Monday August 22, 2016 from Eastport to St. John’s, NL

Hodges Cove heading towards Southport

   Todays drive was basically going to be point to point to get to our campground, along with picking up a rental car at the airport for a few days. Becky discovered, however, as she does so well that there is a little town called Southport up a finger of land about 30 KM from the TCH. We decided to see what was there, and it was a delightful side trip! We drove on the narrow road, studded with lots of potholes (and signs telling us about them!) passing by a number of scenic bays. We actually had the Southwest arm of the Sound to the West, and Trinity Bay to the East. 

Gooseberry Cove

We were almost to the end of the road, when we stopped in the quaint little fishing village of Gooseberry Cove, and  met a couple of real local characters.

Becky learns all about the area from one of the locals  

 As one said, you're in Gooseberry Cove but don't ask us what they are as we don't know! We learned about the local fishing habits, the time restricted limitations on fishing for different varieties of seafood imposed by the government, and how terrible the winter storms could be coming off the Atlantic. Four-wheelers are the preferred method of getting around. I asked one guy if there were any Newfoundland dogs around, and he said "there's one in Southport-belongs to my brother."

Our Gooseberry Cove friend 

 So after lunching in the RV, we headed on and passed the local version of the "Church on the Hill", St. Alban the Martyr's Anglican Church in Heart's Ease. Next stop was the beautiful little fishing port of Southport. As one of our new friends told us, don't drive too far into Southport without turning around or you'll make a big splash! As Jim was taking pictures of the Harbor, he spotted the Newfoundland coming up the road, who walked right up and wanted to be patted!!

Jim meets the local Newfie

We did see one local guy there who was obviously wondering where we were from, and seemed surprised we were from another Southport. Asked him the population-50 in the summer, 25 in the winter!    

St. Alban the Martyr Anglican Church

Southport, Newfoundland

End of Southport Harbor

Sunday August 21, 2016 from Gander to Eastport, NL

Glovertown Museum

 After leaving Gander, it finally happened-two moose, a cow and calf, crossed the highway in front of us! We couldn't get the cameras out fast enough before they disappeared into the tall weeds, but we now know there really are moose here! We continued on towards our destination, and with time to kill Becky spotted a small sign towards the Glovertown Museum.  We decided to explore the town. This visit, like so many others wasn’t planned and is why we enjoy RVing so much-the unexpected treasures that one comes across.The Museum is fairly small, with the main building similar in size to the Hendricks Hill Museum's main building. So many interesting treasures within, though! There were two docents on duty, a mother and daughter, who were friendly and helpful. 

Information board at entrance to Museum

Glovertown was once a central town in the area where the government was trying to get citizens to relocate to and populate the area, including moving their homes from other locations. 

Glovertown settlement area

 Glovertown was a central fishing hub for the area, with many small islands dependent on it for services and supplies. The Museum has displays on fishing, logging, and many of the tools used in the various work occupations. The town was originally called Bloody Bay, supposedly referring to a massacre of a family of 11 by Beothuk Indians living in the area. It was changed to Alexander Bay, and finally to Glovertown in the late 1890's after the Colonial Governor Sir John Hawley Glover, who served as the Governor of Newfoundland under Queen Victoria from 1876-1881 and 1883-1885. Inside, there is also a wall honoring all Veterans from the town, both living and deceased, illustrated with photos of each.

The Sherman Zwicker

 Our biggest surprise, however, came when we rounded a corner and there was a photograph of the Sherman Zwicker! For those readers not from the Boothbay Region, the Sherman Zwicker was a fishing schooner that became a floating museum and spent a lot of time in Boothbay Harbor before moving to the Maritime Museum in Bath. Recently, however, it became too expensive to maintain and it now resides in New York. OK, you might ask, what is the connection to Glovertown? The boat was constructed in Lunenburg, NS in 1942 as a composite ship utilizing a schooner hull (a twin to the famous schooner "Blue Nose"), but without all the sails and with a diesel engine. It served as a fishing vessel there for 20 years, then moved on to Glovertown where it continued as a fishing vessel until 1968.   It was saved from the graveyard by George McAvoy from Boothbay. George was accompanied on this visit to purchase the ship by our neighbor, Bob Raudenbush! It's a small world!

     We finally got to our campground, the Harold W. Duffett Shriners RV park. Not much to talk about, basically another "weekenders" park with trailers that are left here all summer or longer.  The Shriner manning the desk and checking folks in was neither friendly nor helpful.  It will not be on our list of recommended RV parks!

