| Anne & Andi's Newfoundland Adventures |
| The ferry ride itself was uneventful – not at all like the last ferry ride I took to Newfoundland. This one was not rough at all but sailed on a calm, beautifully blue body of water. We took the one to Port aux Basques so we were only on the ferry for 6 hours. Had time to catch a nap on deck – got a little sunburn from that. And I had a great time eavesdropping on a conversation between Eddie from Cornerbrook and a couple from Japan. Eddie was telling Ken all about the province and why it is wonderful. He was explaining to Ken that although Newfoundland is the poorest province in Canada, you’d never know because families pool their resources to help everyone get by. He said it’s been done for hundreds of years and it seems to be a quality ingrained in the culture. He said in the Northern Peninsula and in places in the Western part of NFLD there is no concept of owned land, so there are no fences and everyone helps the other. He recommended touring the Codroy Valley and Gros Morne Park, That’ll be another time for us since we have to be in Grand Falls-Windsor by 10 PM to be at Joey’s. My knee is all swollen and I have to take a pain pill. What a mess I am in to go to Newfoundland! |
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| The ferry from Newfoundland bound for North Sydney |
| Approaching Port aux Basques, Newfoundland on a typical foggy day |
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| Leaving North Sydney Harbour - a view of a closed coal mine |
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| A farewell to Cape Breton - North Sydney Lighthouse |
| We had a foggy glimpse of Port aux Basques as I strained to see “The Rock.” Andi drove off the ferry as well as we got right on the TCH to Grand Falls-Windsor, My watch had broken when I fell in the morning and we stopped in Cornerbrook at Tim Horton’s and I went to the Dominion store and got a new watch. I slept from Cornerbrook to Badger. We switched in Badger and I drove to GF-W since Andi was so tired. It rained a bit on the way and the road signs were a tad confusion but we finally found Joey’s street and tentatively knocked on the door, Lo and behold! He was happy to see us and gave us the news that we’d be his last visitors because he was leaving Newfoundland that Thursday for Fort Francis, Ontario. I will miss his being in Newfoundland but this sounds like a really good move for him. We wish him well in his new home. It was so nice to give Joey a hug in person. He is as personable a chap in real life as he is online. He informed us that Holy Cow Pammi from the GBS Chatroom lived right around the corner and we ended up picking her up and driving to Hiscock’s for potato wedgies to die for, They were sooooo good! Andi sampled the buffalo wings as she did at every place we ate this trip. Haven’t found a good set yet. We sat at Joey’s till the wee hours of the morning talking with him and Pammi. Pammi really sounds like a born-and-bred Newfoundlander. |
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| It was funny to hear how strong her accent is after having only been living in Newfoundland for a relatively short time. Joey still has that generic Canadian accent that middle Canadians have. Like the generic Midwest accent in the States. Joey sang Old Brown’s Daughter for us. He has a good voice! After Pammi went home, we retired for the evening. Thank God for Andi. She worked her magic on my knee, which by that time was just throbbing, It only took about 20 minutes and BAM! Pain was gone and I could sleep. Thank you Andi! |
| The next morning, Joey extended some of that Newfoundland hospitality and made us some pretty delicious French toast. Best breakfast we’ve had since porridge at the Gaelic College! Joey also was nice enough to present us with some souvenirs of our visit. We got a photo and a copy of his newspaper. It was exciting to see the name of someone you know plastered all over the Sports section. Joey covered every sport imaginable. Hard not to miss his Hockey Shrine in the living room too! Then the kind soul led us to a desperately needed laundromat where we spent the rest of the morning. Nice to have clean clothes again. Thanks Joey! We then high-tailed it to Gander to meet up with Andi’s online stitching friend. We were supposed to meet her at the Gander Hotel and we were late. Andi rushed inside to see if she was still there and the hotel receptionist said no one had been there all morning. What to do? Well, Andi had a load of stitching stuff for her and we decided to go into Gander and