. She had dealt with Earl's Bike Shop in the past and the owner assured us he would keep a couple of extra large bike boxes aside for us.
Did some packing in preparation for an early morning departure.
Chez Mike and Krista's, St. John's, NL