2013 August 1-6St. John & Bonavista

 August 1-August 4, 2013

Free Day St. John, Bonavista

August 1

We spent our free day back on Signal Hill after a stop to get an RV part.  This day was beautiful and sunny.  We finished the museum on signal hill.  Then we spent 1-2 hours hiking around the area.  We saw gun placements and various views of St. John and the surrounding area.  Gordon might tell you we walked uphill the entire time.  We were on top of the hill for the firing of then noon cannon.  This was a tradition for many years, but stopped in the 20^th century.  It was started again last year.  Volunteers can sign up to fire the cannon.   If only we had known, we could have dress up in period military costume and learned the ritual.  We were fortunate to see the solar powered hydro foil boat.  The boat is sailing around the world.  It looks like a space ship on water.  It stopped just before entering Port St. John.  We went to the top of Cabot Tower, then down the hill to the museum for lunch.

Our next stop was the Geo Museum.  We could have spent all day there.  It is built into the rocks.  A small café and gift shop are on the top.  Then you go below ground to the museum.  The hill sides are part of the walls.  The staff showed different movies continuously throughout the day and professional geologists and other staff gave guided tours every few minutes.  We had a guided tour of the oil exhibit.  It covered aspects of drilling in the great banks, including the survival suit everyone was trained to use before they could be transported to the rig.  Then we saw a movie about small animals, like frogs and fire ants.  As that finished we had a guided tour that gave us a lesson on the three kinds of rocks—sedimentary, igneous, and ???   We had a guide talk about the “Whispers of the Rock.”  It talked about the rock walls that were part of the museum.  We saw a 3-D movie on icebergs and ice shelves.  Finally, we toured the exhibit on the Titanic.

Although we were on our way home, it took a while to get there.  We stopped to get iceberg beer at Quidi Vidi, gas, groceries, and hardware.  We covered most of the city.  What a beautiful, modern city it is and the old buildings are well preserved.  St. John’s is the capital of the Newfoundland/Labrador Province.  Did you know Newfoundland did not come part of Canada until 1949?  It had been a territory of Britain and an independent nation before then.   Labrador joined Canada at the same time and became part of the same province.  Today Labrador has only 30,000 people. 

I forgot to mention that St. John gets 20’ of snow per year on average.  It has gotten more.

N. Sydney (night before ferry ride)Eddie Coffee and his group, Entertainment at Lobster and Prime Rib Supper.  

Ferry Pictures

view from ferry on departure

Firing Noon Cannon at Cabot Tower, St. John

View of St. John from battery placement

view of entrance to St. John's Harbor

Quidi Vidi

Friday, August 2, was a travel day.  We had another beautiful, sunny day.  We took time to see part of Terra Nova National Park, so were the last to arrive at the campground.  We ended up on a site with 20 amp service (a long electrical cord to the barn/bath house.  We are the only ones in our group with electricity.  Everyone else has generators, although one couple, that had never dry camped, found out their generator was broken.  They are now hooked up to the tail gunners generator. 

After our travel briefing, we got screeched.  We are now honorary Newfoundler.  It was quite the ceremony.  A British soldier (the RV park owner) and 4 of our group paraded to our group.  Two of them were wearing life jackets and the large yellow rain hat (typical Newfounder hat which is kind of the shape of a fireman’s hat, but is soft plastic).

The other two wore rain suits with hats.  We had to make an oath to the king.  After the oath, we made a toast to the king with a small bit of Screeher's rum.  Finally, we kissed the King (a frozen cod).  It was funny.

