Reflections on Traveling in Canada

Just a few reflections on spending two months in Canada over the last year. In many ways it is very similar to the US while still being a foreign country. They drive the same cars on the same side of the road as we Americans do but when you see a speed limit sign that reads 80 don't go 80 mph or you will learn more about the Canadian legal system. Our simple rule was to multiply by .6 to get a close estimate of the actual speed limit in kilometers. The same rule applies to distances so don't get discouraged when you see a sign at two in the afternoon that says your destination is still 100 km away, it is really only 62 miles. We found most main roads to be smooth and very well maintained but the farther off the beaten path we traveled the worse the roads became. That said we are from Pennsylvania so we are very familiar with potholes. We only encountered one low underpass, but it is important to know how tall your rig is in meters. Our 12'6" translates to 3.8 meters. Another metric issue is temperatures that are reported in Celsius so when you hear it is going to be 25 you don't need to get out the winter clothes. Near the end of our visit we learned this little trick to convert temps to Fahrenheit. Double the Celsius reading and add thirty. While not exact it will give you a good idea of how to dress. That said in Newfoundland you ALWAYS need to dress in layers because the weather can change by the hour or by driving 25 miles down the road.

Money is another thing that is similar as they use dollars and coins that are the same denominations. But, the first time I got change that was all coins I thought the clerk had made a mistake not realizing she had given me loonies (dollar coins), and toonies (two dollar coins). We did find several campgrounds that would only take cash and so we had to exchange money. The first time I went to the bank the fees made the exchange even, even though the US dollar was worth more. Also, the bank would only exchange smaller bills not Ben Franklins. I later discovered that the banks (Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal) did not charge for using there ATMs and my local bank gave us the best rate so it was the best way to obtain cash. We still used the credit card where possible and even with the 2% fee per transaction, the exchange rate was better than exchanging money at the bank. We found just about everything to be more expensive than in the US. Make sure you stock up on all the nonperishables you can carry as replenishing your cabinet will cost you dearly. One thing that is very expensive that you are allowed to bring into the country in only limited quantities is booze. Wine that Nanc buys for seven dollars here was double that and a "12" pack of beer was nearly $24.00. We did find alcohol to be less expensive in Quebec. Most food was more costly in both grocery stores and reatuarants. Meals were usually bland, but the fish chowder, brewis, jigg's dinner and salt fish were all excellent. All the local seafood we had was great from the Newfoundland fish and PEI mussels to the lobster we had in Quebec. Another major expense is fuel. Don't get excited when you see gas for "only" $1.00 because that is per liter and translates to about $3.80 a gallon. We paid $4.00 a gallon for diesel in Newfoundland. Campground costs, just like here, vary greatly. Last summer in Vancouver we paid $318 (US) for a week and Pippy Park in St. John's was $285. They are both urban parks with easy access to the cities and in places where there are not a lot of options. Our cheapest campground was the Viking RV Park near L'anse aux Meadows that was only $10 a day Passport America rate.

Language is an area where Canada is both the same and different from the US. While signs were written in English and it was spoken everywhere except Quebec, the dialect of Newfoundlanders was often very difficult to understand. Our whole time in Quebec was with Jean Paul and Celine Dugas so we always had someone to translate, but there were many people who spoke little or no English. We found that a friendly smile and a bonjour would often be enough to get someone in Quebec to use a little English with someone like me who does not understand French at all. Because of the language, being in Quebec seemed more like being in Europe than North America, so it is a less expensive way to have a wonderfully different cultural experience.

For natural beauty many places we have visited in our travels have been wonderful, but seeing icebergs, puffins and so many whales were all near the top of our list for great natural spectacles. These are things we would not have seen in many other places we can get to by RV. There are a couple of natural things about Canada that really bugged us and they are the black flies and mosquitoes. At times they were so bad they even chewed on me but Nanc, who is a real bug magnet, was eaten alive. That said, I'm sure there are places in the states that are just as bad but we have not been anyplace where they were this bad since going on the road.