see if she was at work. She had told Andi she worked for Canadian Forces at the base in Gander. We went to one of the offices there hoping to look her up and/or have them call her to meet Andi and get the stuff. With much searching thru computers and calling on the phone, it was determined that the person did NOT work at the base in Gander and they really had no clue who she was. We then stopped at the RCMP station around the corner and asked them, since the woman had told Andi she was friends with the Mounties who worked there. They knew who we were talking about but said that they hadn’t seen her in about 3 years. Well now, isn’t that interesting? So we wrote her off as a wacko and were glad that our other Internet friends had not turned out to be jerks. Andi was really upset with the turn of events and I can’t say I blame her. This woman could have chosen to “come clean” about where she was before Andi wasted an afternoon and a lot of emotional energy looking her up. Some people. |
| Thank God our next Newfoundlander to meet would be Jim Fidler. I already knew him to be a wonderful person and I was sure Andi would come to the same conclusion. But I am getting ahead of myself here. We left Gander, disheartened, but excited about going to St. John’s. The TCH is not in wonderful shape on the eastern side of the island but Ira (that’s what I named my car – after Ira Gershwin, because he is a Rhapsody in Blue) treated us well. We stopped in Gambo for gas and lunch. Sheila’s Restaurant in Gambo had the best Newfoundland pea soup and dumplings in the world. Andi had two bowls! I LOVE NFLD pea soup. Mmmm mmmm good! Plus at Sheila’s they had good old traditional NFLD music playing in the background as we ate. Yes! I am in the right place! I had wanted to stop in Clarenville for a partridgeberry muffin but decided we didn’t have the time when we finally got near there. The same thing happened to me this time as it did 2 years ago as I entered the isthmus onto the Avalon Peninsula. We were driving along fine and then all of a sudden – Whooosh!- Fog as far as you can see! It was eerie. Wayne Johnston’s book, Baltimore’s Mansion, describes the same phenomenon entering or leaving the Avalon. A world apart it is – no doubt about it. |
| We went directly to the Captain’s Quarters but found the selection of rooms very limited – a suite and a room with a double bed. Not wanting to ride around St. John’s searching for hotel rooms, I suggested to Andi that we take the suite. I still think it was a good decision because we had separate rooms – she did not have to endure my snoring one more night. We dragged all our stuff into the suite and then I gave Jim Fidler a call. We arranged to meet him after my debut and then set out to find O’Reilly’s Pub where we would eat dinner and I would sign up for Open Mic Night. Parked the car on George Street – we were lucky to get a spot and entered O’Reilly’s not knowing what to expect. Larry Foley of the Punters runs the Open Mic night and I had to sign up at the bar. We then ordered for dinner. |
| Guess what Andi had? Buffalo Wings! She said they were the best wings outside of Buffalo she had tasted so far. O’Reilly’s was as LOUD as Jim said it would be. I never did get to sing for several reasons. There were many people signed up, most of them played/sang two or three songs, and it began an hour later than they said it would. So the gods conspired against me and 11:30 arrived with my asking Larry what could I bribe him with to call my name next. There was no bribing the man much to his credit and I decided to just leave to meet Jim at Erin’s Pub. I used the excuse that I had driven a good portion of the day and we were both tired. Turns out it was a lame excuse. We walked the couple blocks to Erin’s and found it quite empty, except for a man who looked familiar and his girlfriend. Turns out he WAS someone I should have known and I did recognize him later. We walked in and asked the bartender if I could use his phone to make a call so meet someone here. His reply? “Are you here for Jim? Go right in the back and call.” Pays to know Jim Fidler, I guess. So I called and he said he was in the middle of solving a computer problem but he’d be down at Erin’s ASAP. So Andi and I found a table to sit at and ordered a couple sodas and waited. While we were waiting a couple more familiar faces walked in whose names I could not immediately recall, although I knew they were musicians whose CDs I had. |
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| Fog rolling over the isthmus leading to the Avalon Peneinsula |