Wagon Master prepares to kiss King Cod

Saturday, August 3

What a busy day we had!  We ride shared into Bonavista (We are actually outside of town in the county, but in the area that is Ft. Union).  Of course, it was rainy and cold most of the day.  We skipped the 3 murals on the water tower at Lookout point and went to the Ryan Premises National Historic Site.  We went to the water tower and lookout at the end of our day.  The museum commemorates five centuries of commercial fishing on Canada’s east coast.  Five buildings are part of the saltfish mercantile complex.  This would be the group that supplied the fishing supplies and personal supplies of the fisherman in exchange for salt cod.  An individual culled the dried fish into various grades, which determined the credit the fisherman would received.  The culler was paid by the business.  As you can imagine, the fisherman were not always given a fair deal.  A guide gave us a demonstration of the salted fish process.  Making salted cod was a family project and making salted or pickled code was done on plantations. Fisherman would bring in the fish. They would be hauled to the fish shed, which was right above the water. One person would cut the throat and open the gut.  Another would remove the gut, saving the liver, which was turned into cod liver oil, and the head.  Sometimes heads were saved for the tongue and the cheeks, some of which were eaten by the fishermen (I tried fried cod tongue and they are very good).   Guts and unused parts were thrown into the ocean. The next person would remove the spine.  Cod have no other bone or scales.  Fish are salted.  Then they are taken somewhere else where they are stacked up with layers of salt on and around each fish.  The staking helps remove moisture.  They the fish are washed in salt water.  Hopefully, it is dry day and they can be put outside on flakes.  Fish left too long in salt water receive a much lower grade when culled.  Flakes are wooden structures with brush on top.  Fish are put on this to finish drying out.  The fish need to be turned every few hours.  Women and children usually take care of the drying. 

It was hard for fishermen to make a living on this credit system.  Some turned to lumbering in the winter or hunting for seals.  Eventually fisherman in this area formed a cooperative, which gave them money for their fish. 

The first fishermen were recruited on the British.  They came for a few seasons to fish and returned to England.  The British would then put the experience sailors in the royal navy.  Some of the fishermen stayed to avoid inscription in the navy.

                                                  Pictures of Displays at Ryan Mercentile Complex

After we finished the exhibits in the five buildings we went to lunch.  I had a Newfounder’s lunch of brewis.  It was pretty blah.  It consisted of salted cod, salted pork deep fat fried, and hardtack.  It came with a piece of raisin molasses bread.  Gordon and the other couple with us had other things. 

After lunch, the entire group met at Matthew Legacy.  John Cabot (actually Caboto) was an Italian sponsored by the British.  His job was to find a passage to the West Indies.  Instead, he found N. America.  He later tried a different route around S. America, but never returned.  John sailed in the Matthew.  Newfoundlanders celebrated the 500 yr. anniversary of their finding in 1997.  People on the island built a duplicate Matthew.  It sailed to England and returned to Bonavista.  Queen Elizabeth came for the dedication of the ship.  The ship is usually outside in the summer and dry docked in a shed in the winter.  Because of some wood rot, it was in the shed.

Matthew's Legacy (in dry dock)

Winter Quarter's for Matthew's Legacy

Next stop was the Mockbeggar Plantation.  It may be the oldest identifiable fishery plantation in existence in Newfoundland.  Five buildings were part of the plantation, but only the house was open.  The house had many owners, including F. Gordon Bradley, a lawyer and politician, who played a significant role in the move to bring Newfoundland into Confederation of Canada.   He became the first representative in the Canadian Cabinet, and later served as a member of Senate.  His family donated the property to the Province.  The house was large and well furnished (furniture dated from 1930’s).  It was not the typical fisherman’s house.

Mockbeggar Plantation House (front)

After the plantation, we went to the Bonavista Light House for a guided tour.  It was next to a huge rock with thousands of puffins.  The house of the light keepers was built around the round light house.  It made for some interesting rooms.  Some of our group saw whale from here.  We did not see them until our next stop, Dungeon Rock. 

kerosene lights in top of light house

puffins & gulls near Bonavista Lighthouse

Dungeon rock was probably a sea cave with two entrances.  At some point in time the ceiling of the cave collapsed.  Now you can look down to where the cave used to me and see the two entrances from the land side.  There were a couple of viewing platforms from here.  When we looked out we saw whales feeding.  There were several that stayed in this area and they were probably humpback whales and fin whales.  We came back after supper and they were still in the area, but a little farther away.

Dungeon (collapsed sea cave with two entrances

Bonavista Water Tower, one of three murals showing

View of Bonavista from water tower

August 4

We left earlier today, but we ended earlier as well.  We went to Elliston, a short distance from our campground, but on a very, very bumpy road.  It was so bad, that it seemed like 20 miles instead of 3 1/2miles.  First we had an orientation to the town that went on and on.  The town was on the verge of dying.  The economy plunged in 2000 and the village could not afford to pay its light bills.  A committee met to see what could be done.  They decided to build on the number root cellars the town has and the puffin viewing area.  They now bill themselves as the root cellar capital of the world.  There are about 135 in a 2 km. area.  There are a lot of root cellars in the area.  For us, the real attraction was the puffin viewing.  On some days the puffins cross from their nesting rocks and walk all around you.  That did not happen, but they did land on the cliff edge where we were sitting or standing (in the rain of course).  It was quite incredible.  After viewing puffins, we had lunch in the towns orange lodge (a protestant association like the Knights of Columbus).

