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Just before Corner Brook, I hit maybe the most loathsome hill I've ever been on. It’s steep and long, on a buzzing highway, and comes packaged with a strong head wind and, for added fun, a quick downpour so the traffic can soak me in addition to terrifying me. As a final act, it brings me to that most enchanting of accommodations, the Comfort Inn.

The Comfort Inn in Corner Brook is located pretty much where you normally find motels, out by the highway. Downtown, where you might find something of interest, is a 20-minute ride away and, after a long day on the road, you’re too tired and hungry to go. What’s nearby are your Walmarts, Canadian Tires, and Home Hardwares. Your food options are Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, KFCs and their ilk; all serving what is basically deep fried fat. So you get food, retreat to your room and waste the evening surfing online or watching stuff on TV, the stupider the better.

Tonight, I’m desperate to get away from yet another greasy meal. A nice feed of beef and broccoli (a vegetable!) on rice would be just the thing. There is a Chinese restaurant just two kilometres away. Alas, by the time I have showered, it has again started to rain, not just a drop but in sheets that blast against my window so that I can barely see the other side of the road. I have to wait it out, the only other option for me is the Jungle Jim’s in the same building and I want to eat there like I want needles stuck in my eyes. But I can’t relax until I’ve eaten so, like a damned soul on its way to hell, I reluctantly plod off down the hall to eat greasy fish and chips. Of course, as things are in Newfoundland, when I get back to my room I see that the sun has burst through again. Curses! I still need food for tomorrow, though, so I need to get out there to go to the supermarket, two kilometres away. I learn it is, ironically, next to the Chinese restaurant I had wanted to go to in the first place. It's an easy ride as well it should be, given that it's all downhill. I buy my stuff and hurry back. The sun is still shining brightly and it’s a magnificent sight; it bursts through the clouds, ripping off its shirt and roaring triumphantly. The only problem is that’s all happening off in the distance, not here. Here that deluge with its hurricane winds has returned! And, of course, too, it’s now a lung-busting uphill ride to get back. Corner Brook, I hate you.