Canadian Maritimes with Mahoney/Brewers 08

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Betty,

A lot of folks, myself included, are following along with yet another great trip report. Check out the number of views for this topic!
 
There used to be many many of the brightly painted houses, especially in the outports. Alas, the vinal siding salesmen have also been
to the far reaches of the island and many of the brightly painted houses are now covered in vinal.

I was told that one reason for the brightly colored houses was that there was no tax on paint for the boats back in the day,
so when they bought paint for the boat they got enough to paint the house also. Sounds reasonable to me.

Dave
 
JerArdra said:
Betty,

Your picture of the houses was taken one block further down the hill from where we took our picture of the houses (see attached photo).  We both just loved those brightly colored houses.

It also appears that the "Where Canada Begins" sign has changed to the much nicer Mile 0 sign that Russ is standing next to (see attached photo).  The sign in the photo is the one that both the Nathans and Ardra & I photographed.

JerryF
The sign needs to change to "Wlhere Canada Begins in the East"

 
July 6, 2008 St John?s  Tourist  Day  of Rest

We had planned to  take the  Gatherall?s Puffin and Whale watch tour  in Bay Bulls but the weather was cloudy and cold so we rescheduled for tomorrow.  I wore my new jewelry and we visited the Flavarium which is an under water viewing point of a local stream filled with trout.  It was like visiting an aquarium except the subjects were not in an  enclosed structure.  This place was built underground  to capture a view of their  natural  setting.  While we did see many trout we  were disappointed in the overall experience.  We are spoiled tourists.  We did enjoy the  1.1 mile walk around the Flavarium as a chance walk  in a beautiful setting.

Since Terry had missed yesterdays Mile  0 point,  we returned today and noted that the place the FitzGerald?s and Nathans had seen was right  across a short driveway from the new sign. The plaque designating the start of  the Canadian Highway  was missing but we saw  the  plants and banner seen by Jerry and Terry Nathan.  We  trekked down an 89 step staircase to a desired lunch spot only to find it was closed on Sunday and then had to climb back up those 89 steps .  I was huffing and puffing but enjoyed the  exercise. 

I?d like to  take this opportunity to  share with you my perceptions of a few things.  Food costs are expensive here.  Consider,  this is an island where  most  food stuffs  need to be imported!  The packet of Uncle Ben?s Bistro rice that I purchased at a Wal-Mart in Michigan was $1.87.  I made the same purchase in Ottawa at $ 2. 17.  Today I saw it at Sobeys (the local Safeway) for $2.39.  This is not a complaint, as you get what you get when traveling.  I just wanted to let you know we have found costs high here in Newfoundland.  When having lunch out in a restaurant it can be  $30.  We have  now decided to make lunch out our main meal and have salads for dinner.  It is highly desirable to have cell  phone service while traveling. We have a Verizon service and for  an additional $20 per month we added Canadian Service.  A GPS is an essential for travel  here. St John?s is not  logical and ?Hilda? has  guided us to our destinations with ease. 

A delightful young lady who is an employee of Pippy Park is doing a Master?s  thesis on Full timers and asked If she could interview me.  I will do this tomorrow.  She finds that the social phenomenon of full timers is not widely documented and her professors are delighted in her unique research project.  I gave her the forums? address as a place to gain info.

We are still trying to talk Russ into joining us for the boat trip  tomorrow but he is convinced he will be seasick . 





 

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Betty, is that your new coral pendant in the Mile 0 photo?  Very nice!

ArdraF
 
7/6 Sunday.Did the Killik coast trip N of St Johns and down the west side of the peninsula. In middle cove lots of people were at the stony beach waiting for the grunion equivalents to come ashore. Monday dolphin and whales were feasting on them offshore. Some of the villages have steep wooden slipways for hauling the dories out of the water.

It was cloudy all day and one shower fell on me. The villages near St Johns are now bedroom communities with upscale homes alone the ridges with an ocean view. They are bland colored because vinyl siding does not have any pzazz! I've read that the bright house paint custom occured because boat paint is/was untaxed...so they just bought extra for the house.

7/7 Monday. Sunny! Warm! In the morning I went to the east side of the harbor as far as I could, about oposite the tower on signal hill. Got good photos of the battery neighborhood, downtown, and the harbor. In the afternoon I went again to cape Spear and watched whales breaching far offshore.
 
