St. Anthony and St. Barbe

Today is Monday, August 11th and we are on our way to St. Anthony. Once we got past Lobster Head Cove lighthouse, the scenery changed considerably. The trees became stunted and wind-shaped, very similar to the Santa Barbara and Monterrey areas. All along the road were stacks of cut firewood, lobster traps and small plots planted with potatoes, carrots, turnips and the like.

These are all completely out in the open. There is absolutely no theft of property up here. People leave snowmobiles and trailers outside without any thought they might be stolen or vandalized. It just doesn’t happen up here.

We went through the small villages of Sally’s Cove, Western Brook and Broom Point and then into the thriving metropolis of Cow Head which is near Shallow Bay. I think the people who named these towns were imagination challenged. We passed a restaurant where two rigs were stopped. After checking on them, we again headed on down the road. We got about five miles and came to a small pond on the left side of the road. There at the edge of the pond, munching on grass and lilly pads, was Ms. Moose. There was no place to stop to grab a photo so you will just have to close your eyes and imagine a cow moose standing by a pond. Sorry! I’ll try to do better next time.

The road varied from very good to very bad. Some of the time we were doing 55 and other times we were down to 30. We arrived at the park just after 3:00 and got all snuggled into our site. After doing necessary chores, we moved over to Barry’s rig and set up for a 5:00 pm social. Almost everyone showed up and, again, there was more than enough food. We split at 6:00 for a light dinner. The light dinner was necessary as we are hosting a 7:30 campfire and doing “slugs” for the group.

Before we could set up for the campfire, we had a visitor to the campground.

A yearling bull moose decided to pay us a visit by walking slowly by at the edge of the trees right behind the rigs. We got lots of great pictures. He wasn’t afraid at all and just kept posing before slowly walking off into the trees. We then finished setting up for the slugs.

How to make a "slug".

Spray a slug stick with non-stick

Wrap slug skin on stick

Bake the skin until done

Fill baked skin with "guts"

Add a whipped cream "head"

The finished slug

Eat and enjoy

We needed to do a full clean-up afterwards because there are bears that roam here at the park and we don’t need any gear torn up. Tomorrow is an all-day bus tour and a Viking dinner.
The first place we went to on the tour was L’Anse aux Meadows, the site of the first known Norse settlement in North America. It is believed that it was Leif Erickson who settled here, but that cannot be confirmed. We toured the remains of the settlement and visited a reproduction of the village. The whole thing is built on bogs that are loaded with bakeapples, some of which were

summarily removed and consumed on the spot.

Picking bakeapples

A bucket of bakeapples

Following this, we went to a reproduction of a Norse village called Norstead where we viewed a beautiful Viking ship, participated in an axe throwing contest, ate fresh cod cooked over an open fire and observed several weaving demonstrations.

Viking ship

Inside the ship

Throwing the axe (it stuck!)

Cooking cod

We then went to a museum dedicated to Dr. Grenfell, an English doctor and Samaritan who established several hospitals and clinics and spent years treating the people of Labrador and Newfoundland. We then returned to the park to relax and get cleaned up for the Viking Feast.
The feast was a ball! We entered a large sod house, similar to the ones at Norstead, and were met by the employees who were all dressed up as Vikings.

We were seated at large community tables and plied with modern “grog”. The dinner was a buffet consisting of salad, moose stew, roast beef, baked cod, baked salmon, carrots, potatoes and turnips. We had only spoons and a knife for utensils. It was a delicious meal.

After the meal, the head Viking brought up several people from the audience who wished to accuse others of “crimes”. Several “trials” were held and punishment meted out. I just happened to be one of those accused of a crime. My “crime” was waking up caravan guests early on travel days by beating on their tires with a “huge” stick, causing unknown damage and consternation to the guests and their pets. I was allowed to plead my case to the audience. I answered the charges by telling them it was required by the company I work for and it was for the customer’s own safety, as a deflated tire could cause severe damage to a motorhome if it blew out while travelling.

Pleading my case

My pleadings fell on deaf ears. I was found guilty. It was a total railroad job. My sentence was to help the rigs dump their tanks at our next stop. Fine…I’ll do it! Oh, I just remembered…there are no sewer hookups at our next stop. Golly, Gee whiz, Darn…that’s too bad! Heh, heh…skated on that one!

The next day, Wednesday, we travelled to the Labrador Ferry holding yard at St. Barbe. It is a large fenced gravel yard that easily held our caravan. We are having a wine and cheese party after everyone gets here and we just spend the night awaiting the ferry’s departure for Labrador at 8:00 tomorrow morning. We leave the rigs here and are just walk-on’s for the ferry. We spend tomorrow night at a hotel and then return to the rigs about 9:00 am on Friday morning.

Well…the best laid plans… I have been fighting my annual sore throat, chest congestion and hacking cough for the past few days and it flared up pretty bad last night. I decided to stay here in the motorhome and try to get better rather than go to Labrador and possibly infect all the guests with what I have. So, here I am, me and Valentino, in an empty motorhome , all alone. I started taking antibiotics and other medications and I think it’s starting to turn. At least the slight fever I had yesterday hasn’t returned. Luckily, I have a good supply of old war flicks and westerns to watch. Valentino prefers the westerns…he doesn’t like major violence. Too bad I don’t have “Finding Nemo” for him to watch.

When Claudia returns tomorrow, we all jump in our rigs and head for Deer Lake, a 184-mile trip. Supposedly, there is wi-fi at our site so I should be able to get this now-too-long blog off into the airways.