Off we go. We were soon put on alert. On the way out of Ottawa, a driver pulling a trailer was speeding past us and the trailer started to fishtail as he got a few car lengths ahead of us. Finally the driver got the truck under control but not until after the trailer had rolled over into the ditch--a little scary. After five hours of driving, listening to podcasts, we arrived at Berthier sur Mer, a quaint town on the St. Lawrence. Our balcony backed on the river so we had a walk on the edge and did some rock scrambling--a beautiful sunny day. George took some great photos. I wish I had bought "adventure" boots in Oak Island as there was a small waterfall that we could have waded through and used stepping stones to get to the other side but alas...
Next day, we drove and drove and I knitted until I ran out of yarn. We stopped at Hartland, the Longest Covered Bridge in the World. and then on to Fredericton in the late afternoon. There are lots of lovely, old and large houses in the area where we are. Our place is in a huge house with wide stairways. Our first walk in the downtown area took us to a green with CANADA 150 in large letters like Inspiration Village in Ottawa. We had seafood dinner at Issac's Way which is a craft beer place. Neil and Sheryl might be impressed to hear we tried four kinds, two quite dark and one apricot and a citrus one. I might drink beer if it tastes like the apricot one. Our first Seafood Chowder, Yay.
Breakfast was great and then we poked around at the market. Lots of lovely food but we were still full. We visited Gallery 78 and Beaverbrook Gallery. Some impressive stuff and also some modern which usually doesn't interest me. The Beaverbrook family must have been loaded as they gave the funds to build lots of Fredericton. The Legislative Buildings are hohum. We walked to Government House but it was closed. There was an amazing water park across the street with a giant pail that got filled with water and then tipped over. We wondered if small children could be drowned by it. None were while we were watching. We stopped at a couple of book stores and the big M and then headed on home.
While walking today, we were waiting for a walk sign and a guy turned to us and said, "Just like Moncton, the walk light never changes." He walked anyway and so did we and others. We jay-walked again later and cars stopped to let us cross the road. There was a public service announcement pinned to a pole which warned against having anything to do with Bert because "He was sex diseases.".
Sunday, we walked on the pedestrian bridge (an old railway bridge) over the St. John River and stopped at an information centre. Interesting display. We drove through the University of NB. Then we headed to Shediac, NB. On the way we stopped at the Magnetic Hill--very strange. We drove to the bottom of what seemed like a hill, put the car into neutral and it seemed to go up the hill backwards. It happened again when we turned to face what appeared to be the top. We walked the route and it was like walking on a level road and then down. Hmmm.
Shediac is quite small-our place is Tait House which is a huge house built in 1911--wide stairs and lots of balconies and a huge veranda. The first owner made his money in potatoes. The lady who welcomed us seemed somewhat unusual--didn't seem to understand who we were and what room we were in. (there was only one other couple there!) Anyway, she came up to try to fix our TV which seemed to only have a black and white picture. We ended up moving to another room which has a view of the Bay and two lovely wing chairs.. At breakfast, the next morning, we chatted with a couple from Saskatchewan who were farmers and NB is the last province for them to visit. We drove to La Dune Bouctouche, a conservation site, and walked on the beach. It is sponsored by Irving, an oil company. The Acadian Village wasn't open yet so we climbed the observation tower and looked from there. Chatted with Sheryl.
June 6, enroute to Antigonish to visit Julien and family. A car passed us and the rear, left side window imploded and there was glass all over the back seat. We just kept driving, I called Julien and he recommended Apple Glass and indeed, they could clean and tape up the window but didn't have the glass to fix it, so they called Sydney and Stephenville to see if they could do it as these were our next stops. No one had the glass but could get it the next day which was not soon enough as we had a date with the Ferry that night. I had visions of driving through NFLD with plastic in the window. My next thought was that probably no one would try to break in because they would think that the plastic would indicate there was nothing worth taking in the car! So we drove to the Apple place and the owner said he could probably get a used window and do the repair. I had not considered that window glass could be reused but it was good as new. Julien picked us up and we went to their home for a lovely lunch. Great to see Emily and Julien. Liam and Anna are delightful. Anna went off for her nap and Liam showed us some of his toys. A lovely family. Meanwhile, our car was cleaned and fixed. So on we went to Baddeck for coffee and to North Sydney for dinner and boarded the Ferry at 22h00. What a well-oiled organization. We got to our cabin and found two single beds and a private bathroom. After a walk around, we settled in only to be wakened at 6:30 for we had arrived in Newfoundland. Yay.
