St. John's, Newfoundland - July 20 - 23, 2015

St. John's, Newfoundland - July 20 - 23, 2015

July 20, 2015

Today was a travel day.  We left Bonavista, Newfoundland and headed to St. John’s, Newfoundland.  This is the last park we will visit before we head on the ferry back to Nova Scotia.

We all unhooked in the park and got settled in our site.  It was cold, so we just BBQ’d a roast and stayed in.  Again, we were not able to get any TV, WIFI, cell service.  Bev drove up to Loop 4, where there was supposed to be WIFI, but only stayed for a few minutes, because that was not very good either.  

We ended up playing more cards.

July 21, 2015

Even though it was rainy and blustery, we started a St. John’s bus tour.  The guide, Frances, told us about many of the buildings around the city. St. John’s is the capital of the Province, so they have many of the government buildings.  There are about 100,000 people in the city, so it is a bustling place. 

From there, we continued to Cape Spear, the most Easterly point in North America.  We had our picture taken, with hats on and hoods up.  It is fun to say that we have been there.  You might even find that picture on your Christmas Card next year.  Following Cape Spear, we went to Signal Hill National Park and wandered about that fort a bit.  The fort itself was closed for renovation, but we were able to walk out and see the view.

We dropped off Frances, the guide, but Murl, the bus driver then took us out to have lunch then to go on a whale watching boat trip.  The weather was wet, windy and we couldn’t go out very far.  We were able to see some Puffins and other birds, but whales were not to be found. 

One of the crew, Hillary, sang some Newfoundland songs, and the rest of the crew gave us a lot of information about the area.

With it being rough, it was tough to hang on to the boat, so we didn’t move around much.  Only one lady got seasick.  She happened to be sitting across from Bev.  However, Bev was able to keep her lunch down.  We headed back to shore early.

  

July 22, 2015

This was a day to explore St. John’s further.  However, we used the day to search for a new door handle for the RV, since ours broke.  We were concerned that we might get locked out of the coach one of these days.

Unfortunately, we tried three different places with no luck.  We went back to the coach to see what we would be able to do to get it to lock on the ferry in the current condition.

Our next project was to check out St. John’s Liquor stores for Iceberg Beer.  It is actually made from the water from icebergs, which is very pure since it has been frozen for years and has not gone into the ground to get contaminated.   There is a problem at the bottling plant, so the supply is scarce.  We finally found six packs for each of the kids.  At one of the Liquor Stores the manager gave us a chuck of Berg Bit – this is a piece of ice from an iceberg and it is very dense and will melt very slowly.  We may possibly be the only people in Stanwood to have some iceberg. 

There were still a lot of chores to do at the motorhome.  We needed to take a layer of dirt and cat hair off the floors.  Stan did the vacuuming and Bev did the bathrooms and tile floors.  We dot it whipped out pretty quickly.  Then, of course, Bev got to do some ironing, before we finished the evening with a few games of cards.  We have been playing a lot of cards since there is no electronics.

July 23, 2015

Today is the day Bev has been dreading.  We will be on the ferry for about 16 hours, and Monte & Max have to stay in the RV below deck, while we are in a cabin above deck.  The good news is that it is during the night, so hopefully they will sleep and not be too lonely. 

The day started with figuring out where to get fuel for the RV.  Since we have had to run the generator more than normal, the diesel level dropped.  Luckily, there was an Irving Station a few miles from the RV Park.  We scouted it out before breakfast and the meeting, so that we could head there on our way toward the ferry.

The breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon juice & coffee was prepared by the Fantasy staff.  They we had a meeting telling us the details of the ferry crossing.  Even though the ferry leaves at 5:00 p.m., they want us at the terminal by 2:00 p.m. at the latest.  Luckily, we can be comfortable in the coach during the wait to board.  As usual, with old people, being on time means you are late, so most of us were at the terminal about 12:30.

Finally, we were able to get on the ferry about 4:30 p.m.  We got a spot up near the front of the boat.  We passed at least 50 motorcycles that were strapped in for the ferry ride.   We bid the kittens goodbye and headed up to the deck.

On deck it was like a mini cruise boat.  There were bars, soft seating, a dining room, snack bar, a singer entertaining.  We got our key to our cabin, so we could drop off our things and of course to check it out.  The room had two sets of bunk beds and a bathroom with shower.  It’s all we needed for the night.  Once we got settled we headed to check out the bar.  They had “Bloody Caesar” drinks, so we tried that.  Not bad.  We got to visit with several of the people on the trip.  One guy we visited with was heading to Sturgis, South Dakota, with three other people.  That has to be a long trip on a motorcycle.

The ferry left the dock at 5:00 p.m. and we were on our way.

Later, we decided to check out the buffet, since we had a dinner voucher.  It was wonderful, but, of course, we ate too much.   Finally, we headed back to the cabin, and off to sleep.