Long Johns in St. Johns

July 20-21, 2015 – Day 35-36

On Monday we left Bonavista to drive to St. Johns, Newfoundland.  We had a minor panic when we thought the car coming off.  We pulled over to find that the tow bar just had not locked, thus the car was tracking to one side and looked like it had detached.  Whew…we were able to get it corrected and continued on our way for the 3 1/2 hr drive to St. Johns.  This is the capital, the principal port, and commercial center of Newfoundland.  Its where you can find over 100,000 of the 500,000 people that live on the entire island!  What a contrast to the small coastal fishing villages we’ve been in for most of the trip--there is a Walmart and Costco here!  We are staying at Pippy Park, a city park which includes the campground and a golf course; BUT, there is no satellite reception, and very poor wifi.  We did put up the antenna, and we can get 3 tv stations…and one is a broadcast of a radio frequency.  The camping spots are in a wooded area, and the Whale pulled out his electric chain saw, climbed a ladder and cut down branches to clear the spot (when simply moving the bus would have resolved the problem).   It was pretty funny. 

The weather continues to be cold, and we heard a report that this is the coldest July since the 1960’s…and the coldest temperatures right now in all of North America—even the Arctic..not sure it feels so good to be part of history!  I had to break out my Cuddli-duds (long johns)! Brrrrrr!  The weather is the big news here and the weathermen keep apologizing for the weather.

St. Johns has an excellent natural harbor, and soon after discovery became a center for cod fishing merchants.  Those who owned the fish warehouses made a fortune and they say that in the early 1960’s there were more millionaires per capita in St. Johns than any other city in North America!  St. John’s is closer to Europe than any other city in North America, and we visited the most easterly point in North America – Cape Spear.  Too bad it was such a grey and foggy day.  The Cape Spear lighthouse was lit and working hard in the foggy weather.

Because of its strategic location, the harbor also had a number of bunkers used to protect the harbor during wartime.  It was interesting to see so many of these places so  well preserved.

They also had a pretty creative use of old cannons which were used as pedestals for the statues in front of this Catholic church! 

We visited Signal Hill, a high point where they used to announce the arrival of the merchant ships by flying a unique flag to identify the ship and setting off a cannon.  When the people in the village heard the cannon, they could look up and see what flag it was, and know to head to the docks to help unload.   Signal Hill is also the place where Marconi sent the first Morse Code message.  From Signal Hill, we could see the Amherst lighthouse, a pretty sight.

To top off the afternoon, we took a boat ride, hoping to see some whales.  But the weather was so bad, we were not able to go out very far.  The waves were really big, It was like riding a roller coaster.  Two of our group got sick (one missed the bag).  The captain and deckhands took a brief pause to take care of her, and swab the deck, then we continued on.  We saw a lot of puffins in the water.  They are funny fliers…they flap their wings really fast, and fly into the wind to get lift.  I caught one of them taking a dive and you can see the webbed feet sticking out. 

 

 

 

There were also plenty of gulls and other birds that were fun to watch.  The shoreline was really interesting with waterfalls and caves, (but no whales).

Since there is such poor wi-fi in the campground, we’re going to venture out to see if we can find a place to transmit.  We thought we were back in civilization…but not quite yet!