Eddie's Cove West

Eddie's Cove West / 18x36

BASICALLY, I COULD move to Eddie's Cove, paint every day and be happy. There wouldn't be anything else to do, but I think that would be OK.

Peter and I could travel down to Cow Head and hang around with the guys I met there one morning. We could chop our six cords of wood, and dig around in our garden by the road.

Aside from that, there would be painting, walking and staring out to sea. And some days, that sounds just about perfect.

The landscape is beautiful and brutal at once. The sky and the ocean are the color of rocks, and in the mornings, look hard and immobile. Clouds bunch like fists, threatening, nearly every day. The sea churns, but the waves are not huge. I marvel at how close the buildings are to the water.








Above, Eddie's Cove West is marked. Newfoundland is so large, it's hard to show one town, one place. I hope you've been looking at the map as the trip has progressed!


***
Money, Math and Two Geniuses


(The following happens at the start of the trip... I haven't had the chance to use it until now...)

“UH-OH," I SAY to Carol as we drive past the first gas station in Canada. “I think the trip might have to stop now. I think it might cost $2,000 to fill up our gas tank.”

“What? No,” she says, and though I suspect she is right, the sign says it all - $129.1. 

It can’t be! $129 a gallon? I know that Canada uses bigger gallons than we do - imperial gallons - or at least, I think they do, but this, this is crazy. 

Carol gets on the internet. “That’s for a liter. And it’s $1.29. For a liter.”

“But why do they have it like that on the signs?” I ask. “And how much is a liter?” 

Neither of us knows. And that is embarrassing, but it’s true. 

Back to the internet. Turns out there are about three liters in a gallon. Or four. Or 3.7.  So OK. Gas is more expensive here than in America. 

But those prices are in Canadian money. And that’s less powerful than American money. But how much? 

By now, my head is more than beginning to hurt. And Carol is no help. She has the whole thing backwards. She has us dividing when we should be multiplying, or maybe it’s the other way - or maybe she is right and I’m wrong. Ouch! 

This all is compounded by the fact that the first gas station we come to requires us to choose an amount to put in before we pay, and gives us $20, $40, $60, $80. Argh! I put in $40, which is really not $40, of course, and it doesn’t fill the tank but it gets us somewhere. 

Our next stop is at Tim Horton’s, to get coffee. I order two cups, which comes to $4.35. I give the woman a US $20 - and get back $21.35 Canadian. 

Eeek.

ps, there are no pennies in Canadian currency! Everything rounds to the nearest nickel. There are no dollar bills, either; there's a one-dollar coin, with a loon on it, called a loonie, and a two-dollar coin, called a twonie. The bills, like the $20 above, are made of plastic, and each has a transparent window with a hologram in it. 

***
Dog of the Day


I MEET COOPER at the ferry, on the way back to Nova Scotia. He's glad to get out of the car and sniff around. I have a particular weakness for him, since "Cooper" is my maiden name.

***
A Final Thought

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." 
- Robert Louis Stevenson








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