We woke up very early. We wanted to go all the way to St. John's today and then work our way back to the ferry. It was about 6 1/2 hours of driving, all in the rain! The rain just kept coming, varying between heavy spitting to all out downpours. The Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) is the only main road, so the road is "worn" somewhat and water sets. Random hydroplaning and wind gusts only added to the adventure!! The vehicles in the other lane would hit their spots and SPLASH into us! They had signs warning of pot holes and some of those were doozies!!
The scenery was gorgeous if not consistent! LOTS of trees! Canada is a major player in the timber and paper market so it makes sense. Few houses and a few cities. Newfoundland and Labrador together are one province and about 526,000 people live here, most in Newfoundland proper. Rock-ish roads would appear but no destination obvious. School buses would appear and we wondered where they were going as it was pretty isolated! There are many campgrounds for RVs, perhaps tents too but we think perhaps people set them up for weekend destinations. The "season" here for tourism starts July 1 so we are a little early.
We did see one moose, shortly after we started driving. We both wondered how this island would have a native population of moose. Perhaps swim across a narrow part?? But it turns out they really haven't been here that long, only a few decades!! And we assume (but don't know yet) that they didn't realize how they'd take over!! They are a nuisance, not only for traffic problems including death for those that hit them as they tend to roll over onto cars, but truly decimating the forests! We saw lots of signs but only one moose.
We both took turns driving today and catnapping while the other was driving. The wind and rain made for a sleepy ride. We need to research but some of their electric poles also have boxes of rocks around their bases. Not all of them, but just some. We don't know if it has to do with the freeze line, or wind patterns, or moose?
We arrived in St. John's amidst even stronger rain. It is a very colorful city, with colorfully painted houses along the harbor and up the hillsides, and colorfully ships of all sorts in the harbor. It reminded us just a bit of San Francisco.
Greenland glaciers produce up to 40,000 ice bergs each year!! About 370 on average will reach the waters of St. John's, even though most remain offshore. In 1983/84, 2,200 ice bergs reached the waters off St. John's!
We aimed for Cabot Hill and it was even windier, rainier (and slightly sleety) up there! It was built in 1897 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's North American landfall. Because of her location on the eastern edge of North America, St. John's had been part of the wars in the 1600s and 1700s among other wars up to and including the World Wars. Cabot Hill is also referred to as Signal Hill as this hill was also the site chosen by Marconi and his assistant to test his transatlantic radio signal. With a telephone receiver and a wire antenna kept aloft by a kite, they heard Morse code for the letter "S" transmitted from Cornwall.
We noticed a lighthouse and, of course, had to check it out. We drove around and around and found the lighthouse of Fort Amherst. We had to park down a street as the lighthouse was located at the end of a dead end road, and the houses were all privately owned. It was amazing to see how prolific the dandelions were growing!! :) They were everywhere! It was also neat to see how the houses just utilized the existing rocks as part of their building process. Anyway, the rain had quit for just a little bit making the walk up the hill bearable! The fort was completed in 1777 and used up to the World Wars, being added to as needed. There really isn't much left here, and nothing reminiscent of the 1800s original fort. The lighthouse that is here was built in the early 1950s and is the third one with the first being built built around 1813. It was built by the British inside the fort built to defend their claim to Newfoundland and its rich fishing grounds.
We are staying this evening at another Holiday Inn (gotta love those points!!) and the GPS just loves to give us tours of all the residential areas when she can! We veered this way and that until we arrived literally driving through every neighborhood, or it seemed like it. This hotel is also a convention center so very busy!! It did have a laundry that wasn't busy (yeah!) and the laundry we couldn't do last night can be done this evening. We plan on driving downtown to check out some historically significant churches and eat at a local brewpub yet this eve...
John-Paul sent us some data... we are about as far away from home as it is to San Francisco the other way... and going the other way...we are also about same distance from here to Ireland as we are from home...
Tomorrow at Cape Spear lighthouse, we will be the first one to watch the sun rise in all of North America... (5:01 here = 3:31 back home in Indiana)
We have now driven over 4,000 miles since leaving home... and it would be 2,230 (43 hours) if we went "straight back" from here per google... but, we are not done yet...
We did venture out and drove to a microbrewery called Quidi Vidi Brewing Company which is located in former fish plant! Andrew had the flight of several "tastes" and proclaimed them good - made from only barley, hops, yeast and water...from icebergs. Being a former fish factory, it was situated directly on the waterfront and we were wondering about some of the picnic table seating on the deck. The one side was literally on the edge! If you'd fall back, you'd fall in!
We drove to George Street, apparently a busy street much like Beale Street or Bourbon Street. It was empty! We heard music and like the pied piper followed it into an Irish Pub. There were many people in there - open mic night!! So most likely the other places were busy too even though it is said it really really gets going about midnight and people are still out and about at 6 AM!! We had split pea soup (which was quite tasty on a cold day like today) and we split some panko fried fish as recommended by our bartender/waitress. It was outstanding.
Cheryl struck up a conversation with a lovely lady sitting next to her. We believe Cheryl was an escape as a loudly-talking man--can't really say gentleman-- sort of cornered this lady and kept edging closer and closer to her and even grabbed her arm at one point to "make a point!" He insisted on buying her a drink and she declined, and scooted her chair closer to us and started to chat. The man left his beer and walked off--hopefully he didn't return after we left! This lady was very nice, widowed about two years and it sounds like she was trying to figure out how to go to a bar by herself (That is what is sounded like she said.). She worked for the government and retired two years ago; her and her husband loved to travel, including to Indiana for the Indianapolis 500!! They also did the Cleveland 500 and the Michigan 500 as well as followed Formula racing! She sounded like she would be a nice person to get to know better. Andrew drank a beer and listened to the music.
We walked towards the Jellybean row, which is a row of colorfully painted shops and galleries. Most of the houses were colorful and well-maintained! We walked around the block to the St. John the Baptist Anglican Church that took up an entire block! It was founded in 1699 as a parish church and the consecrated as a Cathedral in 1850 and is the oldest Anglican church in all of Canada. It is an active parish which offers 5 services on Sundays!
Four o'clock will be here before we know it. Nighty night all!
The time difference is unusual here: we are 1 1/2 hours ahead of home. Yes, 1 and 1/2 hours. It caused some strife yesterday as my phone caught the time change but my watch did not as I hadn't synced it yet. When I went down to do the laundry the desk clerk said it wouldn't be done was it was already past 10, and my clock said only a little past 9:30. Strange.
Another interesting thing. :) Andrew has voices inside of his head. Yes, he really does. His new hearing aids are amazing!! He can adjust them and can really hear well. They are also bluetooth capable and are synced to his phone. So sometimes I will hear the voice of the GPS emitting from his ears. To be honest, it freaked me out the first time I heard it. He literally can listen to music, phone calls, and the GPS directly in his ears. --- (note from Andrew... and I can adjust real world volume left-right up/down, plus bass, mid-range,treble adjustment -- built in equalizer ... even turn it all off and tune out completely if needed....)
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