St. John's, Newfoundland

‘Twas a soggy day in St. John’s this morning when I got out of bed at 6:20 to set up the morning coffee for the group. The timer worked as advertised and the coffee pot was chugging away as I got to the kitchen. Valentino was raising hell in his bowl, demanding to be fed immediately. I gave him a few granules of healthy food and then threw in his favorite food…freeze dried worms. He gobbled them up in a flash, throwing water as he attacked each worm. I then went to the car to get the rest of the coffee setup and set everything out under the awning. We finished off most of the pot as we waited for our tour bus to arrive.

Right on schedule, our bus pulled up. Our driver, Vic, introduced himself and then introduced us all to Lucille, our tour guide. She was a perky bundle of energy and we immediately knew we were in for a good tour. Little did we know! We first headed for Quidi Vidi Village and were treated to our first Newfie slang, of which there is plenty. Quidi Vidi is known locally as “Quite a Vita”. I wish I could remember it all. I’m going to start carrying a notebook on these tours. Quidi Vidi is a really cute little fishing village with a narrow harbor opening.


Quidi Vidi Harbor



Cute chairs, eh?

It has another twist…a micro brewery. I bought a six-pack with three bottles of Honey Brown, a blend of Chocolate malt, Crystal malt and honey, and three bottles of Eric’s Red, a cream ale that won the Silver medal at the 2001 World Beer Championships.

Moving right along, we next stopped at the Government House, the official residence of the Lt. Governor. He lives in some pretty nice digs!


Government House

Inside Government House

The bus then headed for downtown and we all started loosening up when Lucille told us of an area of the island we would not be seeing during the tour. I’m sure some of this has something to do with the infamous Newfie humor, but she told us all about a small town called Dildo. Now, Dildo has a park called Dildo Run Park which is next to Virgin Run which is right near Herring Neck and Heart’s Desire and just down the road from Hibb’s Hole. Someone on the bus commented that this sounded like a great place for a “nooner”. Not knowing the term “nooner”, we explained it to Lucille. Her reply was, “OH, a quickie!” I then told her of a “morner” which is a “nooner”, only sooner. That sent the bus howling! It went downhill from there…very fast! Lucille was soon red-faced and staying right up with all the banter. She then passed out samples of the locally-produced candy, “Climax”, made by the Purity company.

We soon got to the downtown area. The first thing I noticed was that almost all the homes were all painted up in different pastel colors. We went through an area of brightly colored homes the locals call “Jelly Bean Lane”.

Jelly Bean Lane

We then stopped at the Catholic Basilica and Presentation Convent where the marble carving of the Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Strazza is found. All of the group was mesmerized by the carving. The photos don’t do it justice.

The Veiled Virgin

We then went into a drawing room and listened to a metal-disk music box.

The musical selection was some long hundred-dollar-a-plate name but was actually a five-dollar rendition of “Dixie”. The sound form the device was awesome. We loved it!

We then moved to the main harbor and checked out a pair of larger than life bronze statues of a Newfoundland Dog and a Labrador Retriever that overlooked the water

and a monument to military veterans.

After that, it was lunch time. We went to My Brother’s Place for a great buffet. They served a great salad, a fish dish with cream sauce, some OUTSTANDING meat balls (I went back for a BIG bowl of seconds and got scolded by Claudia for being uncouth and a bad example of a Tailgunner) and lasagna. I had only three small cheesecake bites and actually passed on the fried ice cream, my all-time favorite dessert. I actually surprised myself!

We then headed for Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America

and the site of the first long range communication by wireless radio. On December 12, 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received a wireless radio signal from colleagues in England. There was a book for visiting hams to sign, so I added my own ham radio call sign, WA6ARQ, to the log book of VO1AA, the Cape Spears Ham Radio station.

Cape Spear radio tower

We then went back to the downtown area for some shopping since the area scheduled for the rest of the tour was too foggy to see anything. We returned to the RV park about 5:30. It was a great day, even considering the bad weather.

Today, the last day of July, was a good start. After a night of fairly heavy rain, we awoke to a 50% sky…well, maybe only about 35-40% sun, but that’s better than no sun! We split the group to go to the National Research Council – Institute for Ocean Technology. This is a government organization that does research on anything to do with the ocean. Anyone building a boat, oil platform, undersea whatever, life boats, survival gear or anything else dealing with the ocean can come to this group with their idea or design and have it evaluated. They build and test prototype ships in miniature scale models, usually about 1:20 scale, to see how they perform and how they can be improved upon. We toured the model building room, the machine shop, the towing tank and the ice tank where they can freeze the water solution so it has an ice cap up to 6” thick. This would simulate a sheet of ice 10’ thick (at a 20:1 scale). They use this tank to test ice breakers, subs breaking through the polar ice cap and even the Confederation Bridge that we travelled over the other day. The bridge was tested here and they developed the system that automatically breaks up the ice as it freezes around the pilings. They even have a propeller evaluation tank that was confiscated from Nazi Germany after WWII. They can put a prop in the tank, start it spinning at the desired RPM’s and then photograph it with a laser strobe and see any cavitation the prop gives off. (cavitation is a BAD thing) This was one interesting tour!