Communication can be an issue as our Verizon air card would work but for a very, very high charge. We never used it because more than half the campgrounds had wi-fi and most local libraries had hot spots. Our phone worked, but once again it was expensive. We used it sparingly and our bill was still high, but not as high as signing up to extend coverage to Canada for our stay. One thing we discovered was that we could not access our voice mail so for our entire visit it showed a message. We just had to figure if it was really important the person would have tried again.

The first and last thing you must be prepared for is crossing the border and you need to check both the US and Canadian customs web sites. We crossed the border three times in the last year and the first time we made the mistake of crossing in the truck (commercial) lane and were reprimanded but allowed to pass without a problem. Crossing to little Campobello Island was an experience, as going in the Canadians searched the rig and returning two hours later the Americans did the same. The third crossing was totally uneventful even though that was for our longest stay. Don't forget you now need a passport to get back into the US. Overall we give our Canadian experience an A and look forward to adding additional provinces to our map.

St. John's and a Ferry Long Day

St. John's, the oldest city in North America, is the capital and the largest city in the province. You are still very aware that you are on an island far from the mainstream and mainland. There are the same number of TV stations we had in other places on the island, two. But it is a beautiful city with plenty to keep you entertained.

One place for both views and a some culture is The Rooms, the newest museum. The building is designed like the fishing rooms we have seen throughout our visit. We did not visit the museum but we went to the cafe on the fourth floor for lunch, great fish chowder, just so we could take advantage of the view.
From the top floor of The Rooms you have a great panorama of Signal Hill, the Narrows, the harbour and most of the city

This shows how tight the Narrows are as we watched this tanker come into the harbour.

These are a few of the vividly painted houses in the city. Can you find Nanc in the pic?

Since we landed on the Rock everyone said we had to experience George Street as it has more bars per meter than any street in the world. You can easily see this is true as the street is only two blocks and every building is a bar. On Tuesday we went there for supper and wondered what all the excitement was about as many places were closed. We returned another night for some music and found a few more people. Finally on Saturday we took a nap and went downtown at 8:30 for supper and music. That night we got a little hint what the real scene must be like. When we were leaving at midnight ALL the bars were open and the streets were getting crowded. Oh well, I guess we are just to old for the after midnight scene. From the little action we saw the saying in the pic sums up George Street.

One must stop on my list was the Quidi Vidi Brewing Co. in Quidi Vidi Harbour. They produce great local beer that is only available at a few places away from the Rock. The tour starts with the guide talking about how the company started and explaining each brew as we sampled a small taste. Next everyone selected the one beer they wanted to drink as we toured the brewery. 1892 was my favorite with Eric's Red a close second. They also brew Iceberg beer that is made with water from bergs. I found it to be cool, clear and refreshing, a good hot weather beer.

On Monday left St. John's and drove less than a hundred miles to the Argentia Sunset Park near where we planned to catch the ferry at 3:30PM Thursday. The town of Argentia is no more as it became a US military base in 1941 until it closed in 1994. This is where Roosevelt meet Churchill in 1941 before we were in WWII. The visitors center has an excellent display on this meeting as well as the negative and positive affects of the base.

When we were at the visitors center they suggested we check in with the ferry because one of the boats (surprise, the Smallwood we came over on) was having mechanical problems again. When we checked they said a smaller, slower boat, the Lief Ericson, was now sailing this route, but on a delayed schedule. The Tuesday boat that was to depart at 5PM would be leaving at eleven and our boat on Thursday would also be late because crossing times are now 18 hours rather than the regular fourteen. We were undecided about what to do and after checking again on Tuesday afternoon and learning the departure time was now 1AM we decided to wait until Thursday. Two hours later Teresa from Marine Atlantic called to tell us the Thursday trip was canceled and we should get on the wait list for Tuesday unless we wanted to drive the 600 miles back to Port aux Basque. We opted for the wait list and checked in at 4:00 and began the WAIT. FINALLY at 1:30 Wednesday morning we were told we could get on this sailing. We loaded at 2AM and departed at 3AM. We arrived in North Sidney at 9PM only 14 hours behind schedule and 29 hours after checking in Tuesday afternoon. It was a very long day made worse because the change of schedule meant the sleeper lounges we had reserved were no longer available, thus we had quite a restless night with the fog horn sounding the entire night near where we “tried” to sleep.

