Back in the USA!!!

 We were hoping to see more icebergs along iceberg alley, but they are not cooperating.  None are on the way while we will be here, so we called the ferry company and we scored a spot leaving in a few days with a pet friendly cabin!  The reason we were so lucky is that the long ferry (14 hours) that goes to eastern Newfoundland had to cancel most of their crossings for June (don’t know why), so they added another crossing on the short ferry to western Newfoundland to rebook the 2,000+ people who were on the cancelled crossings.  The additional crossings are for folks coming up to Newfoundland in prime season, which left the ship relatively empty for the returns.

No more icebergs was the bad news, but being able to get an earlier ferry allows us to attend Johnathan’s combination graduation party and going away party…..he graduated Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania and starting his graduate program at Wake Forest, North Carolina, in July.

We really enjoyed our second visit to Newfoundland and of course we complained about the cool temps, and now that we are back in the states with temps in the high 90’s, we are complaining some more.  But, we are glad to back in the USA after going without any TV and paying about $7 per gallon for fuel!

The crossing was good with clear weather the whole way.  Arrived on Nova Scotia at dinner time, got a campsite locally. We are currently in Massachusetts and will be on NJ tomorrow for the party tomorrow.

After this, we’ll head to Elmira to visit friends, then on to Indiana to get the remaining warranty items repaired on the RV.

Thanks for following us on this shorter than normal adventure!

Another Iceberg

Before leaving Crescent Lake Campground, Beau and I walked around the campground and along the lake.  They had a great playground for children with a Loch Ness monster made out of tires (cut in half) and a tic-tac-toe board on a large flat rock with small rocks for the x's and o's.  Very creative.

Creative Tic-Tac-Toe Board

Oversized chair at the kid's playground

Love the "Rustic Spa" - Bathhouse and Laundry, first time I saw a campground provided line for hanging laundry!

Stayed on this peninsula to chase an iceberg northeast of us at Brighton.  On our way, we drove through Triton, a small town with the shelters that the kids use while waiting for the school bus all painted in different designs - assume it was a fundraiser of some sort, similar to what we saw years ago with painted ponies and cows in some towns.

Still seeing some of these abandoned fishing village buildings, but not as many as when we were here 7 years ago

Trash Bin

Interesting Fence

Tiny house - probably Air B&B

On to Brighton and found the iceberg, but couldn't find a good place to take a photo.  I finally stopped on the side of the road and tried to get a photo between two houses when the owner of one came out and called to me - "Are you trying to get a photo of the iceberg?"  He then proceeded to tell me all about the iceberg being in his backyard for a while and that I could just roam around his property to take as many photos as I wanted.  Newfoundlanders are known for being some of the friendlist folks on the planet!

He came back out to show me photos he had taken when he took his boat out to the iceberg - incredible.  Brighton and nearby Triton are small towns with quite a few new, large homes but no obvious employers.  I asked my new-found Newfoundlander friend (couldn't resist) "what do folks do for work here?  "Oh, they don't work, here, right? (they use "right" like other Canadians use "eh?")  "They drive down [1.5 hrs] to Deer Lake, then fly out to the Alberta Sands [oil] or the Labrador Mines and work there a few weeks, then come home for a week, right?.  Big money, right?."  So, we finally solved the mystery about all the new homes we were seeing.

Headed back south again to Route 1 and resumed our eastward travel.  Checking the map, we found a town on the northern central coast called Leading Tickles - the name called to me and so we decided to visit.  Found a municipal campground on a small spit of land that extended into the ocean.  Campground has ocean surf crashing on craggy rocks on three sides, with spectacular views.  Beau and I climbed the Bear Cove Lookout Trail - not very long, but incredibly steep.  So much so, they had a rubber mat on the boardwalk's steep incline and I still needed the railing to pull myself up!  The 360 degree views were worth the exertion.

Decided to stay another day to get our laundry done here and to enjoy the three beaches on different sides of this mini-peninsula.  This morning brough a school bus full of little kids to the adjacent playground where they had a grand time for a few hours - we suspect it might have been an end-of-year school outing.