The rest of the day was spent shopping, cleaning out the bays of the motorhome to accommodate all the stuff we have been buying and preparing for tonight’s “Margarita & Munchies” party. Tomorrow is a travel day to Gander.

The ferry to Newfoundland

We made it! We are now in “Newfie-land” and will be going to Labrador soon. Right now we are 3439 air miles from home. That’s 459 gallons of fuel and at $5 a gallon, that’s about $2,300 to get home…if we could go in a straight line.

We got up at 3:15 am, finished getting the rig ready for travel and everyone pulled out right at 4:00 am. We traveled butt-to-nose 3.8 miles to the ferry terminal, got measured and checked in and waited.


Waiting for the ferry to arrive


Some of the guests went back to sleep but, as staff, oh no, we had to stay up and work. We had to get the sleeping berth assignments, boarding passes and things like that. I even had to have a guest walk across the street for us to buy two apple fritters at Tim Horton’s, a donut shop.
We started loading the ferry about 7:00

The Newfoundland Ferry (note how the bow opens up!)

Starting to load

Getting loaded!

Still getting loaded!

and were underway just after 8:00. The crossing was pretty uneventful. The almost-promised whale sightings were non-existent as the fog rolled in. We had to slow down considerably as the visibility was about 50 yards at times. The foghorn was sounding the whole way across. Here’s a picture of the fog for you to enjoy!

Dense fog midway to Newfoundland!

We arrived at Placentia, NL about 2:30 am, disembarked, and headed up the road for the Sobey’s parking lot (Sobey’s is a grocery store over here) to catch a few hours of sleep.

Our Sobey's 3 to 4-hour napping spot

It was raining and foggy and one rig got lost, later to turn up 28 miles down the track at a gas station, sleeping soundly. Since the rig didn’t show up, Barry and I had to go look for it and lost another hour’s sleep in the process. Anyway, we all got up at 7:30 to depart the store’s parking lot before it opened, per the request of the manager. We fired up and all headed to a gas station restaurant 28 miles up the road where our lost chicken had roosted for the night. We overwhelmed them with about 30+ breakfast orders so the meals were slow in getting to the tables but the food was very good. After breakfast, we finished our trip through some really beautiful country…full of lakes and trees…to the Pippy Park Campground in St. John’s where we all hooked up and then crashed for a few more hours of sleep.

Baddeck and Sydney, NS

We had a staff-prepared breakfast this morning that included banana-walnut, blueberry or plain pancakes and link sausage. It was stupendous! After breakfast, we had a travel briefing for tomorrow’s run to Baddeck, pronounced ba-DECK, with the emphasis on “deck”. After the briefing, one of the guests stood up with a stuffed Goofy doll. This is a “present” given to someone on the caravan who has in some way screwed up. Well, I was the victim of the presentation. It seems that I was sent to pick up a guest at a repair shop the other day. I went to the RV park office where the office girl pulled out a map and highlighted the route on the map. It was very simple…turn left out of the park, go to the signal light and turn left. Go to Hwy. 102 and turn north (left) for 6-7 miles and Kevin’s Auto Body will be on my right. All went fine until I got to Hwy 102. There were no on-ramps or off-ramps to or from Hwy 102. No nothing! I continued on and went under 102 for two miles to a “T”, which was Hwy 1, and turned left. I found an open business and showed them the map. They told me that there were no ramps to 102 from the road I was on, but I already knew that. They sent me back past the “T” to a light and down that road where I eventually found Hwy 102 and turned north. It was a sort of freeway and I drove for about 20 miles before getting to a business district. I called Barry, telling him I was totally lost. He got the address for me and I plugged it into the GPS. “Karen” took me right to Kevin’s and I completed my mission. It turned out that Kevin’s was on Hwy 1, not 102 as the office had told me.

I protested loudly that I was given erroneous directions and that my getting lost was the fault of the RV park and that I was totally blameless and completely innocent. Claudia leaned over and gave me some quick advice. As I recall, she said something like, “Shut up and sit down”. I gave it one parting shot and sat down, holding my new best friend…Goofy.




After the travel briefing, we took off in the car for a tour of the waterfront. We saw the Public Gardens and then went to the waterfront. I was looking for Theodore Too, a cute little tugboat used for harbor tours and found it out on the water doing a tour.