July 7, 2008 St John?s NL  Gatherall?s Boat Tour

The day was beautifully sunny  and we tried again to get Russ to join us on the  boat tour to see Puffins and Whales.  He declined and set off for his own sight seeing photographic day.  We took the 1:30 boat cruise out to the Witless Bay Reserve.  The guys on board were witty and played  neat Irish music.  I was hoping to see puffins and was unexpectedly  delighted in a showing of  humpback whales like no other.  They play in groups in this bay.  Once upon a time there were  estimated to be 150,000 whales off shores of  Newfoundland and then came the explorers and  whalers.  By  1970 there were only 1, 500  humpback whales left and they were now an endangered species .  Today their numbers have come back to 15,000 and they are considered a ?species of interest.?  The bay provides rich nutrients for the whales who  usually travel in pairs or 3.  We witnessed the playfulness of the groups right off our boat today.  It was wonderful.  I had lots of water shots but managed to get a few whale tales.

Puffins are really short birds not quite  10 inches tall.  We did not see as many of them as we had expected and they are reported to be PP flyers.  This means Piss poor flyers.  They  make  several  take off tries to fly  as their body weight defy the laws of  physics .  The orange beaks  of the females are only evident during the mating season then they go back to gray beaks.  They lay their eggs in  nests in little holes they are able to bore in the side of  hills up to 6 feet deep .  They return to the same nest  year after year.  I bought  a post card of them to ensure I had a good photo.  Terry , with his telephoto lens got  shots of their environment.

We had another wonderful lunch at their restaurant and returned to our campground to find our  mail had not arrived.  This is the first time in  9 years of mail forwarding  (the first to be forwarded to Canada) that our mail has not come at the appointed time.  We will not stay another day for it to arrive but will have it sent back and hope to get it later.  Oh well.

Ellen interviewed me this evening on being an RVer .  She has worked at  Pippy Park summers for 5 years so has lots of experience with Rvers.  I hope I contributed to her Master?s thesis .  She was delightful.  We move on to Gander, inland in the morning. 
 

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ArdraF said:
Betty, is that your new coral pendant in the Mile 0 photo? 

Yep it is.  Earrings too.  I don't even know if they  were made by artist from Newfoundland but they spoke to me and were way less $ than the  coral jewelry I saw at Moab.

BB
 
Betty Brewer said:
...  I had lots of water shots but managed to get a few whale tales.
...

Are those the aquatic equivalent of Terry's moose butt shots?  ;D
 
Ron from Big D said:
Betty:   Thanks for posting some scenery.

Well ... to each his own, Ron. 

If I were given the choice of seeing photos of sterile, solitary, scenery shots or seeing Betty, Terry and Russ being photographed enjoying said scenery ... guess which I would choose? 

I just spent a half a day in our storage shed tossing lots of photos of scenery and keeping only those shots which featured people I loved and admired standing in front of scenery they really enjoyed traveling to just to see and experience the wonder of unexplored territory.  It's people who make photos interesting, IMHO.  Photos with people may not be art by your standards, but those photos certainly are art and then some by my standards.

Margi
 
July 8, 2008 Gander, NL  Country Inn Motel and Trailer Park  free wifi

You almost did not get an entry tonight as my book,  Pillars of the Earth has consumed me.  Page 389.

However,  we  departed St John?s,  NL this morning with no mail.  I left word at headquarters to call me when the packet   arrived and I would have it  returned to SD.   Our drive of over  200 miles was beautiful.  It climbed to  89 degrees and the scenery was that of  high mountainous  terrain with  rocky cliffs. It remind us of Northern  Idaho where glaciers had carved out valley filled with  lakes and numerous ponds.   Every  turn revealed spectacular scenery of  trees,  lakes and  skyline.   We arrived at Gander just as we got the call from Pippy Park that our mail packet had arrived!   Murphy!!!!

Gander is known as ?The Crossroads of the World.?  It gains it?s fame from the International airport located about ? way from  Major areas of  North America and Europe.   It?s reputation is fog free and it was one of the sites  aircraft were landed when US airspace was closed on September 11, 2000.  We visited the North Atlantic Aviation Museum  in town to  learn of the wonderful  efforts  contributed by the community when it?s population of 10,000 doubled in a few hours as aircraft were landed here .  The school bus drivers were on strike and yet  got into their busses to taxi  stranded passengers to the  local schools,  Lions club and local homes for  shelter.  Wal-Mart gave toys to children who were on board planes that had been grounded.  The teachers worked onto the  early hours of the night after a day of teaching to provide  blankets, shelter and comfort stranded  passengers in their classrooms.   The entire  Province of Newfoundland was such as support and comfort to  passengers in that terrorist moment.  Talk about a village!!!

