Aug 22nd to 24th - St. John's

Aug 22nd - Fri - St. John’s
Another full day.
We followed the “Admirals’ Coast” on the south end of Conception Bay and then the “Baccalieu Trail” which makes a loop around one of the Northern Avalon peninsulas between Trinity Bay and Conception Bay. We hit the Admiral’s Coast road (Hwy 60) at Chamberlains and followed it until Holyrood where we stopped by a lovely boardwalk for some pictures and a short walk. From here we went to the TCH and west to Whitbourne (Hwy 80) where we headed north on the west side of the peninsula. Our first stop was at Dildo where there is no consensus as to the origin of the name of the town. We stopped at a nice restaurant in Whiteway for lunch. Today was Terry & Judy’s anniversary so we figured it was appropriate that we go to Heart’s Desire where we turned to go across the peninsula rather than driving the whole way around.
On the east coast of the peninsula, we stopped for some pictures of Carbonear, visited the information center at Harbour Grace, tried to spot rock walls at Spaniard’s Bay and took a quick driving tour around Brigus with a thought to come back another day as we needed to “head for home”.
When we were on the TCH on the way back, we were held up very briefly by a car accident on our side of the highway. We heard later that traffic had been blocked for about an hour so our timing was good. The opposite side of the highway had a huge backup of traffic due to construction closing one lane at rush hour.
We had thought about going downtown to George Street but we had both purchased baby back ribs and planned a shared dinner. By the time we were done with that we were all too relaxed & tired to go out.

Aug 23rd - Sat - St. John’s
Decided to explore Bell Island and go on a mine tour today. Bell Island is in Conception Bay and is reached by a 20 minute ferry ride. We arrived at the departure town of Portugal Cove-St Phillips about 10:20 and encountered a line up of cars for the ferry. We couldn’t get on the 10:40 ferry and had to wait for the 12 o’clock sailing. Bell Island is only 10 km long by 2 km wide so it didn’t take long to get to the mine for a tour. This mine started in 1895 and had tunnels running at a 10 degree slope following the vein of ore under the bay. The ore was shoveled into cars by hand so eventually they could not compete with heavy equipment in open pit mines in Labrador and it closed in 1966. The tour goes 650 feet along the main tunnel and a short ways into some side rooms. The ore vein is 17 feet high so that is the height of the ceilings. 40 to 60 percent of the ore is left as support columns in the tunnels & rooms.
After the tour we drove to a cove and had a picnic lunch. The 2:40 ferry was just pulling out as we drove down the road so we went to view a lighthouse. When we returned in a short while to the ferry dock, the 3:20 ferry was loading. We wanted to get ice cream so we drove on the ferry and then walked back off to a little restaurant to get cones - after checking with ferry workers that the ferry would indeed not leave until 3:20. They said if the whistle blew we had to run back as fast as we could.
When we got off the ferry, we continued on a loop drive around the eastern Northern Avalon peninsula which is called the Killick Coast.
We had leftover ribs from last night and we each made a salad for another shared dinner. Then we were off to George Street which, for a couple of blocks, is solid bars & restaurants and is supposed to be the prime area for nightlife. We figured we were there a little early so we walked up & down the couple of blocks to decide where we wanted to have a drink. We ended up in a place with a couple of guys singing traditional songs and a band to show up later. We didn’t stay until “later” as the drinks were pretty expensive and the only table that we could get was a couple of steps down from the entertainment. Guess we are just all too old for partying in a bar!!

Aug 24th Sun - St. John’s
Exciting morning today - a trip to a laundromat. We timed our trip just right as there were enough washers for both of us when we arrived but people waiting in line when our wash finished. Terry had one of our propane tanks filled while I was doing laundry - $33.25 which in the US is the price for both tanks.
We returned to the rigs to put away laundry and have a quick lunch before going to the Johnson Geo Centre. This is a “geological showcase” with the main exhibit area dug into the rocks near Signal Hill. The rock formations of Newfoundland are much older than other areas of Canada and are therefore interesting to geologists.
There is a 16 minute introduction video and then 4 major display areas - Our Planet (how was the earth formed?), Our Province (why this area is “Earth’s Geological Showcases”), Our People (where did humans come from?) and Our Future (are our choices good for our future?). In addition, there is an ExxonMobil Oil &Gas Gallery and “The Titanic Story”. The Titanic is relevant to this area as it sank only 350 miles from here and Newfoundland received the first distress call. I enjoyed the Titanic story most of all. There are just so many facts about the sinking that I didn’t know and found very interesting.
We drove through downtown on the way back and saw a huge Holland Line cruise ship in the harbor. The store that we wanted was closed so we continued on to Costco and WalMart.
Individual dinners tonight. I am catching up on the blog, putting captions on pictures, catching up on our expenses spreadsheet and posting pictures - while the others are playing cribbage!