Earlier this week, goaltender Mike Garteig was counselling Newfoundland Growlers teammates not to worry too much about charging up their cellphones for a Wednesday bus trip across the island.
“I’d tell them, from what I know, you’re probably not going to need it. There’s a good chance you won’t have any service, or at least you were going to be experiencing a lot of dead spots,” said the 26-year-old native of Prince George, B.C.
“My advice was not to worry about their phones, to just sit back and enjoy the scenery … that it would be worth it in any case.”
Garteig knows of what he speaks.
When he and the rest of the Growlers bused from St. John’s to Corner Brook — where the ECHL team will be based for the first part of a pre-season swing across the island — it marked his second cross-province road trip in less than a week.
It’s just that Wednesday’s trek was a bit shorter than his first, plus he got to play passenger this time.
Because while the rest of the team arrived via airplane, Garteig drove to St. John’s from New England, something he feels amounted to one of his better recent decisions.
“A lot of people were going, ‘You’re crazy, I’d never do that,’ but I had no issues with it,” he said. “I’m from Prince George and that means long drives to get to almost everywhere.”
In fact, Prince George is about the same distance from Vancouver as it is from St. John’s to Stephenville, where the Growlers play their first-ever exhibition game tonight against the Brampton Beast.
But for all the driving he had experienced as someone from northern B.C., Garteig’s three-day autumnal jaunt from New Hampshire to Newfoundland was like nothing else he had ever experience.
“People didn’t understand why I was doing it, but that drive was 100 per cent the nicest drive I’ve ever taken in my life. The scenery, the colours (of the trees) in Maine all the way to Nova Scotia, I was floored. I couldn’t believe it. And when I got to Newfoundland, I was taken back again.
“Just an amazing land.”
Mind you, he didn’t get to see much of it on his first day here.
No fog jokes, please. The reason was because he arrived in Port aux Basques at dusk and the first leg of his journey was done almost completely in the dark.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “Didn’t anybody warn this poor CFA about the moose?”
Truth is, Garteig knew about the need to extra vigilant when driving in Newfoundland at night, especially at this time of year. And it didn’t faze him.
His birth certificate contributes to that.
“Again being from Prince George, I was used to that. It’s the same thing (with the moose) there,” he said.
What did have him a little discombobulated initially was that cellphone thing. Turns out his provider didn’t provide him much in the way of coverage as he took to the first part of Newfoundland’s segment of the Trans Canada Highway.
“When I got off the ferry, I had no cell service and I was sweating, because it was dark and I pretty much had no idea where I was supposed to be going,” he said. “I now know there’s only the one way, and truthfully being from Prince George, I know all about that — there’s only one main road between there and Vancouver — but when I first got off the ferry, I didn’t realize it.”
But he found a Tim Hortons and took advantage of the restaurant’s free WiFi, got his bearings and struck out for Corner Brook, where he would stay the night.
At the time, he didn’t know he was lodged in the hometown of Jason King, who had been an assistant coach during his time with the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets in 2016-17.
“But it was always going to memorable because of the adventure I had getting there,” Garteig said with a laugh.
It was a much more relaxed final leg between Corner Brook and St. John’s. There was that cell business, of course, but it was daytime and he had plenty of good music and pre-downloaded episodes of Spittin’ Chiclets, former NHLer Paul Bissonnette’s sometimes irreverent, always hilarious, hockey-based podcast.
And now Garteig will also be able to take advantage of his having his own car, which was the practical reason for driving here in the first place.
It’s a Volkswagen Jetta that had been in storage in Exeter, N.H. — his girlfriend’s hometown — while Garteig spent the last couple of winters as a Vancouver Canucks prospect, playing in Utica, and at ECHL stops in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Anchorage, Alaska. (He even had a few days as an NHL backup with the Canucks.)
After the product of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut saw his entry-level deal with Vancouver expire, he signed an ECHL deal to come to St. John’s.
And to experience more than just the hockey side of things.
“It’s just a little car, nothing fancy, but it will be nice having it so I can really explore the city and other places around here,” said Garteig.
“From what I’ve seen so far, it’s probably all going to be beautiful.”
Twitter@telybrendan