We then parked and went to Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Brewery for a tour.



Inside the brewery


Tour guides


Tour guides

As tour guides, we got in free. The hour-long tour was given by 19th century costumed guides and the tour included the obligatory tasting of their wares. Since Claudia doesn’t drink beer, I was required to drink her mug of brew. I protested but it didn’t do any good. With some reluctance, I drained her mug of suds. We then returned home for dinner and bed.

The 24th was the travel day to Beddeck. It was almost uneventful as one rig had a small problem (quickly solved) on the way. When we arrived at the campground, we all formed up and carpooled to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. I learned a lot. AGB was quite an inventor. Not only did he invent the telephone, he did a lot of work on airplanes, hydrofoil boats, kites, breeding and genealogy and many more things. It was a very interesting stop.

After the AGB Museum, we all went back to the park for a combined birthday/anniversary celebration party and travel briefing. Claudia and Terry made a carrot cake with apricot filling and a vanilla frosting to serve the caravan celebrating all the July birthdays and anniversaries. It was a wowzer!

The next day was a full-day’s bus ride circumnavigating the Cabot Trail.

Cabot Trail map

Our first stop was the Keltic Lodge at Ingonish where I got some great pictures

View from the Keltic Lodge

AND a rum & raisin ice cream cone, double scoop, of course. Claudia’s was some sort of a cheesecake flavor that was only so-so.

After the lodge, we meandered down the trail to a crab processing plant where Terry had arranged for us to buy crab…not normally done, but it’s all in who you know, and she knew the right person!

Not Dungeoness, but tasty!

We bought four pounds of the larger crab legs for $5.25 a pound. They were all cooked and frozen and ready for eating…except for the being frozen part!

We left the packing plant and headed up a “mountain” to the top, all 900’ of it. As we topped out, we saw our first moose. It was a small bull with a modest rack. He was extremely shy and didn’t stick around very long for pictures. The people in the front of the bus got head shots. I, being in the rear of the bus, got the other end!

We then stopped at Saint Peters church in (I believe) St. Ann’s. The whole Cabot Trail area is French and Celtic so almost all signs, posters, etc. are in French and Gaelic (which is an interesting language to see or hear).

St. Peters church in St. Ann's, NS

The last stop was at Joe’s Scarecrow Village. These pictures tell it all…quirky, but cute…sort of!

Scarecrows at Joe's Village

more scarecrow's

Our next day, Saturday, July 26th, was a travel day. We toiled and struggled a whole 35 miles to our next park. Once we got in, it was a free day for everyone except us. We had to go to the Newfoundland Ferry terminal to make arrangements for our travel day on Monday…VERY early Monday…like 4:00 am! I don’t do 4:00 am’s at all, except maybe to leave on a fishing trip! I guess I will have to make an exception this time. Barry broke out the barbecue for dinner and we cooked up a bunch of crab legs for dinner. It was a great change from all the lobster we have been eating. Tomorrow night’s dinner was a choice between two small lobsters or a 16-oz. steak. Claudia and I both chose steak!

It rained all night and we woke to an overcast Sunday morning. Today will be getting the rig all ready for the trip to Newfoundland and Labrador. As I mentioned earlier, we have to get up at 4:00 am tomorrow and caravan to the ferry landing for a 7:30 or 8:00 am loading (if the ferry is on time). We then will have a 14 to 21-hour crossing, depending on the weather and tides. The ferry is running on only three engines right now. One is either down for repair or they have shut it down to conserve on fuel. I have heard both rumors and don’t know which is true.

So, I need to get ready to sail away across the great Atlantic Ocean. The next musings will be from Newfoundland. Sea ya!

Halifax, NS

Today was probably the most outstanding tour yet. I went through a complete card of photos on my camera and ran out of battery at the end. The weather sucked! It was raining hard most of the time, harder some of the time and very hard occasionally. Even when it didn’t rain (rarely), it was misting. We had a brand new bus and a great guide, complete in his kilt. As we started out, the weather broke for a while and we headed for the local cemetery, Fairview Lawn, the resting site of over 100 victims of the Titanic sinking on April 15, 1912. The grave markers are lined out to resemble the bow of a ship. It was really sobering to hear the full story of the recovery from the guide.

Gavesites resembling the bow of a ship

Titanic graves

We them moved to the Citadel, the fort overlooking Halifax Harbor. It was built to protect the area from an invasion by the Colonies (the United States) which never came. Most of the costumed employees were university students who were moonlighting.