The Ferry ride was very smooth and we disembarked around 8:00 on June 7th. We were off to see the sights. Our first stop was a craft shop that was billed as the best with the best prices. It was painted in bright primary colours like that in the ads that encouraged us to visit. We bought fridge magnets and visited with the owner and her sister. We, old grannies, exchanged ideas on how much child rearing had changed since we had our babies. Also, they knew the brother of George's friend who we would visit in Stephenville. First we toured around the Codroy Valley and Cape Anguille lighthouse. By the time we arrived in Stephenville, it was just after noon. We had been in the car for 4 hours. Yike. Jim and his wife, Donna, came to our hotel and treated us to lunch and lively conversation. George and Jim went on a tour, while Donna went home to prepare dinner and I had a nap and went for a walk. Donna prepared a "Jiggs" dinner for us which is a traditional, Sunday, Newfoundland meal consisting of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, turnip, chicken, partridgeberry dumplings and gravy with a strawberry dessert. It was all delicious. George and Jim met in the summer of 1967 and then we all met in Ottawa in 1971 when they were on their honeymoon. Jim had been to Winnipeg a couple of times in the 80s.
This morning (June 8), we drove to Cow Head which is a tiny village just past Gross Morne National Park. Our room has a view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The temperatures are unseasonably low so our walk on the beach was chilly. We attended a play which was a tad dark but funny--called "Fly Me to The Moon". We had decided not to drive at dawn or dust as that is when the moose are about. We haven't seen any but there were 1000 accidents last year involving moose so we are watchful. The drive was lovely as there are mountains(?) or high hills all around.
Rocky Harbour is our next destination but first we had a boat ride on a fjord. There was a required 3km walk into where the Western Brook Pond boats were waiting. There was boardwalk through the really wet parts--mostly bog and peat. The trees are gnarly and wind blown. Speaking of wind--it was so strong that it would have picked up Piglet and took him away had he been there! There were some lovely yellow flowers as well as dandelions but spring is slow so the leaves have just started to grow. We foolishly went to the bow of the boat and got really wet by the spray--the water was quite choppy until we got between the mountains of rock. There was a formation that resembled Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. --lovely rugged landscape. We had hot chocolate during our return walk.
While driving in the Park, I often noticed two red chairs in a varied of places. Seems they are placed for people to stop and sit and enjoy the view. A friend of George's told him about sitting in some by Clear Lake and enjoying the sunset. So we found a couple of chairs and had a small picnic. Relaxing after our walks.
Our place for the night at Rocky Harbour was beautiful, quite newly done and very nicely decorated. The owners have a small daughter who was playing dress-up when we left. Tourism here is growing. We had tickets for "Anchors Aweigh" which is a band that specializes in Newfoundland music and jokes and have been performing for 23 years.. It was a tad raunchy and highlighted some of the history of the Land. There was much banter, a bit related to taking a break. Supposedly, a lady in a previous show asked for a break because her "arse was dunched" a Newfoundland word for tired of sitting. We met a couple walking to the concert and chatted with them during dinner. Part of the act was a demonstration of how to make and play an 'ugly stick". Lots of fun.
This morning it is raining and cloudy and we are off to Grand Falls Windsor which seems quite boring but it served as a break on the way to Twillingate, the iceberg capital. The sun did shine by the time we arrived but it was windy. There is much construction along the way which bears out another joke from last night which was: A Brit was talking to a Newfoundlander and said that in England they drive on the left. The Newfoundlander said that here they drive on what is left of the road. There is so much rock that blasting is required when roads are being built. We had ft sessions with all of our offspring. Yay. Also, there is no laundermat here.
Twillingate and icebergs. There is pack ice and icebergs on the water. Pack ice looks like a lumpy cover of snow. Because of it there hadn't been any boat tours until today. All this pack ice is unusual for this time of year. The temperature today is 19 degrees. By the time. we went on a boat tour the temperature had dropped and it was cloudy and threatening rain. It was so great to be on the water, going around and among the ice flows. Icebergs are huge. Smaller pieces of ice flow with the current. The wind brings in the pack ice and also takes it away. Our place is great and the hostess is very informative. She seems to enjoy chatting with the guests and the house was full. We had moose sausages with our breakfast. She told us that Twillingate has been maintained on Alberta Oil money. Her husband worked in Fort Mac two weeks and then was home for two weeks. Now he is in Labrador on the same schedule. They own a house as well as the B&B house and a cabin. She has shot a moose and they use snow machines in the winter and also go some place warm for some of the winter. We noted that the houses look new and well maintained and there are many trucks. Our hostess told us that last year students at school missed a month of school because of the weather. Also, this is her second marriage and divorce is awful! She let us use her laundry facilities. Yay.