The Lief Ericson waiting in the fog to load.

Exploring the Avalon Peninsula

We did a couple of road trips from St. John's to explore more of the Avalon Peninsula. One was on the Irish Loop Drive south along the Atlantic Ocean, Trepassey Bay and and then north along St. Mary's Bay where we toured the Colony of Avalon in Ferryland and visited a couple lighthouses. The other was the Baccalieu Trail along Conception Bay with stops in Cupids and Harbour Grace.


The Colony of Avalon was started in 1621 by Sir George Calvert who later became Lord Baltimore of Maryland fame. The colony thrived through the 1600's until it was destroyed by the French in 1696 as part of the ongoing dispute with the English over Newfoundland. For the last twenty years archaeologists have been doing a dig at the site. It is the best place we have visited for being able to watch the ongoing excavation along with viewing the results of the past twenty years.

This is the cobblestone floor and part of the walls of the mansion house at Avalon. The wood shows where walls that have collapsed would have been.
Here you can watch the archaeologists at work. There were at least 25 people working at various phases from digging, to cleaning, to cataloguing items. These people really do dig their work.

This is the original waterfront with the walls of a warehouse and the paved street. The new buildings in the background are built on top of the site. The neighbors have been very cooperative in allowing the dig to happen on their property. In some sections after the artifacts were removed the site was recovered as they were in people's yards.

Some of the 1,000,000 plus artifacts that have been found here.

They also have built a 17th century kitchen to show a typical upper class home.

The Ferryland Lighthouse

This light is a short walk from Ferryland. You can purchase a picnic lunch at the house. It comes complete with a blanket so you can kick back and enjoy the view of the ocean while eating your lunch.

The Cape Race Lighthouse at the Southeastern tip of Newfoundland has the strongest light along the Atlantic Coast. There was a Marconi wireless station here that received the distress call and communicated with the Titanic as it sank. To get here was a 25 mile round trip on gravel road across a treeless tundra. We saw three pods of whales feeding not too far off shore which made the trip worthwhile.

Cupids, Canada's oldest British colony, is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year. The flag is a replica of the one flown a hundred years ago for the 300th anniversary. There is an archaeological dig going on here that we did not visit.

In Harbour Grace the S.S. Kyle has been grounded since 1967 when an iceberg pushed it to its present position. Top is Nanc with Amelia Earhart who flew from the airstrip (right) here on the first successful solo trans-Atlantic flight by a woman.

To the Edge of the Continent

The drive to St. John's, as with many road trips here, had a bit of everything with the thick fog being the worst. Getting to Avalon, the Eastern most area of Newfoundland, you must cross a section where the cold waters of Trinity Bay are only about ten miles from the warmer Placentia Bay so the fog was very bad for about 25 miles. At least traffic was light and we were on the TCH so the road was in good shape. The closer we got to the city the clearer it became. St. John's is the capital and about a third of all Newfoundlanders live in the area. We are spending a week at Pippy Park which is right in the city and a bit expensive, as are all urban campgrounds, but is well located for exploring the entire Avalon Peninsula.

The fog was as thick as Newfoundland pea soup.
We attended the tattoo at the Signal Hill National Historical Site. There was a unit of His Majesty's Royal Newfoundland Regiment, a artillery unit and a fife and drum band. They paraded and then had a mock battle to reenact the 1762 battle with the French that was the last of the Seven Years War. This was the last of four times that the French had captured St. John's in the 100 plus years of dispute over fishing rights. It was a grand show and very worthwhile.

