Portland Creek and St. Barbe

(Written on July 9, 2013)

Carol Ann and I left the Grand Codroy RV Park at 8:45AM, well within the first half of the group to leave.  That’s probably a first for us.  The trip was uneventful but very scenic.  We drove through mountains and along the coast.  The terrain changed ever so slightly the further north we drove.  By that, I mean “more rugged.”  The population is sparse, to say the least.  In 235 miles we only passed one town of any size at all.  Almost every other place was too small to call a village.  Perhaps communities would be a better description.  The highway was excellent for about the first two-thirds of the drive then began to narrow and deteriorate somewhat.  Not really too bad.  It could have been a lot worse.

When I say mountains, we are talking 1000 to 1500 feet of elevation.  Not very high in altitude, but extremely steep.  When I could, I would get a running start on the downhill so that I could make it up the hill without getting too slow.  Some times that wasn’t possible due to other traffic in front of me (I couldn’t pass or run over them).  When that happened the coach really struggled climbing the hill.  I didn’t think that was supposed to be much of a problem for a diesel, but I guess our diesel is a tad too small (we will find out later what the problem really was).  At one point I was behind two motorhomes from our group.  I wasn’t far enough back to get my usual running start and when we hit the uphill portion both of them just walked off and left me.  One had a Ford V-10 gasoline front engine and the other a Cummings 425 HP rear-engine diesel.  The one with the gasoline engine was not towing a car, which made a difference I’m sure.  The other was towing a small UTE that weighed only 1500 lbs.  My motorhome has a CAT 330 HP rear-engine diesel and was towing a 4500 lb. Chevy Traverse.  The slowest speed I got down to going uphill was 22 mph.  It would have been less had the crest been any further.  I either need a larger engine or a lighter car to tow.

For a little while I followed one of our group (Stoney and Claudia) who traveled a little slower than I like to drive and I began to get antsy.  At one point he was down to about 35 or 40 mph so I pulled over at the next overlook to take some pictures.  I decided that I would award him the “I MAY BE SLOW BUT I’M AHEAD OF YOU!” bumper sticker until I got in a line behind a highway line painting truck that was traveling at the agonizingly slow speed of 10 mph.  I had to wait on the vehicles in front of me to get around it, which made the agony last at least 5 minutes but seemed like forever.  Now I have pretty yellow tires.

We still made good time and arrived at the Mountain Waters RV Resort at 1:45PM.  We did the 235 miles in 5 hours flat.  Granted, that’s only an average of 47 mph but we stopped once for fuel and to eat lunch.  When we arrived the weather was excellent.  It was sunny with plenty of blue sky, big white fluffy clouds, and a temperature of only 57 degrees.  It’s like the entire outdoors is air-conditioned this far north.  Quite a difference from what’s happening back home in Texas.  

The last 1.2 km (I’m beginning to think in metrics!) from the highway to the RV Park was on an extremely dry and dusty gravel road.  Once we were parked and I got out of the coach to connect the utilities I was shocked to see our car.  Normally, a midnight blue, it looked like the entire car, windows and all, had been painted gray.  I rinsed it off with the hose so we would be able to see through the windshield.

In regards to fuel.  It is highly advisable to consider stopping and topping off your tank ANY TIME you see a fuel station, as they are few and far between up here.  It has also gotten a bit more expensive now that we are in Newfoundland.  It was $1.37 Canadian per liter of diesel when I last topped mine off.  That works out to about $5.60 a gallon!  A couple of the stations in which I have purchased fuel had diesel pumps in back for trucks but they would not allow me to use them.  Apparently some type of special truckers’ card is necessary.  Instead, I had to squeeze into one of the pump lanes in front.  If the outside lane is occupied or doesn’t have diesel I’m just SOL.  Doesn’t seem fair.

Although fuel, alcohol, and tobacco taxes are extremely high, I must admit that those taxes do pay for a lot of services in Canada.  I don’t know about all of Canada, but yesterday our tour guide informed us that they paid no property tax in her county and there is no school tax in the entire province as the provincial government foots the bill for schools.  They also have free medical services.

Tonight is the moose stew dinner and tomorrow we go to St. Barbe, park the RVs and take a ferry over to Labrador where we will spendmone night in a hotel and return to the RVs the next day.  The cats will only have one night alone, not two as I originally thought.  They’ll still be pissed off, but they have short memories.

There is no Wi-Fi or cell service at this RV Park.  Hopefully, the place we are staying tomorrow night in Labrador will have Wi-Fi, but I’m not going to hold my breath.  They have only one highway on the entire island and it isn’t paved so there is really no reason to expect Wi-Fi.