After lunch, we went to Ft. Union.  Ft. Union was eventually the home of William Ford Coaker, who formed the first fisherman’s union.  Fishermen got paid in cash instead of credit.  This was definitely better for them and they got better prices for their fish.  Croaker built the merchandise building (like the Ryan buildings we saw yesterday).  Croaker went on to do so many, many things.  He built houses for his various managers, houses for the fisherman.  They all had electricity. Managers had indoor plumbing and running water.  Croaker built the power plant.  People in Ft. Union had electricity before people in N. York City.  He published the Fisherman’s Advocate, built a bakery, owned a fleet of ships, operated the carpentry shop, plumbing, electrical shop and numerous national and international businesses.   He built a beautiful home here in 1917, which we also got to see.  His wife and daughter never lived with him, but a niece and her husband moved in with him.  She made many changes to the house.  It was called a cottage because it only had 1 ½ stories.

We decided to go back to the RV park.  Gordon stayed there and rested and I went back to the puffins.

Puffins on nearby ledge, near Elliston

root cellars, two of 160+ cellars in the area, Elliston

puffins near borrows (babies inside),  gulls try and take fish from beaks of parents, Elliston

August 5, 2013

Today is a travel day.  We go to Twilingate.

July 27-30 N. Sydney Area NS/St. John, NF

July31

We have had a quiet few days since our bus trip on the Cabot Trail thru Cape Breton Highlands.  Gordon and I went back to the Bell Museum and toured the rest of the museum.  I took a few pictures around the KOA campground where we stayed.  Then we packed up and went a whole 10 miles to our next campground at N. Sydney.  The only scheduled activity for our group was was a lobster or prime rib steak supper on the evening of Sunday July 28th.  That was catered into our campground.   Farewells were said to the two couples leaving us.  All of us got a framed copy of our group picture, which was taken after our orientation meeting on first day 1.  We had some surprise entertainment.  Eddy Coffee and members of his group sang for us and told us jokes about Newfies (people from New Foundland).  All of us had a change to dance the ugly stick dance (decorated walking sticks, some with bells, that you tap of the ground to the beat while you move around together).

We had a lot of time before our ferry departed on Monday.  Gordon and I drove to a Celtic Heritage Village.  We were greeted in Celtic/English.  It was small scale of the Acadian Village and very well done.  It started with a crofter cottage that was similar to what existed in Scotland on the west islands, which is where people from this area came.  It had a wood frame but the space in between was filled with rocks.  Then the buildings showed a progress from log cabins, framed houses with fireplaces to cook, framed houses with wood stoves for heating, etc.  There was nothing too unique after the first building. The interpreters all spoke gaelish with us, then changed to English.  Signs were also in both languages.

We left for the ferry at 2:15 PM.  We did not start boarding until 5:00PM.  We departed at 5:30PM.  We were supposed to leave at 5:00PM.  It was smooth sailing all the way.  We arrived an hour early (10:00 AM) to Argentina, New Foundland.  We put are watches ahead 1/2 hour to be on Newfie time.  What a ferry!  It was so much better than the one we had in Alaska.  Each of us had a tiny room, with two twin beds and a window.  It included a small dressing table with chair, a nightstand between the beds, window, tv, and bathroom with hot immediate hot water and good water pressure.  Our group had the buffet dinner included (very good, lots of choices), but there was also an ala carte restaurant and snack bar.  There were at least 2 bars, computer room, game room, movie room  and huge lounge with entertainment.  I did not see the rooms with air chairs and recliners, where people without cabins stayed.  There were 4 decks of cars, rvs and trucks.  Our level was the first off (last on).  We arrived at our campground before another traveling rv group left.  But, we are all settled now.  The wait was short.  We are in Pippy Park, a large municipal park.  We have lots of RV lots.  We got pull thrus with full hook up, free wifi, and a shelter area.  We have hiking trails, lakes, and golf course in the park.