Sunday August 21, 2016 from Green Bay to Gander, NL

Today featured mild temperatures (60-70's), though it was quite cloudy most of the day. We set out from Kona Beach around 9am, with our first destination the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander. We again drove thru beautiful, sparsely populated countryside featuring mountains, lakes, and millions of evergreens. We arrived at the Museum and were rather disappointed, as it's small, only has one plane inside and limited exhibits.

North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander

 We expected to see a lot more, as Gander was once the busiest airport in the world in the 1940's.  It was the stopping point for almost all air traffic to Europe until the advent of the jets. It's also where 39 widebody jets with 6600 passengers diverted to on 9/11/2001.   The story of how the local folks of Gander (population 10,000) handled their unexpected guests over a period of several days until U.S. airspace opened again is a remarkable and wonderful story. Sadly, the museum only has one poster with a small TV embedded relating the story what happened those few extraordinary days. 

9/11 display exhibit in the Museum

Outside the Museum there are 4 Canadian aircraft, including a Canso (called Catalina in the US) and a Lockheed Hudson bomber from WWII. That plane had a plaque by it explaining how, on 11/10/1940, a similar Hudson completed the first non-stop flight from Gander to Europe-presaging the flights of thousands of aircraft throughout WWII.

Canso water bomber

WW II Hudson bomber

We drove to the passenger terminal, which is practically deserted these days with very few flights and all within Newfoundland.  Spoting a yellow aircraft on the opposite side of the airport, we drove over and found it was the Canadian Search and Rescue operations area. The plane, however, belonged to an airline called Exploits Valley Air Service, a small commercial airline. The aircraft is another Canso water bomber!
      

  After lunch in the RV, we returned to TCH 1 (Trans Canada Highway 1) and saw a sign with the 101st Airborne Eagle on it pointing down a gravel road. Our curiosity up, we drove down the road for several hundred meters to a beautiful but very sobering site.

Entrance to Arrow Air crash site

On December 11, 1985 an Arrow Air stretch DC-8 with 8 crew members and 248 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division took off from Gander heading for Fort Campbell, KY. The troops were returning from a United Nations Peacekeeping mission in Egypt, and had flown to Gander via Cologne, Germany. The plane never rose above 900 feet, crashed at this site and exploded killing all on board. Though the cause of the crash was officially listed as ice on the wings, 4 of the 9 NTSB members dissented as to the findings, and the records have been sealed. Terrorism was one of the suspected causes. 

Memorial to the 101st Airborne soldiers who died there

Sculpture honoring the Peacekeeping mission

Memorial Cross made from the metal of the aircraft

  The memorial site was dedicated in a 1990 ceremony. Visiting the crash site and memorial is a very emotional experience.  The tragedy of what happened to all those soldiers and crew heading home for Christmas after a long deployment is a story not many Americans have heard about. We had no idea what had occurred there, and would highly recommend anyone visiting Gander make a point of stopping at this solemn site.

  

Saturday August 20, 2016 from Doyles to South Brook, Green Bay, NL

 It was cool and sunny to start, but a beautiful warm day (low 70’s) emerged as the hours progressed.  Prior to leaving, Jim spent some time with a large roll of Duck Tape hoping to seal up the inoperative grey water dump drain.  We’ll see how it works Monday morning! 

 It was another pretty drive through very sparsly populated areas, and we saw some interesting sights along the roadway. 

Rock crib for electric lines

 Moose warning signs are abundant, but more interesting were the way utility poles are mounted in wooden “cribs” filled with stones.  Much of the island is granite and/or rock, and it would be prohibitively expensive to drill holes for the utility poles. 

Eventually we reached the pretty (and large!) port city of Corner Brook.  We used the noontime stop there to diesel up, grocery shop at Sobey’s, catch up on our email and Facebook traffic, and lunch on McDonald’s offerings in the RV. Both of us like milkshakes, and we found throughout Canada the McDonald's ones taste different from those in the states.  Not as good!  Jim thought they added malt to them. 

