Birch bark canoe
I’d never seen one built quite like this. We visited the local Coast Guard Search & Rescue display and walked down to the waterfront. After that, it was on the road again.
We arrived in Gander about 2:30ish and got all set up. Our view out the front window was terrible. We had to look at a nice little tree-lined pond where one would expect a moose to emerge at any time.
The view out our front window!
None did! We waited until 6:00 for a Newfie barbecue at the park. This is always great…don’t have to go anywhere. We had a delicious steak dinner with potato salad, cole slaw, roll and ice cream with blueberries and/or loganberries.
Dinner
I did the “and” option which was a good choice. The blueberries are sweet and the loganberries are tart. Great combination!
The next morning we carpooled to the Aviation Museum where there were several planes on display. Gander was a major hub for the military during WWII as well as being an international airport. I actually flew in here once on a Lockheed Constellation back in the “olden days”. There was a memorial just down the road where an Arrow Air DC-8 crashed on December 12, 1985 with 256 people on board. Aside from the flight crew, all passengers were members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne who were returning to their base in Kentucky from Cairo, Egypt . It was the worst air disaster in Canadian history.
The Silent Witness Memorial
A second memorial was to the people of Gander who received and sheltered about 6,000 passengers from the 9/11 disaster after their flights were diverted from American airspace. The people of Gander opened their homes and hearts to all the emergency visitors and cared for them for the four days they were marooned here.
We then returned to the park to get ready for a travel briefing and a pot-luck social where I magnificently prepared some very tasty Hors du Oeuvres of deep-fried dill pickles. Somehow, “Hors du Oeuvres” and “deep-fried dill pickles” don’t really go together. However, as an honorary Redneck and documented honorary “Coon Ass”, I prepared them for those unlucky enough to not have eaten these delicacies. I then beer-batter deep-fried some of the fish that a few of our fisherman caught the other day. There was enough food on the tables that Claudia again escaped making dinner. I went to bed early and slept soundly!
Sunday morning was lightly foggy and slightly soggy. We were all out of the park by 8:30 and enroute to Twillingate. Since there had been copious amounts of rain in the past few weeks, the road we were scheduled to take was a series of wash-outs, road patches and so forth. Even some of the asphalt patches has fresh patches in them! As a result, we detoured and stayed on TCH 1 (Trans-Canada Highway 1) even though it was a slightly longer route. A second advantage was that we drove right through the infamous villages of Dildo Run and Herring Neck.
As we pulled in to the rv park in Twillngate, Barry and Terry greeted us with the news that two icebergs were right off the harbor and could be seen from the lighthouse. I got the rig parked, leveled and plugged in within five minutes…a new record. We then grabbed the camera and binoculars and headed for the lighthouse. We arrived, parked and climbed to an observation deck and there they were!
Isn't there a polar bear on the ice?
The bigger one was about 5-6 miles out and a smaller one was slightly closer. I even thought I saw a polar bear riding the berg…but I have a vivid imagination! We are scheduled to go whale watching on Tuesday but the boat captain is checking out the paths of the bergs and may take us tomorrow afternoon on a combination trip to see them both. My camera card is all downloaded and the batteries are in the charger. By morning I will be ready!
We later went to the local Masonic lodge for a “Newfie dinner” of roast beef, mashed potatoes, squashed turnips and peas. A slice of pie and make-it-yourself powdered coffee completed the dinner. After dinner, we got a tour of the lodge and an explanation of what masons do. Several of us then went down to the harbor to snoop around some of the buildings and take photos. Even though it was close to 8:00 pm, there was still plenty of light for photos. Returning to the rig, we fed Valentino and did some minor chores before hitting the rack and waiting for tomorrow’s activities.
Today is now tomorrow and we are headed out for the Prime Berth, a reproduction of an old Newfoundland fishing stage. The owner, Dave, still fishes commercially and built the place, including his home, by himself.
Prime Berth fishing stage
Dave after filleting the cod
Museum sea chanties
They gave us a great tour, probably the best we’ve had so far. He had some fresh cod and showed us how they bone them out, or “flatten” them before they are salted and dried. After the tour, Claudia and I went down to the local restaurant and had some excellent fish & chips followed by a bakeapple sundae. A bakeapple, also known as a cloudberry, grows wild out on the bogs. It looks like a blackberry except that it’s a sort of golden color and is slightly more tart. It was delicious. We also saw the restaurant serving a huge banana split with two extra-large scoops of ice cream, one covered with bakeapple sauce and the other with a boysenberry sauce. We have a date to try one tomorrow.
We then returned home only to find the smaller of the two local icebergs sitting about five miles directly off the rv park. The whale and iceberg tour will be tomorrow. Tonight is a dinner show at the local playhouse. Since we had some “free time” before the dinner and show tonight, I took stock of the chores that needed to be done around here. We have one window shade that needs re-stringing, bins that need cleaning and straightening, a quick repair to the temperature probe for the outside thermometer and an electrical problem with the brake lights on the Explorer. I took a nap instead!
We carpooled to the dinner theater, got our tickets, went inside, got a drink (Black Russian) and sat down. The performers served our dinner to us. I had stuffed cod and Claudia had the fried cod…both good but Claudia’s was better. The show was a combination of music and slapstick comedy.
Newfie dinner show
It was a cute show and I enjoyed it. There were jokes, funny skits, serious songs and not so serious songs. After the show, we headed back to the rig and settled in for the night. We have to make coffee for the travel briefing in the morning and will then take off for the whale watching. Hopefully, the icebergs will be close enough to visit. More later.
Unfortunately, the bergs were too far away for us to visit so we just did the whale bit. We ran into a couple of pods of dolphin that were jumping, cutting bait and riding our bow wake.
A dolphin in our bow wake
The guests got all gushy over them which was a good thing. We then spotted a finback whale and closed in for a good look-see. Everyone saw a few blows from about 100 yards away and then the sneaky little varmint gave us the slip. I think he doubled back under us as we closed in to see him. I was a good trip in that everyone saw a whale but it just didn’t put on a show for us so that was a little letdown. We returned to the dock and to the rv park and then Barry and I went shopping for “guy stuff” at the hardware store.
Returning with our purchases, I dove into the electrical problem on the Explorer. I have been blowing fuses for the taillights and brake lights. I suspected the towing bridle and took it apart. A center post had come loose and was shorting out the wiring. I chucked it because it wasn’t being used for anything and then replaced two fuses in the car’s fuse panel. Problem solved! I then cleaned up and baked a bunch of biscuits for our staff-prepared breakfast in a few days. We are having biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs. As I was baking, some guests returned from the beach where they talked a fisherman out of a bunch of capelin, a small fish similar to a grunion or smelt. They had set up a table with an electric skillet going and were frying up the little critters in butter. We held an impromptu fish fry on the spot. They were good! Tonight, we go to another show called “The Split Peas” which should be similar to last night’s performance and tomorrow is a travel day to Springdale. Au revoir!
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