Atop Signal Hill is Cabot Tower that was built to celebrated the 400th anniversary of his landing and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The Hill was used by the military from the 18th century through WWII as a harbour defense. Signal Hill is the place were Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal in 1901.

The city and harbour. The harbour is well protected from the Atlantic but is not very large. The downtown starts right on the water and climbs the hill giving great views as you walk. Because of the hills and water the city streets are very hard to follow. There is no grid and the names seem to change from block to block. For someone who grew up driving in Pittsburgh this is not a big deal but it can be confusing.

The Narrows is the entrance to the harbour. It is so narrow that during wars a chain was placed across it to prevent the enemies, French, American, German from sailing through it. There is a great system of trails on and around the hill (and the entire city). Parks Canada has a GPS you can use that not only directs you on the trails within the park but also gives you historical information at stops along the way.

Looking from the hill out into the Atlantic. In the foreground is Fort Amherst on the opposite side of the Narrows and in the background 11km away is Cape Spear, the Eastern most point of North America. You can see why the hill would be a good place to "signal" the city about approaching ships.

There are two lighthouses at Cape Spear. Left is the original 1836 light, the oldest in Newfoundland and right is the newer light built in 1955. There is also a WWII coastal defense battery that was manned by both Canadian and American troops. This is one of several places where the US had bases in Newfoundland during and after the war. Newfoundland, the oldest British colony, was not part of Canada until 1949.

Here we are again living on the edge, of the continent that is. As the crow flies we are about 3500 miles from LA on the other side of the continent where we started the year and only about 1900 miles from Ireland that we both swear we could see in the distance. We really did see a whale not to far off the coast.

Actors, Cellars & Puffins

Two other neat towns near Bonavista are Trinity and Elliston. Trinity has several well preserved buildings and a theater company. Elliston bills itself as the Root Cellar Capital of the World and is a great place to get a really close view of puffins.

We heard on the local news that when there are a lot of lupins they are going to have poor summer weather. Well guess what, when we arrived on June 18th we saw no lupins but by the time we were coming south from the Northern Peninsula they were everywhere. The weather has been all over the place with highs ranging from 42 to 82 with rain, clouds, fog and sun sometimes all in one day. We only had one day that was a total rain out and the weather has not prevented us from doing and seeing what we have wanted.
Several of the buildings in Trinity. The town has become a popular place for Mainlanders and Americans to purchase or build summer homes. The winter population is only about thirty. It was a neat place with all the old buildings and newer homes built to conform with the older appearance. But it does have an artificial feel to it compared to Bonavista, where most of the old building are still being used.

A great way to see Trinity and to learn a little history is to attend the Pageant, a walkabout play with ten scenes in different locations throughout the town. The Rising Tide Theatre also does several indoor productions from June to October. We enjoyed the play a great deal.

Elliston has over 130 well preserved root cellars, some that have been in use for 165 years. Before refrigeration the cellars were the only way to keep root vegetables through the winter. They were used year round to keep perishables from spoiling. They were mostly built with local materials but one did have the roof supported with a steel beam salvaged from a ship wreck.

What is it that would bring out the big lens on a cloudy day? Well, it is the puffins. One of our goals while in Newfoundland was to see a puffin and here we saw hundreds. Puffins generally are found on islands just off shore so it is difficult to get an close look at these beautiful unique sea parrots. We did see a few near the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse but they were all pretty far away. On our first visit to Elliston we were told many would land on shore on days when the weather was not very good. So we returned on a dreary afternoon and sat in the drizzle and waited along with the big cameras. I was almost afraid to show my little thing.

This one came and sat on the edge for few minutes as if posing for us. Puffins are excellent swimmers and divers that breed from the Maritimes south to Maine.

The puffin in the foreground is on shore while on the island just off shore there were hundreds more. Puffins raise a single chick in a burrow or rock crevice with a grass lined nest. They were flying down to the water to get capelin, the same fish the whales eat, to bring back to feed their chick. It seemed like one would fly for food while the other stayed back to protect their chick from the ever present gulls.