We had a lovely walk downtown, visited the harbour to admire the pack ice and icebergs in the distance. We stopped and relaxed in a couple of Adirondack chairs near the water. We also visited a little gallery of pencil drawings and bought some wine. There is a winery in town. In the evening we went to the dinner theatre--dinner was OK--mass produced as there were over 100 seats in the place. The show was singing mostly ballads about being homesick for Newfoundland and humorous skits. One skit featured 45 President in Newfoundland deciding to build a wall between a couple of islands. He promised to create 150,000 jobs which would be people making pothole signs and 150,000 more jobs which would be people holding the signs. It was an enjoyable evening.
We stopped at Gander the next day to view the 9/11 exhibit in the Aviation museum. The film and the wall of thank you letters was quite moving. In the film, the air traffic controller said they had landed 38 planes in 3 hours--amazing. There is a piece of a girder on display that came from the Twin Towers. Apparently, when it was being moved to Gander as it passed through the towns on the TransCanada highway, there was always an honour guard. We chatted with a young reporter, Josh, who was born in 1992. His father had been an RCMP officer so Joah had lived in many places but chose to come back to Newfoundland to work as a journalist. He told us he had convinced his girlfriend to work in Newfoundland as well. I think they live in Gander which grew up around the airport. As we travel here, it seems like most of the entertainers are in our age range, so I asked him if he knew any of the Newfoundland songs. He said he didn't but he had worked on the Blue Nose as a summer job one year and one of his colleagues was always singing or humming while he worked but that fellow was the only one who did, thanks to his grandmother who taught him the songs. Josh seemed a very thoughtful young man who was writing about life in Newfoundland. We arrived in Trinity in the rain. George has valiantly driven around many potholes. There is usually Moose Alert signs and Caution Potholes signs along the roads. There is a joke about how drunks weave about when they are driving but in Newfoundland, everyone weaves around to avoid potholes.
We had a delicious dinner and then attended a musical play which told some of the history of Newfoundland and expressed the sadness related to the hard life here. It was about the resettlement program-the decision to move people from their small villages so it would be easier to bring services to them. I have begun to think that people who live here are very brave and resilient. It is so rugged and fishing is so uncertain and there is so much ice! I feel quite conflicted between having respect for the choices people make and the life they lead in this harsh climate. At dinner there was a birthday celebration and the staff sang and played an ugly stick. Our waitress told us that her husband and son were away fishing for at least six days near St. John's which is about 2 hours from here by car. They are in a boat with four others and will also sleep on it. I wonder how they stay warm. Her son hated school and she forced him to finish which he barely did and then did a fishing course and got 98%. Her daughter is at Memorial University.
Next morning a young couple from St. John's was at breakfast with us and they talked about coming back to Newfoundland. They had just been married: she was a lawyer and he studied Architecture. They talked about the stress of jobs and had five cats which helped her de-stress. After a lovely breakfast, we walked around the town. It was a lovely day, although the temperature was only 7. The town is sort of a museum town, a bit like Upper Canada Village. Many buildings are set up for tourists to view and learn some history. Then we drove to Bonavista, which is another little town, and lo and behold, there were four large icebergs in the harbour. Delightful to see! It was very windy and the wind did not stop--heard it all night and in the morning. We had seafood chowder at an old tea house. In the evening, we again went to the theatre. Tonight's play was about the Cod Moratorium of 1992. Two sisters related their stories of how it affected their lives. It was so sad. Many tears were shed. Life here in the small villages was/is very difficult.
Had some texts from our offspring and a face time session with Brienne and Claire. We are at the mid-point of this trip.
Tomorrow we are off to Carbonear and then to St. John's. Our bottoms will be "dunched" by the time we arrive. I have decided to split this trip into two blogs because there is so much to write. We have noted some interesting speech patterns of Newfoundlanders.
To be continued.
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