Easternmost spot in Canada

On Friday, we drove to Cape Spear Lighthouse to visit the easternmost spot in Canada.

Looking back toward St John's, I added an arrow pointing at Cabot Tower that we visited on Wednesday. It wasn't as clear on Friday as it had been on Wednesday.

Marker for the easternmost spot...

Closeup of the marker

At the easternmost spot. The sky has a strange yellowish cast - we have heard that we might be getting some smoke from Quebec wildfires here.

Carl thought this sign was interesting...

... I think due to the picture on it.

Looking up toward the (new) lighthouse

A picture showing when the light made its circuit toward us.

Looking down toward the new lighthouse and support buildings.

Looking back toward St. John's

The old lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's home

Old lighthouse and keeper's home

"It was a lightstation -- its powerful light marked the southern approach to St. John's Harbour, while its baritone fog alarm guided ships through the dense fog that often covers the Cape.

"It was also a home -- to five generations of the Cantwell family that served as keepers, assistant keepers, and fog alarm engineers. Dozens of children played, studied, and worked alongside their parents in this isolated outport community"

An interesting article about the Cape Spear lighthouse and Cantwell family: https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1314

After finishing our wander around at Cape Spear, we went to Costco and got a couple of rotisserie chickens (and other snacking items!) for meals for the next few days.

Gracie at Pippy Point Campground

The campground has really filled in since Thursday evening. Some of our neighbors are here for a NASCAR race -- a NASCAR Pinty's Series (Canadian NASCAR) race in Newfoundland.

We are scheduled to catch the ferry back to Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon, and the route that we will take will go by the exit for the track where the race is going to be held. We're hoping that there will not be any traffic issues!

We have been amazed by the dandelions here in Newfoundland -- we should have gotten a picture before the lawnmowers cut them down, but here's a sample near our utility pole in the campground. The flowers seem to be much larger and the puffs appear to be denser than their US cousins.

We will end our stay on Newfoundland on Saturday when we board the ferry in Argentia to head back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia. This ferry trip is supposed to be 16 hours duration, 280 nautical miles -- leaving Newfoundland at 5pm and arriving North Sydney on Sunday morning. We've enjoyed our stay and getting to meet many people in Newfoundland.

Around Pippy Park Campground

We took a walk around the Pippy Park Campground on Thursday, revisiting the site where Miss Doozie had parked when Dwayne and I were here in 2016.

There is a small pond that had an information sign...

The small pond

Since it has gotten warmer, the black flies are out in force... as long as we were walking, they were pretty much just annoying, but when we stopped, they took the opportunity to land and bite - not a good environment for sitting out and enjoying the weather!

We were saddened to hear the outcome of the OceanGate submersible. The expedition originally left from St. John's last Friday (one week ago). A lot of activity has been going on from St. John's in support of the rescue mission.

St. John's, Newfoundland

On Tuesday, we continued our drive east, ending up in St. John's, Newfoundland, our farthest east location. It was a rainy, foggy, cold day (we've had our fair share of those!), so we were glad to get into our site in Pippy Park.

Wednesday, something appeared in the sky, bright, shining, yellow -- I think I heard someone say it was "the sun"! Wow!

One of my IBM friends from Dallas lived in St. John's when she was growing up -- I told her I would go to take a picture of her former home -- so this is it! Notice the blue sky!!!

We didn't have specific plans on what to do, but as we were driving around, we happened upon...

... the 0 KM marker for the Trans-Canada Highway.

"Officially opened in 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway is one of the longest highways in the world."

"From St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Victoria, British Columnbia, the TCH covers over 7,821 km and crosses six time zones."

It is located outside St John's City Hall.