These two landed together and seem to be entertaining each other. They are very comical when they fly with their dumpy bodies and their short little wings flapping like crazy.

This is a good place to see them even if they don't land on shore. Puffins are members of the auk family and look like a bird put together by committee with penguin bodies, murre wings, duck feet and parrot bills.

Nanc relaxes in a puffin chair after a long day of puffin watchin.

A Good View of Bonavista

The entire coast of Newfoundland is made up of many peninsulas and islands. All these add up to almost 18,000 miles of shoreline. Our plan was to spend as much time as possible along the coast so we had to pick and choose which areas would be best to visit. We decided early on that we would not have time to explore much of the southern coast in the RV. Traveling to Twillingate was a 120 mile round trip from the Trans Canadian Highway (TCH). We next went to Bonavista, a 150 mile out and back trip from the TCH. The roads on these excursions off the TCH are often narrow and not as well maintained making the drive a little more intense. We stayed at Paradise Farm Trailer Park and discovered that in Canada a trailer park is not what it is in the states but is just another name for a campground.

Typical of most of the roads on the peninsulas, very narrow, no shoulder and in poor repair. But with beautiful scenery and very little traffic. The main road, that we used to return to the TCH, was in a little better shape.
The 35 foot tall Cape Bonavista Lighthouse began operating on September 11, 1843. The masonry tower rises through the center of the surrounding keeper's house. As with other lights that are now provincial parks, it has been restored to reflect the way it appeared in 1876 when Jeremiah White was the keeper. The flues for the fireplaces in the house were built into the tower. The signal flag room has the flags used to communicate with ships at sea. The day we were there it spelled out warm. The light was different than others we have seen. It just reflected off a polished parabolic background. There was no Fresnel lens in this one to increase the power of the light.

Cape Bonavista is also were it is believed Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot to most Americans and Canadians) landed in 1497 aboard the Matthew. Cabot claimed the New Founde Lande for England making this their first possession in the "new world". Cabot along with four ships disappeared on a second voyage.

In 1997 to mark the 500th anniversary of the discovery, a replica of the Matthew sailed from Bristol, England to Bonavista to mark the occasion. The queen was here for the event. The locals then decided they wanted their own replica so one was built here along with a boat house where it spends the winter. The doors open, the ship with it's masts is pulled inside, it is then lifted out of the water. The boat house allows the ship to be toured year round in any weather. Even though it was raining when we were there they would not put it inside for us. They said getting wet would make the experience more realistic. It is hard to believe that people sailed across the Atlantic in a wooden ship that was less than 100 feet long.

The Mockbegger Plantation was the home of F. Gordon Bradley the first federal minister when Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada in 1949. Bradley was a fish merchant and the home reflects his wealth. It is restored to the 1939 era when they had electricity but still no indoor plumbing.

Bonavista has many large wooden buildings dating from the late 1800's to the middle 1900's. The largest building is the Loyal Orange Lodge. The building to the left is the boat house for the Matthew and the yellow building is the courthouse. Even the movie theater was built with wood. It was a very beautiful little town.

Not far down the road is Port Union, the only union built town in North America. It was built by the Fishermen's Protective Union to give them a better option than dealing with the fish merchants. It was way ahead of its time as it had electricity in 1918. It included a branch railway, shipyard, factories, salt fish plant and retail stores. The whole thing was the brain child of Sir William F. Coaker, local publisher, activist, businessman and political leader.

Twillingate & Cod Fishing

We traveled the Road to the Isles to Peyton's Woods RV Park and Campground in Twillingate. The road is a series of causeways that connect these once isolated islands and villages. Our first day we hiked under sunny skies and drove to the Long Point Lighthouse. We also got an after hours tour of the Durrell Museum. Day two was rainy, windy and cold, the worst we have had since arriving, and we stayed home all day. This is the advantage of being fulltimers and being here for an extended stay as we can take a day off anytime we choose.