We have noticed a change in the weather.  Days are often cloudy and rainy.  Sometimes the clouds and rain last all day, sometimes it is intermittent, and yesterday it was sunny all day.  In a few minutes we leave on a bus tour of our area.  Newfoundland has different terrain than Cape Breton.  We are noticing lots of inland lakes and smaller trees.  There are no fields of crops or cattle grazing at all.There are supposed to be a lot of moose here, but we have not seen one yet.  As we tour the island, we anticipate poor roads.   We were glad the road from the ferry to St. John was very good.

July 31 St. John Newfoundland
We had a bus tour of the area today.  It was foggy and rainy until about 3:00 PM and then it was hot and sunny.  We learned that St. John is the foggiest and windiest city in Canada.  We are at the furthest east point of N. America.  Gordon and I stood there for a picture.  Newfoundland is the 6th biggest island in the world.  It is called the granite island.  There are very few farms or ranches here.  Food is shipped in by boat or plane.  It was mostly settled by people from England, Scotland and Ireland.  The people from here speak an unusual form of English with lots of unusual expressions.

Our first stop was a small fishing village called Quidi Vidi.  The village has a specialty brewery that makes beer from icebergs.  Next we went to the residence of the lieutenant premier of the province.  The British royalty stays here when they come for visits.  A large Catholic Basilica was our next stop.  We say a marble carving of the Virgin Mary that looks like a veil is over her face.  It was made from one piece of marble.  Signal hill was next.  This includes a fort that went back and forth between the English and French.  The hills overlook the bay.  On a clear day, you can tell which ships are selling into the bay.  The people on the hill can then signal the villagers about who is coming.  This also the site of Marconi's first transatlantic message. In addition it was part of harbor defenses. In 1897 St. John's most visible landmark was constructed, Cabot Tower.  It built to honor Queen Victoria's Diamond

Quidi Vidi fishing village & harbor.  Also had gun placements to
protect St. John's Harbor during WW II

Quidi Vidi

St. John's Basilica

Veiled Madonna, all one piece of marble

St. John's Basilica

Cabot Tower, St. John's Most Visible Landmark

gift of British Columbia to Province of NFLD

Eastern Most Part of N. America

Petty Harbor

Boat at Petty Harbor (nice name)

Jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's "Voyage of Discovery."The fog really rolled in here, so we could not see the bay. Sometimes we could not see the Marconi monument (Did you know that St. John's has the 3rd best natural harbor in the world? The other two harbors are at Halifax and Australia.).  A long, leisurely lunch with really good food was next.  From here we went to the point in St. John's that is the eastern most part of N. America.  This was also a spot for gun batteries for the USA that were manned in WW II.  Two light houses are also on the hills here.  One can often see different kinds of whales from here.  For us, the fog got thicker and the rain fell faster.  Gordon and I braved the rain to walk to the eastern most part of N. America and we walked by the gun placements, then up to the first light house.  We looked for whales, but the fog was really, really thick.  We were lucky to see the water at all, let alone whales.  We stopped at another fishing village on our way home.   Gordon and I both passed on the ice cream, because we were still so full for lunch.  I know, it is a first for Gordon to pass up ice cream.  By the time we came off the bus, the sun was out.  It was immediately hot.  I took off and carried three layers of coats and vests.  We got home just in time for our evening social.  What a pleasant end of a day that started out cold, rainy, and foggy .  Tomorrow is a free day.  We have an RV repair to make, a few groceries to buy and we plan a trip back to signal hill.  We will be in no large cities in Newfoundland after this and we may not have wifi until we return to Nova Scotia.

                                          development of telephones, bell museum

bell hydrofoil (there was no interest in the boat at the

time it was developed, but the design was used once interest was developed.  It won speed records.

                                       Bell and 5 others worked on manned flight.  Bell developed some plane safety features that are still in use today  (flaps, alierons?

                                           view near campground in N. Sydney

                                           seen at Gaelic Village

                                           waiting for ferry

July 26, 2013 Cabot Trail

7/26/2013

Today we had a bus tour of the Cabot Trail.  Cabot Trail is a road that circles Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  Most of it is very scenic. We traveled almost 200 miles.  It was a long, but interesting day.   The day started out with rain and fog and we were afraid that we would not see much, but before we got to the scenic part the fog lifted and breaks in the clouds appeared and it turned out to be a lovely day.  We have really been blessed with remarkably good weather so far. 

