Day 92: Terra Nova National Park NL

 Dear Gilles,

Friday the 13th. 

Hmmm. 

My truck battery is dead. 

Luc and I had a conversation last night - and very consciously left the cooler plugged in to the 12v plug. 

We shouldn't have done that. 

I don't have booster cables. How do I not have the cables?  They didn't make it from the Terrain into the Ram. 

There was no panic. It was just 6am in the morning when I discovered it, so I had to wait until there was life out in the campsite. 

At 6am (and all other times) there is a very persistent squirrel who will jump all over your food, into your truck for food and anywhere else where there is hope of food. It is hazardous to have food exposed by yourself and try to look for any gear, like booster cables. A second person is required as a sentry. 

I was able to invite one fellow over, who had a Jackery to try and boost it - no dice. 

Then our O-Tent-ik neighbour Luc from Quebec came over with his Subaru and cables - and I got it to turn over - but I must have pressed too many buttons and my truck decided to completely shut down.  

DEAD 

DEAD 

No sign of any electrical signal. 

I then proceeded to call CAA. On the second try I got a human on the phone!  

CAA showed up within 90 minutes of my call for help. They were in a town 67 km away. Easy peasy the guy knew what to do - and I still don't. Something with the remote needs to be pressed off twice in a row for the truck to know to be turned on again. Going to have to research google in the future.

After it was fixed - I didn't realize how stressed I was. We were in a safe place. The truck was parked with easy access to be boosted. We were in no rush to meet a schedule or a deadline. BUT we were out in the middle of Newfoundland - super far away from home and any help you may offer.

We had to run the truck then, so we went up a fire tower for the view. We saw a seal in the water at another location. Then we took the bikes out to the SKILLZ park and spent some time there, avoiding the SKILLZ hazards - because I'm too old to be learning new tricks on a mountain bike. I just need to stay up right and keep up with everyone. 

I'm just staying put, and allowing everyone to have some space to be in their own electronic device world. Our next stop is St. John's, and the weather looks like it will be almost pleasant for the next week. 

Day 91: Gander and Terra Nova National Park NL

 Dear Gilles, 

We visited Gander today. 

We visited all three pieces of the twin towers steel that is in town. One at the Aviation Museum, one at the City Hall and one at the Airport. 

At City Hall, we had a nice long chat with a lady who moved from Bracebridge to feel 'at home' in Newfoundland. She made a point of having the tourism director come out and meet us. We also got pins from Gander. 

At the airport, we toured the displays and looked around. 

It's a nice town, but we wanted to get to Terra Nova National Park visitor centre before it closed. 

We arrived at our camp cabin at 3:30 and got settled in for the night. 

Day 90: Rain and Sun NL

 Dear Gilles, 

We woke up and it was dry. 

But the weather forecasts threatened imminent rain. And a lot of rain. It came. I set the black tarp up on the dining shelter because I know the shelter keeps the bugs out but it does not keep anything dry. Our site had a few helpful trees I could guy out to.

We debated just sitting around all day and 'surviving' but I was restless pretty quick. We drove up in to King's Point and Springdale. 

King's Point had some fun garbage tins - Vienna Sausages and other name brands. It also has a whale exhibit with the bones of a beached whale. We didn't go in to the exhibit.

It was still raining. A medium heavy, constant, wet, summer rain. There was no staying dry once you stepped out from shelter. 

We searched out Glassy Beach in Springdale. There's a muddy path to follow from the road down to the beach. The beach itself is only about 30 m long. 

WOW. 

It's impressive. The glass shards on it is sooo many that it's not a fun challenge to find beach glass. 

We were back at the site around 1:00 with a few groceries for lunch/supper that we ate in the cover of our screen tent.  

Then - it stopped raining. 

The sun came out. 

We chatted about the extreme difference in our weather. You have beautiful 27C and sunny. And we're bundled up and wet. 

But even with the weather, which we knew to expect, this is still a fantastic adventure. That MSR Habitude tent is fantastic. Plenty of room and heavier tarp material than Woods or Coleman. That particular tent is discontinued, but I would search out a similar one in the future if I need to. 

The reviews quoted: "Luxurious for 3, Comfortable for 4 people". And it is. I can stand up easily in it and there is enough room for our gear. 

Day 89: Blue Canoe RV Park

 Dear Gilles, 

I took a walk by myself in the morning. We tried to wait out the check out time and spend it inside while we could. Our next 2 nights are in a tent. 