On our last day visited the Prime Berth Interpretive Fishing Center, a must see for anyone who wants to understand cod fishing and its impact on the heritage of Newfoundland. Because it is July there are many stories on the radio and TV about the cod moratorium that banded all cod fishing on the north coast of Newfoundland starting in July 1992. This put thousands out of work and changed the way thousands more made their living. Bill Cooze at the Prime Berth does a very good job of telling the story. Before the 1960's when electricity and refrigeration arrived, all cod fishing was done by families on a very small scale. There were so many cod near shore that most fishermen worked within sight of there homes. That is why you see hundreds of fish camps they call “rooms” all along the coast. All the cod had to be quickly split and salted before it could spoil. After it cured the fish was dried and taken to a fish merchant and exchanged for the supplies they would need to get them through the winter and to start fishing the next year. As the story goes, no matter how many fish you had and of what quality they were it was ALWAYS only enough to just pay the bills and start again the following year. It was a system that basically enslaved the fishermen to the merchants. In areas with larger populations, co-ops were often started to bypass the merchants and put the whole operation in the hands of the fishermen. With refrigeration making ice available they began using bigger boats, going out farther and catching more and bigger fish. This overfishing is what lead to the moratorium in 1992. How often we let progress destroy a way of life.

Fishing stages, homes and the RV park overlooking the Back Harbour in Twillingate.
The Long Point Lighthouse is being renovated. We could hear its fog horn at the park several miles away.

We really just drove to the top of Old Maid Hill for the view of the town below but Ray Blake came by and asked if we would like to tour the Durrell Museum even though it was closed for the day. We got a personal tour of the museum's many local artifacts and great stories about living here from Ray, a lifelong resident. Ray trained here for WWII when the building was an armory. He even let us feel the fur of the polar bear despite the DO NOT TOUCH sign.

A typical Newfoundland fish camp. The stage was built over the water so they could dispose of the waste. The store was for all the equipment and to stack the dried fish. Together they are called the rooms. They are often red because they used red ocher, a common local mineral, mixed with cod liver oil to make paint. The interior of the stage was whitewashed to keep it clean.

Bottom is how they fished years ago, a half dozen men pulling up the net that had been set the day before and shoveling the fish into the open boat. This is why they needed to be close to shore so they could process the fish before they went bad. Top is a modern shrimp boat. This is one type of fishing that has replaced cod. They also now fish for crab and lobster. Bill said when his grandfather caught lobster in his cod nets he would bring them home and grind them up for fertilizer in the garden. They considered them to be inedible. These modern fishermen do make good money but they have a huge amount of money invested in their equipment.

This is Bill showing how they processed the catch. One person would gut it and remove the head. All this went through the slats in the floor of the stage into the water below. The next person would remove the back bone and flick it out the window. A good deboner would always have the next bones in the air before the previous ones hit the water. Next they cleaned the cod and finally salted and stacked it. Salting was the most important job because if any small area was unsalted they would get maggots and destroy the whole stack. It remained stacked in salt for up to two months until the salt had soaked through. The bucket on the table contains the one organ they kept, the cod liver that was barreled and sold as well as used to make paint.

These lovely ladies are showing how the cod was dried after being cured in the salt. The cod were cleaned again and laid out in the sun. If it was to hot ( I don't think that was often a problem) it could burn and lower the quality. Each night and at any sign of rain all the cod was collected and stacked inside the store. The whole process took several days depending on the weather.

Nets were made of cotton twine that had to be dyed and soaked in a preservative to prevent rotting. This process use called barking. At the end of the season they were cleaned, hung to dry and holes were repaired before they were stored. At the start of the next season the whole process was done again.

Four years ago this sei whale was found beached near Twillingate. Dave, the owner of Prime Berth, offered to drag it off the beach if he could have the skeleton after nature picked it clean. This is the first year it has been displayed. Right is the baleen from the whale's mouth. Whales gulp a mouth full of food and let the water run out before swallowing. We saw this when we saw the whales in Labrador. Bill said when they power washed the baleen the outside was so watertight they could only get water through by washing it from the inside.