Aug 18th to 21st - Gander to St. John's

Aug 18th - Mon - Gander
We were at the office last night to connect to wifi when we heard that the highway was closed at Gambo due to rain building up because of clogged culverts creating a dam. Gambo is 25 miles east of here which is the direction that we were heading. The only way to get around is 180 miles so we chose to stay another night and hope the highway gets fixed in a hurry.
It was clear & sunny this morning so we took over driving duties to go for another sightseeing tour. We actually drove over half of the “detour” route to Newtown. The coastline is quite different with large red rocks. We tried to find a couple of sand beaches that we had been told about but we had to wade to get to one and never found the other. We took a short walk and found a great spot for our picnic lunch. Picked wild blueberries, blackberries and raspberries for dessert. The blackberries look like black blueberries and are not as sweet. The black & blueberries are small and grow very low to the ground.
We saw many examples of another Newfoundland oddity today. Front doors are often not used and so frequently do not have steps leading to them even when the door is on the second floor. Terry H. called them ‘hanging doors”.
Parts of the route we took are very rough so we were happy to hear on the radio on the way back that the road is opened so we don’t have to take the rigs over the detour tomorrow or stay another day.

Aug 19th - Tues - to Charleston
Our plans for an earlier start today didn’t materialize when our large slide started going in crooked. It was another broken bolt but neither we nor Terry H. had the right size so Terry had to make a quick trip to the nearby Canadian Tire. We were on the road a little over an hour later than we hoped.
Short trip today - just over 2 hours to the Bonavista Peninsula. We were planning on spending 2 nights here but since we lost a day to the closed highway we decided to get here early and do our sightseeing in the afternoon.
We set out after lunch and went first to Trinity which is a very picturesque little village. We walked a bit and went into the museum and a huge old church. Next was Elliston - the Root Cellar Capital of the World. We actually went there to see puffins which are cute little birds related to penguins. We walked out to a viewing spot near their nesting area. They were not as close as Judy hoped but she had binoculars so we could easily watch them. The root cellars are set into hillsides with rock fronts supporting the roof & door. Many have been restored to a useful state.
We continued all the way to the end of the peninsula to Cape Bonavista where there is a large lighthouse. We were too late to make it worthwhile to buy a ticket and climb the lighthouse so we just checked out the interpretive center and took pictures. Took more pictures just down the road of a statue of John Cabot who “discovered” this “new found land” in 1497. There is a full size replica of his ship, the Matthew, in Bonavista but, again, it was too late to tour the ship.
We stopped for dinner at a little restaurant on the way back. I think there were 6 tables in all. Terry H. tried the “cod tongue” dinner. He gave me a sample - too “fishy” for my taste. A stop for fuel and we arrived back about 8:30 - a long, full day.

Aug 20th - Wed - to St. John’s
St John’s is the capital of Newfoundland and the largest city. The drive was short again, about 2 ½ hours. It was quite foggy for much of the way but cleared by the time we got here and was warm and muggy. We are staying at Pippy Park which is right in town. It is a huge park (3400 acres) which contains more than you would normally think of in a park - legislative buildings, a university, a trout stream with underwater viewing, a very large campground and lots of “green space”.
We set up, had a late lunch and then all went to Costco. Ended up taking us a while there as our card was expired and Judy decided to get a card as she wanted one before they head for the U.S. this winter.
Terry got ambitious when we got back and washed the truck and got the bugs off the front of the 5th wheel while I was dealing with food purchases and making brownies.
Judy & Terry had us over for dinner tonight - chicken with their special sauce. Very good.

Aug 21st - Thurs - St. John’s
We certainly cram a lot into a day.
Started out about 10, went downtown and did a lot of walking and shopping in gift/souvenir type stores - and took lots of pictures. One of the “trademarks” of St. John are the “jelly beans houses” which are rows of tall, connected houses painted different bright colors. The city is built on hills & rocks so the streets are different levels and often not square to each other.
Next was a visit to Signal Hill National Historic Site. Signal Hill is a high spot of land near the mouth of the harbor and was used to signal the town when ships - naval & commercial - were entering the harbor. It is also the location of several fights to gain & keep control of the town and thereby have control of the fishing. Cabot Tower, which was built in 1897 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s landing, is now on the site. We viewed a good film in the interpretive center about all the history of Signal Hill.
Then on to Quidi Vidi Village and the Quidi Vidi micro brewery. We took a tour of the brewery which started with tasting 7 beers - Iceburg, 1892 Traditional Ale, Erick’s Red cream ale, “7”, Honey Brown, QV Light and Cranberry Cloud which is a beer cooler - while the tour guide related some history & anecdotes. We each got to select a bottle to drink while on the rest of the tour through the processing & bottling areas.
We had taken a lunch so we sat at a picnic table outside the brewery to eat our lunch and finish our beer.
We stopped at a grocery store, brought the groceries back to the rigs and went to the Fluvaium to watch the feeding at 4:00. The Fluvarium is a trout stream with a viewing area wrapped around a building. There are also tanks inside with different species of fish, frogs and one eel that are included in the feeding. The facility is really geared to kids with different activities so we were less than overwhelmed.
We were going to have a shared baby back rib dinner but the weather got colder and windier during the day so we decided to wait for a better day for barbequing and went our separate ways for dinner.
Oops, not done yet. I was just working on the blog when Judy came over and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her. I said no and she twisted my arm - NOT! So off we went, leaving the Terrys to do their own thing.