Cabot Trail is a fairly new highway (built in the 1980’s or 1990’s).  John Cabot did not go around the peninsula, but he did land here in the 1400’s.  We saw the cove he described in his journal.

The guide on the bus was a native of the area and very knowledgeable and a very good speaker.  At one point we were along a river and there were a few fly fishing.  Atlantic salmon come into the river to spawn, but unlike Pacific salmon they do not die after spawning, they go back out into the ocean and return yearly to the same river to spawn. The only kind of fishing allowed is fly fishing.  Boats and flotation devices are not allowed.  There are also trout in the streams.  There is only one kind of salmon in the Atlantic—Atlantic salmon.

Early in the day we visited a rather unusual museum.  It largely features the work of a Dr Elizabeth LeFort. She spent most of her life hooking rugs.  Her work is spectacular.  I really don’t know to describe it, but they are works of art as you may be able to see in the attached pictures.   A lady at the museum led a tour, explained the details of the art and also demonstrated how to hook rugs.  Many of the ladies doing it dye their own yarn, etc.  It is one of those things you have to see to believe.  She would draw the design on burlap, color the yarn herself, and some how put the colors in the right spot, even when she was working on very large pieces and could not see what she had done.  Hooked rugs are very, very, labor intensive and people are not willing to pay what they are worth.  Young people are not taking it up.  The Acadians started hooked rugs in this area of Cheticamp.  Some came here after the expulsion from Nova Scotia.  The soil was poor so they took up fishing.  The guide said 97% of the people in the area speak French.

We also toured a beautiful Catholic church.  It could seat 2,000 persons in a town that had a population only a percentage of that.  It was a rather plain looking old stone church on the outside with a tall steeple that could be seen for miles from land and from the sea.  The inside was very beautiful and as ornate as many Catholic churches.  It was built in the late 1800’s.  It still has a pipe organ with a handle on the side that some one has to use to pump the bellows to provide the air for the organ.

Some of the time, we were very close to the Ocean.  Part of the time near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, part of the time near the Atlantic Ocean., and part of the time by both.  We traveled through The Cape Breton Highlands, the first national part in the coastal Atlantic area.  We also went over three mountains, which are not as impressive as the Rocky Mountains, but nevertheless very pretty and steep. The tallest was only 1400 feet high. I was glad that I wasn’t driving the bus.  There were a lot of sharp turns and steep grades.  These mountains are not part of the Appalachians, like the hills in Quebec Province.  This land mass was once part of Scotland.  That is why a number of Scotch and Irish settlers came here or had summer homes here.

We had lunch at a small restaurant along the way and stopped for ice cream at the Keltic Lodge/golf course/spa in the afternoon.  It is one of only 3 hotels operated in Canadian National Parks.  The guide said that if you played 18 holes on the course and walked it you would have walked 8 miles by the time you finished.  There were wonderful sandy beaches mixed in with jagged rocks, all natural.  It was an area called Middle Fork (I think).  It was exceptionally beautiful.

One of the main industries is fishing for crabs, as well as lobster.  On the way back to the RV park we stopped and got come snow crab.

Tomorrow we travel all of 10 miles.  We will be close to the ferry, which we take to Newfoundland on Monday.  Internet connections may be very poor after Monday.  Accommodations may be poor too.  We stay in one park 3 nights with no services. (dry camping without our generator).  We are going to go back to Baddeck to see the rest of the Bell Museum and we will do house keeping chores like laundry and grocery shopping.  Pray for calm seas for Gordon.

St. Peter's Catholic Church, steeple is so high it
can beseen from north, south, and the seas

hand pump organ at St. Peter's Church

Hooked Rug Demonstration

Lefort Rug (may have 30+ shades of brown)

US Presidents until John Kennedy.  Lefort could stitch 55 stitches a
minute; it took 60 stitches/sq. inch.  She could complete a rug
this size in 5 to 6 months.  She hooked 6 hr/day, 7 days a week
Large rugs like this might have 8 miles of yarn

Pictures don't do the Cape Breton Highlands National Park justice

Another view of Park

example of the fog we had in Halifax