Beau and I explored the beaches and he found a lot of crab debris and sea urchins.  The gulls were plucking them out of the water, then dropping them on the rocks to break open and eat.  Beau tried one before I could stop him, but luckily he decided he didn't like it much.  Two of the beaches were just rocks, typical here in Newfoundland, but the third was a beautiful black sand beach.  Great relaxing day.  

Central Newfoundland

Before leaving Cow Head, Beau and I walked around the town and spotted another interesting garbage container with an attached mini-museum inside the glass fronted lighthouse.

We continued to backtrack south from Cow Head, stopping at Berry Head Pond for Beau and I to take a relaxing walk around the small lake.   

The walk started off in pretty wooded area with ferns and masses of wildflowers

Gnarly Trees!

We continued south, making a detour to visit Norris Point, a small town on the coast within Gros Morne National Park. Stopped at a lookout and drove around the small town.

Fun weathervane at Jenniex House at Norris Point Overlook

Village of Norris Point

We picked up the TransCanada Highway (Route 1) and headed east stopping at the slightly larger town of Deer Lake to do a little grocery shopping.  We stopped for the night in a wonderful local campground on Deer Lake.  Although the weather started out nice, by the time we stopped for a campsite, it had clouded up and became windy, so we skipped a site on the lake.  A great park for families - had a wonderful massive bouncy mound that the about 30 kids were enjoying.  It was in the high 50's with a wind, and the kids and adults were walking around in tank tops, shorts, and flip flops.  As I shuddered feeling cold just looking at them, I saw some kids in the water!!!!

Next morning, we drove a bit further east on Route 1, and then we took Route 410 north to Westport where an iceberg was sighted.  Drove through the small town and found a great little spot where we pulled in next to folks from Ontario doing the same thing we were.  

I scrambled down the rocky beach next to a cute little waterfall to walk around the edge of the water where I found a couple Bergy Bits.  Iceberg ice is thousands of years old and some of the purest water on Earth.  I managed to collect a good sized piece that would fit in our freezer so we could make our Happy Hour cocktail hour with glacial ice.

Bergy Bits for cocktails (yes, we rinsed it off first)

Massive rock on the beach near the Bergy Bits

We got a nice campsite at Crescent Lake RV Park in Roberts Arm overlooking a popular summertime lake, but not busy until July.  

 

Cow Head and Gros Morne's Western Brook Pond Boatride

 

Our campsite is in a small campground next to the Sea Breeze Bed and Breakfast, right on the Cow Head harbour.  Beau and I did some long walks around the town and along the rocky beach, where Beau found some bones of some large animal (caribou?).  

The rocks have all types of striations and colors:  green, blue, gray, orange, blue

Beau found this bone that he desperately wanted to take home.

And these bones that seemed more weathered, but quite large.  Looked like a leg portion and knee or hip joint.

We are staying here because it is close to the Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park where we have reservations for a boatride.  In Canada, a Pond is a lake, and not just a small lake.  They call this lake a fjord, but technically it isn't because it is a fresh water lake that was sculpted by a glacier - similar to the Finger Lakes in New York.  It is also very deep - 500 feet and very cold - about 35 degrees at the surface, and has very high vertical cliffs on either side along its 10 mile length. 

From the parking lot, it is a 3 km walk to the boat dock, but thankfully, they started providing a golfcart transport, so Jack could get to the boat.  The day started out foggy, but cleared up with intermittent clouds coming and going that sometimes masked the tops of the cliffs.  It was a two hour tour, and we were glad to wore many of our layers because although the temp at the dock was pleasant, the boatride was really cold.  It was a wonderful trip and took lots of photos.  

Clouds when we first got to the boat launch

The face in the mountain they call The Tin Man

Our favorite waterfall

Closeup of The Tin Man

I know, third photo, but we REALLY like this one.

We returned to our Sea Breeze campground and spent the night.  Tomorrow we will continue our journey south and east to Deer Lake before Taking Route 1 East in search of more icebergs in Iceberg Alley.