Corner Brook Harbor

After driving for two hours, again through picturesque but unpopulated areas, we decided to stop at the Kona Beach Resort campground in South Bank, Green Bay.  It is situated on a lake in the middle of nowhere!  It was so full we allmost couldn’t get in!  It’s clearly a weekend spot for young families with trailers, which are left there during the week. We probably got the last 30amp spot.  All the folks in the surrounding trailers seemed to know each other, and we were the only vehicle in the campground without a NL plate. The campground is fairly large, on a lake with a nice beach and snack bar.  They only take cash, but it’s tough to beat a $29.90 (Canadian) rate!  As a side note, all the campgrounds we’ve stayed at in Canada are less expensive than equivalent US ones, even before taking into account the exchange rate. Jim cooked, then we had a nice walk down to the beach. Becky read and Jim worked on his pictures and blog.

Kona Beach campground

Friday August 19, 2016 from New Harris NS to Doyles, NL

MV Highlanders

It was 15 miles to the ferry, and we arrived early at 8:30 and found ourselves first in one of the queues!  Ferry boarded at 10:30, and we settled into our reserved reclining seats by the windows at the back of deck 9 (highest inside deck).  The ship was virtually empty, even though we had been expecting it to be full!  A Crew member said their were only about 200 passengers, instead of the usual 700!  It was a beautiful day, a very smooth 7 hour crossing to Port aux Basques, but actually pretty boring.  We could have watched TV, but read, napped, & had some snack food on the trip. 

Our cabin area

Though our watches said arrival was at 7:00p, it was really 7:30 as Newfoundland is ½ hour ahead of Atlantic time. 

First View of Newfoundland

Entering the Port-aux-Basques Harbor

After unloading, 25 miles later we were at the Grand Codroy Campground in Doyles, NL. We checked in behind a Florida couple we had met on the boat-a former Marine, of course!  The lady in the camp office couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful, and was a wealth of information.  They even publish a publicity booklet with suggestions on things to see and places to stay all over the island. Our site was beautiful, and the whole campground is well laid out. It was once a Provincial Park, and it's surrounded by mountains and is on the water.  We will look forward to staying here 3 nights before we depart for Nova Scotia!  Only complaints about the campground were no TV and poor WiFi.  This is a good place to note about campground amenities.  Throughout Newfoundland, cable TV is virtually non-existent.  Internet is very spotty.  Radio channels are pretty limited, too.  In a few of the larger cities, we could get one or two channels over the air, but that was it. It really didn't matter, though, as we had plenty to do!    

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Grand Codroy Campground

Thursday August 18, 2016 from Lower Barney’s River to New Harris, NS

Alexander Graham Bell Museum

Baddeck Harbor

It rained all night, and when Jim went to dump the black and grey water tanks he found the seals on the grey dump tank were shot, causing the grey water to flow directly onto the ground when the dump valve was open!  Lying in puddles to see why was not an option, so we headed off in the dreary gloom on the Sunrise Trail.  Approaching Cape Breton, the sun came out so we had 5” of sun on the Sunrise Trail and beautiful weather thereafter!  On our previous trip to Nova Scotia, we didn’t have time to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in the very picturesque town of Baddeck, located on the inland lake Bras d’Or.  Thought we could eat in the museum, as it is a very modern building with extensive grounds and parking.  Wrong.  Sugary snacks only.  Unfortunately for us, the Museum was a huge disappointment, and seemed to be designed more for school age kids than adults.  Lots of pictures throughout, artifacts, small movie displays, and models.  We did find out some interesting history of this phenomenal man, who had been born in Edinburgh, Scotland.  His lifelong passion was helping the deaf improve their communication, and his wife was one of his early pupils as a teacher.  She was wealthy through her dad, a Boston lawyer, and financed many of his ventures.  In addition to inventing the telephone (which he didn’t think was that big a deal!), he was responsible with four other men for the first flight of an aircraft in Canada (his personal passion was for manned kites) and later hydrofoils. 

     The drive to the ferry terminal was uneventful (we wanted to check out driving times and logistics), and then settled in at our campground, the KOA Seal Island/North Sydney located across a channel of the Bras d’Or in New Harris, NS.  What a great campground!  Wonderful scenic parking sites and very friendly personnel.

Paul King

  A huge plus, particularly for Jim, was when one of our neighbors in the Campground, Paul King brought out his bagpipes to play a sunset concert.  Paul does this for his own pleasure, something he does frequently.  He had spotted Jim’s USMC decals on the RV, asked if he was the Marine, and offered to play the Marine Corps Hymn if Jim would sing along!  Paul’s playing was far superior to Jim’s efforts!  Paul is a retired Canadian Army paratrooper. His son had served 2 tours in the Army in Afghanistan, and Jim and Paul had a great time talking as he went through his catalog of over a dozen tunes.  

Bridge over the Bras d'Or