We decided that, since it was a sunny day, we should go up to Signal Hill and Cabot Tower since there are nice views from there. We stopped at the visitor's center and turned in our receipts for day passes that we had purchased at Gros Morne National Park and L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site and got one-year Discovery Passes for both of us. The other two sites had not yet received their 2023 Discovery Passes, so could not sell them to us -- but they assured us that if we kept the receipts, that the "next" national park/historic site we went to would credit us for what we had paid and we'd only need to pay the difference -- and so they did!

We asked if they had been having cloudy weather in St. John's and the guy at the visitor desk said it has been raining and overcast and foggy and cloudy for 28 days -- so everybody was happy to have sunshine!

We visited their exhibit area to learn about Signal Hill.

Then we drove up Signal Hill. St. John's reminds us of San Francisco with all its steep hills!

From the top of Signal Hill, we could look over St. John's Harbour from the top. Historically, signals would be sent from the hill -- flags with messages could be raised -- telling ship owners in town that their ship was on its way. Every day at precisely noon the "noon gun" would fire, allowing folks to set their watches (important to know when the sextant was used for navigation -- I think the information board said that if they were off by 3 minutes on the time, their navigation could be off by 30 miles).

Some statistics about the harbour.

 

The harbor and city of St. John's beyond

... and the Narrows - the entry into the harbor. It looks very narrow!

Cabot Tower on top of Signal Hill

Do you see that tiny white thing out on the blue-blue water? That's an iceberg! We didn't expect to see any this far south!

Carl up on top of Cabot Tower

There was an interesting exhibit inside Cabot Tower about Marconi's first transatlantic wireless signal being received here in 1901...

Outside, there was this marker...

Carl is pointing the "this spot" where Marconi received the signal.

We walked up Ladies' Lookout trail -- "Ladies' Lookout is the highest point of land on Signal Hill. Legend has it that the women of St. John's came here to watch for ships carrying their sons, husbands and lovers, which inspired the hill's name. " Off in the distance is Cape Spear, said to be the easternmost point on the North American continent (I thought Greenland was also part of the North American continent, but I might be wrong).

Another view looking down at the Narrows and the exit from St. John's Harbour.

We decided to visit an Irish pub on George Street...

... inside O'Reilly's Irish Pub.

We had appetizers and then...

... toutons ("leftover" bread dough fried and usually dipped in molasses)...

... and fish and chips with the chips done 'Newfoundland poutine' style with savory dressing and gravy on the fries.

We were there to be able to hear some of the live music and then we headed back to the campground before it got too late.

What a nice sunny day!

North Atlantic Aviation Museum, Gander, Newfoundland

On Monday, we continued our journey south and east, stopping for the night at a Harvest Host location, North Atlantic Aviation Museum, in Gander, Newfoundland.

Dwayne and I visited in 2016 - since then, a Broadway Musical about Gander's impact on 9/11 has been written, "Come From Away".

We got Gracie and the Jee-rage parked for the evening and then proceeded to view the outdoor aircraft exhibits. The first is a Beech 18S Expeditor - Light Bomber and Armament Trainer

CF-101 Voodoo -- Fighter/bomber, reconnaissance/interceptor

PBY-ra Catalina/Canso -- Maritime reconnaissance, search/rescue, bomber/water bomber

Lockheed Hudson MkIII -- Light bomber, maritime reconnaissance and troop transport

Inside the museum, we viewed displays about the Gander airport from 1935 onwards. Gander was a refueling stop for flights between Europe and North America - the largest airport in the world at the time. During World War II, it was heavily used for transporting aircraft from manufacturing facilities in North America to the European theater in support of the war effort. Following the war, it continued in use as a refueling stop for transatlantic flights - commercial and military. In the 1960s, with airplanes having greater range, it decreased in use, though air traffic control through Gander Control continues supporting North Atlantic flights.

In 2001, when US airspace was closed to flights due to the terrorist activities of 9/11, Gander suddenly again hosted flights...

Quote from Mayor of Gander

If you'd like to see more about Gander's response to the need of 9/11, you might want to view this 60 Minutes Australia program from a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GXmplRrwgA