We're now making our way over to St.John's. We drove 543 km today to Blue Canoe campground. We hustled a little bit on the way down because we wanted to make it to the Deer Lake Insectarium again before it closed. We made it in time to spend an hour seeing things we missed before and discovering more cool facts about insects. 

We ate supper at a restaurant. We had skipped lunch in our rush to get down to the Insectarium - so we needed food. I have to remember though - a rotisserie chicken, macaroni salad and spring salad greens make a really filling road supper for less than half the price. 

We drove out of the cold (5C) and in to more moderate temperatures. So moderate it was 23 C when we were setting up our tent. We were over dressed for the heat - but not for the bugs. Our nets came out. The screen house was set up and we made ourselves comfortable at Blue Canoe RV park.  

Day 88: Icebergs and Vikings NL

 Dear Gilles, 

I woke up early today. It was clear, calm, sunshiny. 

I took the tent, footprint and dining shelter out and spread them outside and pegged them down for a chance to dry (I wish I had taken photos). I did not do the tent fly - I did not have enough real estate and I was afraid of it becoming more of a sail and damaging it. So we'll air that one out later. 

The pussy willows are just coming out here. I'm sure they've been out for two months back home. 

I booked a boat tour for this morning - the dock is just down the road. Unfortunately, I didn't fully do my research - and it was an iceberg focused tour - when I was hoping for puffins and whales, with an ice berg bonus. 

It was in a zodiac and the tour operators provided us with Mustang suits - which were very welcome. It was the best day for a boat tour. Sun was shining, and there were no white caps to be seen. Patric and I took piles of photos of the ice bergs - we saw about 8 of them out in the wild. Every-time the boat turned the corner, the berg changed its shape and had a new personality about it. The operator was telling us that most were about 10,000 years old, where one other one - due to conditions I don't understand - was closer to 20,000 years old. 

The operator even reached in and brought in a bergy-bit for everyone to have a piece. Patric still has his piece in the freezer and I'm not sure what he thinks he's doing with it. 

We did not see any puffins or whales. And I don't think I have it in me for sea-sickness or dollar-investment to try another boat tour on the ocean. If the boys want to see puffins in person, they can plan their own trip back here when they're older. 

We had lunch back at the cabin, warmed up, then went to L'Anse aux Meadows. We caught the guided tour - which is always beneficial and then wandered around the site. It was WINDY. My ear is starting to hurt. A very nice site and I'm glad we came for it. 

We had more fun at Norstead. A privately run re-creation. One of the first things we did was throw some axes. Patric got it in. I got it in. Luc did not get it to stick. 

We spent the longest time at the Blacksmith station. Then went and had a rune reading. Past, Present and Future. Let's just say, thank you for all the hard work you're doing in the garden - it should be a good harvest this year. I have a lot of photos from today that I'm going to have to sort through and even edit - but here are a few that I couldn't send as there is no cell service up here.

Day 87: Rocky Harbour to St.Lunair-Griquet NL

 Dear Gilles, 

We drove 389 km, in the pouring rain. We packed up the tent and dining shelter in the pouring rain. We knew we would be faced with that possibility one day. The dining shelter was sooo went, that as I put it into the back of the truck, it was dripping out of the bag it was in. The tent I was able to loosly pack in to large plastic bags to be dried out later. 

Our saving grace was that I knew we had a really nice place to lay our heads for the next two nights at Snorri Cabins. 

It rained and it as windy all night. Just miserable. I'm also glad it was a driving day - because at least we were doing something productive. 

Along the way, we made minimal stops. 

We did discover Thrombolites in Flowers Cove. Are they alive? Are they not alive? 

But again, it was a cold, wet and windy walk to get to them and we were happy to be back in the truck. 

We picked up groceries in St. Anthony and had a quiet evening. We watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The boys have picked up on a couple of lines from the sketches. I feel they will be using them in common conversations in the future. 

Day 86: Gros Morne National Park - Tablelands hike

 Dear Gilles, 

Today we went for an hour drive to the Tablelands - 4km return hike. Where the mantle comes to the surface of the earth. 

We were even stopped on our hike by a couple who was on the boat yesterday and appreciated the spoons performance by the boys. 

It promised to rain all day. Luckily it didn't start until we were on our way back to site. HARD. 

We're all hiding in the solid-roof picnic shelter with power for the electronics. 

I just went to retrieve all the webbing from the camp chairs - I'm going to throw them in the dryer and then pack them - so we don't have to do it tomorrow. 

I'm considering setting up a tarp in our site for hiding under when we pack up tomorrow. 

We're planning on a movie night in this picnic shelter - and perhaps Uncle will join us to watch the CBC Still Standing episode on Gander NL.