Just got back from dinner.  Carol Ann and I paired the moose stew with a very nice cabernet (no chianti with fava beans).  I wasn’t sure whether or not I would be able to eat moose without thinking of Bullwinkle so I kept repeating the mantra, “This is really beef” to myself over and over as I ate.  It must have worked because it was not bad.  If I hadn’t been told it was moose I would have probably assumed it to be beef.  At least I can check “Eat Moose” off of my bucket list.

(Arrived a short while ago in St. Barbe where we are leaving our RVs for one night in Labrador.  There is Wi-Fi here so should get this posted today, July 10.)

The Codroy Valley

The day began at 9:00AM as we boarded a tour bus for a sightseeing trip through the Codroy Valley in Southwestern Newfoundland.  The weather was very pleasant, sunny, and not hot.  However, on the inside of the bus it was a bit too warm, at least for Carol Ann and me.  We were sitting approximately in the middle of the bus and I believe it must have been warmer towards the rear.  I’ve already had my rant on Maritime buses and their not-so-efficient air conditioning so I won’t bore you by repeating it.  Needless to say, I was very glad to get off of the bus but not eager to re-board at each stop.  Stepping from the bus to the outdoors was so refreshing.  Like an ice cold beer after you have worked for a couple of ours outside in the sun with the temperature in the 90’s and high humidity.

I only wish there could have been more stops, although with the stops we did make we didn’t make it back to the RV park until a little after 5:00PM.  I realize that if you sign up for a tour such as ours with 44 people, that buses are necessary to transport a group that size from place to place when sightseeing.  I really don’t know of any other way it could be done.  Perhaps the bus tours could be limited to half-days instead of whole days.   See everything over two days instead of cramming it all into one day. Then you would have time to take your car and find great locations for your photography.

This is the most fantastic country.  It is rugged but beautiful.  You have the ocean, mountains, lakes, ponds, rocks, trees, and interesting architecture all in a relatively small area.  We drove past a lot of very nice photo-ops without time to stop.  Most people resorted to taking photos, as the bus drove past, through the windows with glare, reflections, and grime just to have some kind of photographic record of where they had been and what they had seen.  I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I’m a little too picky and would not have been at all happy with any I took that way, even though I may kick myself later. I felt a little frustrated as we drove by so many beautiful places without stopping to take photos.  I know that I am being somewhat unreasonable because if we had stopped for photos everywhere I wanted to, the tour would have taken three or four days instead of one!  Do you realize how long it takes to unload and reload 44 people through the one door on a bus?  It is a fairly slow process, at least ten minutes I would guess.  That would be five to get off and five to get back on.  Then there is the time you would need to spend at the location to get a few good shots. 

Of course, if you were expecting to go on a “photo safari” you shouldn’t be going on a 44-person tour with prearranged stops.  I will say that I was quite pleased with the amount of time we were allowed to spend at the Rose Blanche lighthouse.  It was really a terrific site for photography, even though the sun was directly overhead.  You can’t always be at a choice location at the time of the best lighting.  You have to do the best you can whenever you are there because you may never be there again.

Our last stop was at a small mall in Port Aux Basques to pick up some needed groceries and other items.  I bought a six-pack of beer for $18 and some-odd cents.  It was “Iceberg Beer,” which boasts being brewed with 25,000-year old water (from icebergs).  They did have some cheaper beer for about $13 a six-pack but I wanted to try the iceberg stuff.  Plus, something inside of me would not allow me to pay $13 for a six-pack of something akin to Bud or Miller Lite.  It seems that beer, wine, and liquor costs about twice as much in the Maritimes as in the US.  I don’t see how there could be very many alcoholics here.  Who can afford to drink that much?  It would also be tough on smokers.  I can’t quote prices, as I don’t smoke, but I believe that cigarettes are at least $8 or more a pack.  I can’t imagine paying $80 or $90 for a carton of cigarettes to smoke with your $45 to $50 per case beer!  No such thing as a cheap date up here.

Tomorrow we travel north, about 234 miles up the coast, to Portland Creek for one night at the Mountain Waters RV Resort where we will be treated to a moose stew dinner (I can’t wait).  We will only be there for one night.  After that I am a bit confused as far as the itinerary goes.  We leave the RVs somewhere (I believe St. Barbe) and take a ferry to Labrador for an overnight in a hotel.  We are a little worried about having to leave our three cats alone in the RV for two nights.  It should not be hot and although we will not have electricity our generator has an automatic feature that will start it if the thermostat calls for air conditioning and shut off when the thermostat turns off the air conditioning.  We will also leave a few windows slightly open just in case.