jonmO1786TN
6. syyskuuta 2022
We were on “pothole” highway, in the middle of nowhere about 1 hour from Cow Head, when the dash of our rental SUV lit up with a warning that the left rear tire had low air pressure. It was Saturday afternoon at about 4pm and we were booked to stay at the SeaBreeze B&B. Oh, oh! Were we going to make it? Over the next hill, a gas station appeared. They had an air pump but no way to fix a tire leak if we had one. “The **** as gone right out of er. Best to head to Cow Head, b’y, if ya hopes to brings ‘em home to Lizer,” advised the attendant. After filling the tire and confirming only a slow leak, we took our chances. Ironically, our rental SUV could report each tires’ air pressure every 10 seconds but had only a mini spare tire that was unlikely to survive for long under the challenging road conditions of the Northern Peninsula. After an agonizing 100km, watching the slow but steady decline of the air pressure, we pulled into the SeaBreeze B&B parking lot with a familial sigh of relief at about 5:15pm. Knowing we had another long drive ahead of us on Sunday, I shared our dilemma with our lovely host, Roberta, as she checked us in to our clean and comfortable rooms at the oceanfront SeaBreeze B&B. It was at that moment, that Newfoundland’s famous “Come From Away” (CFA) hospitality became our reality. Roberta texted Troy, soon to be the new B&B owner/operator with his wife, about our predicament. Five minutes later, Troy was at our door with a smile and a battery-operated air pump. As he pumped up the low tire, we could both hear the hiss of air escaping, getting louder with every cycle of the air pump. “Hmm,” says Troy, “Even if we pump it up tonight, it’ll be flat by morning.” He likely saw the worry in my face as I thought of missing our Monday flight from Gander and the lost opportunity of a hike in the beautiful Gros Morne National Park that surrounded us. Before I could say a thing, Troy, took out his cell phone to make a call: “G’day, Dwayne, whatta y’at?...I have a B&B guest here with a flattie, lookin’ to get on the go on Sunday…. Yup… Ok, we’ll be right over.” As my jaw dropped, I asked if an auto shop had agreed to stay open late to fix the tire. “Oh no, b’y, Dwayne lives just there,” said Troy pointing at a white house across the alley. “Just drive on over and I will meet ya there.” Dwayne greeted me with a smile and had me back the SUV into his garage where he removed the faulty tire, pulled out the offending rock, plugged the hole, pumped up the tire and torqued it back on to the car… all in under 10 minutes! It was less than an hour since we had arrived! “Give it a bit of a run,” said Dwayne, “then bring ‘er back and I’ll retorque the bolts for ya, wha.” I stood there like a stunned CFA for a bit while Dwayne and Troy grinned. After a thankful parting handshake with both, I returned to the SeaBreeze B&B with time to spare for a bowl of chowder before a live play at Cow Head’s amazing Nurse Myra Bennett Centre for the P
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