Clean Bin Tour: The End - Newfoundland!

Here it is - admitedly a bit late - the final installment of our cross Canada film tour!

In Newfoundland we were treated to the true local experience since Grant's cousin lives in Gander. We spent 3 nights with Paul and Nancy and their family before a great screening at the local arts and culture center. They took us around to little fishing villages and secret campfire spots, and they fed us authentic Newfie dishes like cod and moose and gave us a taste of local blueberries and bakeapples.

And then it was time to hit the road for the final few days of riding. Newfoundland is gorgeous.  Had it been the heat of August instead of the middle of September, we would have been swimming every half hour in the 'ponds' along the side of the highway, but as it was, we kept our rain gear on and focused on the hilly and windswept terrain. We camped at a lovely sheltered campsite, surrounded by trees and right on a babbling brook for our last night in the tent. Our ride in to the Saint John's region started off hilly and rainy, but ended, thankfully, flat(ish) and super sunny.

For our final screening, three government and non-profit organizations got together to host us; MMSB, NLEN, and NAACAP. The MMSB was one of our very first supporters, and they had been using our trailer as part of their educational programs for over a year, so it was pretty exciting to finish up with them. Their staff is so dedicated that one of them even let us stay at her house for two nights (thanks Ashley)! We had a great crowd and met some really passionate and inspiring people after the show who stayed to chat and share their own sustainability stories. We could hardly believe it was our 30th community screening across Canada!

You can listen to our CBC radio interview here - we were on with a bunch of sixth graders on a live call in show for a full hour!

We still had one last trip to make on our bikes. The first was out to Cape Spear, the Eastern most tip of North America (where we popped a bottle of champagne that Grant had thoughtfully snuck into his pannier).  For a grand finale, Grant's aunt put up up in a super fancy suite in the Delta for our last night - thanks Marion!

I know we always say 'it's the people', 'the people are what made this trip so great', and I wanted to share this story as an illustration of that. In Saint John's a woman working at a gift store was so impressed that we can cycled Canada that she insisted we pick out a gift for ourselves.

I tried to decline; "hundreds of people do it," I said. 

"But I met you", she insisted,"and you don't say no to a gift". We picked a colourful little house painted onto a rock by a local artist. Now that we're home, I'm glad we have it. It's our reminder that we actually did it, and it's our reminder of the kindness of strangers we met along the way.

Clean Bin Tour Day 99 -Halifax

If you've been following our trip, you'll realize that we are a little behind on the news updates. But Grant's images are so beautiful that I decided to back date this post and stick it up anyway.

We hit Halifax just as frosh week at Dalhousie was finishing, and the campus was absolutely teaming with students when we arrived. The Office of Sustainability which was hosting the screening graciously opened the doors to the public so we had a great mix of over a hundred students and citizens.

We got a whirlwind tour of downtown Halifax and had a few beers and caught up with old friends at a local pub after the movie. 

Being in the maritimes is sort of surreal. We'd been working towards it for so long, focusing on the riding and the logistics of the tour, that it was a bit of a shock when we actually made it.  I definitely could have spent another couple days in the city, but with only one week left on our trip, we had to head over to Newfoundland for the final leg of our journey.

Clean Bin Project Tour Day 97 - New Brunswick

New Brunswick was a roller coaster (both topographically and weather-wise).

Like I mentioned before, we started the province by pedaling through a crazy heat wave. After countless icecream stops and a couple inadvertent bush camps, we arrived in Fredericton (another lovely town) to screen at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, a heritage building home to dance studios, a film cooperative, and a multipurpose performace space.  A receptive crowd braved the sticky heat to watch a film about garbage on a Friday night - what more could we ask for?

Thanks to Fredericton Green Matters and The Conservation Council of New Brunswick who hosted the screening, and to Leah, who works for the latter and generously put us up in the Lakeview Inn and Suites. Thanks for all your work Leah!

The next day, we were supposed to get back on the road, but instead, we were hit by Hurricane Earl. We actually loaded our bicycles and put on our raingear before deciding that cycling in driving rain and 100km winds wasn't the best idea. Then kind staff at the Lakeview Inn and Suites saved the day and offered to put us up for another night for free (!), so we stayed. If you're ever in Fredericton, we highly recommend that you stay there - their complimentary breakfast even has real plates.

The next day, we had to do 2 days of riding in 1. We left at 6:30 am and booted it towards Fundy National Park, a route that turned out to be very hilly to say the least.  After 10 hours of riding, we were still 10km from the gate, and Darin rescued us so we'd make it to our first and only outdoor screening on time. Despite the crazy riding, Fundy National Park was well worth the trip. Our campsite had a view of the water and the little town of Alma, and the outdoor amphitheatre was super fun.

Our final NB screening was in Sackville.  Tara and John emailed us just a couple weeks before and managed to organize a packed house in the tiny theatre at Struts Gallery!  We had a true artist experience - staying with the artists in residence and having great conversations about art and film and media (thanks Amanda).  It was so great to be surrounded by such creative people, and we absolutely loved the town.

By the time we left Sackville, the weather had returned to moderate and rain-free conditions and the hilly terrain was a distant memory. And once again, it will be the amazing and friendly people we met that we will remember the most when we think of New Brunswick.