We  also visited the  Silent Memorial,  a  Monument dedicated to memorialize those soldiers of the  101St airborne  who,  having competed their mission in 1985 in the Sinai desert and were  on their way home, crashed and perished.  Terry was a Screaming Eagle so he was especially caught up in the memory.  Talk about Fate. 


We visited the Visitor Center and  decided there is much to see and do here while we await our mail packet to be forwarded.  We are so fortunate to  be exploring this beautiful countryside.


 

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Tom and Margi said:
Well ... to each his own, Ron. 

If I were given the choice of seeing photos of sterile, solitary, scenery shots or seeing Betty, Terry and Russ being photographed enjoying said scenery ... guess which I would choose? 

I just spent a half a day in our storage shed tossing lots of photos of scenery and keeping only those shots which featured people I loved and admired standing in front of scenery they really enjoyed traveling to just to see and experience the wonder of unexplored territory.  It's people who make photos interesting, IMHO.  Photos with people may not be art by your standards, but those photos certainly are art and then some by my standards.

Margi

No problem with photos of people for memories, but you must understand, my love is the landscape and I can rarely get enough of it.
 
Terry,

You might go inside the airport terminal and talk to one or more of the security folks.  Ask to see around the place and also tell them you're a 101st airborne (once 101st always 101st) and that their memorial moved you...thank them for it  There is a 99% chance that they will take you on a behind the scenes tour.

I was not 101st but we did get the tour mainly because we knew the facts and thanked them for what they did on 9/11.  They were moved by our thank you and happily surprised that we appreciated their efforts.  The tour was very nice!

BTW, Gander was the test airport during the development of the British/French Concord.

JerryF 
 
July 9, 2008  Gander, Road to the Shore Drive ( 213 miles in the car) 

Today we took a scenic drive recommended by a British Columbian minister  tourist parked next to us last night.  It is referred to as the ?Loop? Road to the Shores,  as it takes  you through coastal communities from Gander Bay and around to Gander.  Note to self. ?Find out if  route supports  tourists. We did not pack a lunch and wish that we had as there were NO restaurants along the way except for the one  we came upon  that was called Lucky Chinese and Canadian food. We ate there out of desperation. It was 2 o clock and we were hungry.  Never again!  Right after we ate we found a few  more restaurants that may have been more appealing.  You never know. 

The day was overcast and we hoped for sun at each photo op.  As the day went on we found more and more picturesque scenes of Newfoundland.  The tour book guided us in  an exaggerated  description of their destinations on a few occasions but mostly this was the scenery of movies!  The countryside  was not like any we had seen before in NL.  Every cove and bay was littered with gigantic granite  boulders.  When wet with the waters of the bay they were the color of Moab dirt, (red) .  This is definitely the country of former glaciers as the granite rocks have been placed neatly along the shores of each by nature.

  In Newtown, the tour book said it was like a little Venice.  Well we don?t think so but it did provide some of the most scenic villages we have seen.. The fishing industry is alive.  We learned from asking a local that the lobster season is highly regulated by the government.  The season is staggered by community.  When in  Newtown the season started in late May and had just ended but  more north along the coast the lobster  season has a few weeks to go.  He offered us a chance to buy fresh lobster but we asked for a restaurant instead.  He said, sorry there are no restaurants here.  We already knew that.  The  Newfie language here is that clipped English, which  sounds like an Irish brogue.  It has glottal stops and is very hard to understand.  But the folks could not be more friendly.  Along a lonesome dirt road(not on the  tourist trail  but Terry will go anywhere his GPS has a road, ) we spotted  two different  iceberg s way offshore. My binoculars confirmed them as  icebergs but  out of photo  range  so  you will just have to take my word for it.

We took scenery shots today and loved them all.  We got our mail packet and can happily move on to  Twillingate in the morning. 

 

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Betty,

I know Terry was a Screaming Eagle and can only imagine what that museum meant to him. Once you have joined the Band of Brothers there's nothing like it. I hope he was impressed with their memorial.

Never having served in the "war" in Viet Nam I do ride with many of those that did. It is a humbling experience to see those that gave all that was asked and still support those that are now doing the same. I will continue to ride for all of our service personnel that are in harms way!
 
Tom what the article doesn't say, and I've been told many times was that the consensus of Newfoundlanders at the time was that they should be attempting to join the US.  With all the American bases in NL there was much closer ties with the US than with Canada.  But Joey was a strong believer in Canada, and that what was persued and happened. 
 

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