Citadel entrance

Citadel officer

Citadel "wife"

Citadel soldiers on a break

Citadel piper

After visiting the Citadel, we drove to Peggy’s Cove for lunch and I found a goldmine of pictures. The place was SPECTACULAR! I was in total pig heaven! Everywhere I turned was an absolutely phenomenal picture, each better than the last. I’m just going to post a few of the best and let you judge for yourselves.

Peggy's Cove lighthouse

Peggy's Cove shoreline

more shoreline

Peggy's Cove harbor

Peggy's Cove harbor

Peggy's Cove harbor

Peggy's Cove harbor

Fish house over the water (in the rain)

Harbor scene

another harbor scene

18# bug (No, I didn't buy it!)

Tomorrow is a free day and we are planning to head for the piers at the harbor for some up close and personal sightseeing but I just had to get these pictures off for y’all to see.

Lunenburg, NS

Friday, June 18th

We started today by going to the Historic Gardens. As most of you know, flowers are not too high on my “Bucket List” but, since lunch at a German bakery was included in the tour, I grudgingly tagged along. As before, my Whoopie-O-Meter barely got off the peg.



Roses in the garden

Loyalist Landing exhibit

Acadian house

Garden pond

Lunch was very good. I had a roast beef sandwich and vegetable soup. Dessert was a killer berry strudel with a little scoop of ice cream.

The tartness of the strudel contrasted with the sweetness of the ice cream for a taste that had everyone WOWing.

We then drove out to Fort Anne for a tour of the fort

and the museum which held a spectacular needlepoint that was about 8’ high and 20’ wide. Even Queen Elizabeth did some needlepoint on it.

Next was the Port Royal Habitation, a replica of an Acadian trading post. The guides were all in period costume and gave a great insight into life during those years.

We then returned home via the fish market. Practically the entire caravan went by to buy lobsters at $6.99 a pound or scallops at $7.95. Claudia and I bought the biggest bug they had. It weighed out at 4.19 pounds.

It was so big the lady had to put it to sleep to weigh it. She stood it on its head with the claws out front and its tail in the air. Then she started stroking its forehead with one finger from the back of its shell to between its eyes. It slowly stopped squirming around and finally just completely stopped moving altogether and stood on its head on the scale. Everyone was totally amazed. We also bought two pounds of scallops, some fresh haddock for dinner tonight and then returned to the park. Barry and I set up our bug boilers and spent the next two hours cooking lobster for everyone.

The evening turned into an impromptu lobster gorge and a hell of a lot of fun. This was the best night of the trip so far. After the bug boil, I cooked up two huge haddock fillets for our dinner while Claudia cleaned and picked lobster meat from our bug and the legs and backs of several other donated lobster.

Bed felt great and sleep came very easily.

Friday night/Saturday morning passed with a few periods of pitter-patter on the roof. We had an early travel briefing under our awning. Afterwards, everyone split and went their separate ways. Some fired up and left, others went to the local Farmer’s Market and we went to the RV park restaurant with five other folks. I had French toast with bacon and sausage and Claudia had two eggs, home-style potatoes and toast. The bill was $9 and change.

We then waddled back to the rig to get ready to travel. We pulled out about 11:30 and drove 89 miles over a windy, very rough road to Lunenburg, a small but cute fishing village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.

After a short tour of the town, Claudia and I returned to prepare a co-op dinner with Barry and Terry. Our contribution was a clam chowder/lobster soup. Claudia took a clam chowder base that was given to us by our friends in Paw Paw, Michigan, added a quart of half and half, a bunch of the picked lobster from last night’s bug boil, some scallions and other spices and came up with a chowder that was at least a “15” on a 10-point scale. Again, bed and sleep came easily.

Sunday…a day of rest! Oh sure! We had a travel briefing at 8:45 followed by a drive to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. We split into two groups and had a guided tour of the facility. The first part was the aquarium…a small grouping of tanks with fish native to the area, such as cod, flounder and halibut. We then went into a larger room where our guide had a small lobster in a bucket of water. She pulled him out and gave us a really good presentation on their lives and habits. After the demonstration, she put him to sleep just like the lady in the fish market had done. Everyone was wowed!

Sound asleep!

We then went outside to visit the boats tied up to their wharf

and took a group picture. Claudia and I left to do various errands.

We walked the town, did some Christmas shopping and had lunch. I had the best fish & chips I’ve ever had. We did some more shopping and returned to the rig to await a LEO (Let’s Eat Out) dinner at the Old Fish Factory. We were so full from lunch, we just had appetizers for dinner. After that, it was a staff meeting and photo review at our rig followed by Claudia watching a movie and me doing this blog. A light rain is starting. Tonight will be very restful. Tomorrow is Claudia’s birthday and is a travel day to Halifax, the capitol of Nova Scotia.