[If you are reading this know that I’d like to hear from you, my ‘Inbox’ is barren real estate lately]
June 21, 2010
On Monday I left Trinity in fog so thick one could barely see a car-length in front of one. Fortunately it lifted somewhat as I drove inland as my route off the peninsula was a recently paved highway. By the time I reached the TCH it was raining heavily and thundershowers continued off and on all day. I stopped at the Trinity Tourist Chalet but the gal who assured me I couldn’t miss Rising Tide was having the day off. After Clarenville the next Visitor’s Centre proved to be a regional one serving the Burin Peninsula and the Come By Chance Refinery. It hove out of the fog along the highway, how was I to know it wasn’t a Provincial Welcome Centre. After the Whitbourne Tourist Bureau TCH became a four-lane divided highway but the twin ponds of rain in the rutted travelled lane continued and moderate crosswinds buffeted amid the hills and valleys along with the concussions thrown off by the increasing truck traffic. It was with some relief I found exit 46 for Pippy Park, finding the actual campground took me twice around the block, someone omitted placing a sign at the actual RV Park entrance.
Pippy Park is yet another concept for which we are indebted to Joey Smallwood and named after the entrepeneur with whom he smoozed to make it happen. It sits in the middle of Memorial University with the Provincial Legislature, Arts and Cultural Centre, Hospitals, and Marine Centre surrounding it and a botanical garden, ski slopes and golf course among its amenities. While it’s nice to be camped inside the city the downtown core is still 3 miles distant and that climb up Mount Scio at the end of the day is a killer. On the other hand driving and finding parking downtown in one of Canada’s oldest cities? Finally got to a grocery store in a suburban mall where there is parking and although the selection was better the prices? PEI potatoes get trucked across the Confederation Bridge and through Nova Scotia to the ferry and Port-Aux-Basque, then trucked another 500 miles across Newfoundland. Butter, ice cream, and dairy products from Halifax. Flour and grains from the Prairies. Expiry dates, you expect to find fresh?
With all that fog and rain the first day of summer did not seem long with a nimbus of clouds bringing darkness around 5 in the afternoon and Tuesday was little better though in typical Newfoundland fashion just before dark gusting gales parted the clouds making sunset the brightest part of the day. It was hard to believe the temperature could hit 70 on Wednesday when it didn’t top 45 the day before so I sweltered all day under too many clothes. I hiked all the way to the harbour area, got brunch at a local cafe, and wandered into The Anglican Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist for a 1:15 organ concert. The church with its 4-foot thick stone walls and dark woods looks ponderous and solemn, the unadorned lead and tin pipes of the organ look hundreds of years old. The Catholic Basilica/Cathedral of the same name nearby has a brighter airier look about it and larger windows. I had to ask, the site where Mount Cashel Orphanage once sat is now a shopping mall. I survived the long hike back uphill.
Drove down to the foot of Signal Hill on Thursday where the Johnson Geo Centre provides parking. The place is a rock hound’s paradise with exposed rock forming its very walls. Just what the sinking of the Titanic has to do with Geology I’m not certain but the exhibit was facinating nevertheless. Upon entering the main theatre I questioned why the entrance was situated in the spot where the best seats in the house should have been located. Gordon Pinsent appears in his own window clad in Chambray work shirt, leather gloves and work belt, canvas jeans, and workboots to narrate the show, in subsequent movies throughout the centre I was amused to see how the buttons on that shirt came undone. An entire centre devoted to the rocks that make up ‘The Rock’.
The road up to the castle atop Signal Hill is a construction project though why the sidewalk was placed away from the view where everyone wants to walk I couldn’t fathom. On the rare day when the wind doesn’t bring tears to one’s eyes and the view isn’t obscured by cloud and fog the place is a photographer’s delight. The ghost of Marconi listening for those 3 dots is palpable. Although no icebergs have made it this far south this year thoughts turned to that wireless operator on the Titanic who having ignored previous iceberg warnings now franticly taps out SOS. A south-east wind brought traffic from the Torbay airport directly over the city and the air was filled with helicopter traffic--servicing oil platforms? However you draw the lines the airport is in Torbay and to the south lies the autonomous city of Mount Pearl though a visitor such as myself could be forgiven for thinking they all merge into one large metropolitan area.
Saint John's from Signal Hill
Saint John's from Mt Scio
June 21, 2010
On Monday I left Trinity in fog so thick one could barely see a car-length in front of one. Fortunately it lifted somewhat as I drove inland as my route off the peninsula was a recently paved highway. By the time I reached the TCH it was raining heavily and thundershowers continued off and on all day. I stopped at the Trinity Tourist Chalet but the gal who assured me I couldn’t miss Rising Tide was having the day off. After Clarenville the next Visitor’s Centre proved to be a regional one serving the Burin Peninsula and the Come By Chance Refinery. It hove out of the fog along the highway, how was I to know it wasn’t a Provincial Welcome Centre. After the Whitbourne Tourist Bureau TCH became a four-lane divided highway but the twin ponds of rain in the rutted travelled lane continued and moderate crosswinds buffeted amid the hills and valleys along with the concussions thrown off by the increasing truck traffic. It was with some relief I found exit 46 for Pippy Park, finding the actual campground took me twice around the block, someone omitted placing a sign at the actual RV Park entrance.
Pippy Park is yet another concept for which we are indebted to Joey Smallwood and named after the entrepeneur with whom he smoozed to make it happen. It sits in the middle of Memorial University with the Provincial Legislature, Arts and Cultural Centre, Hospitals, and Marine Centre surrounding it and a botanical garden, ski slopes and golf course among its amenities. While it’s nice to be camped inside the city the downtown core is still 3 miles distant and that climb up Mount Scio at the end of the day is a killer. On the other hand driving and finding parking downtown in one of Canada’s oldest cities? Finally got to a grocery store in a suburban mall where there is parking and although the selection was better the prices? PEI potatoes get trucked across the Confederation Bridge and through Nova Scotia to the ferry and Port-Aux-Basque, then trucked another 500 miles across Newfoundland. Butter, ice cream, and dairy products from Halifax. Flour and grains from the Prairies. Expiry dates, you expect to find fresh?
With all that fog and rain the first day of summer did not seem long with a nimbus of clouds bringing darkness around 5 in the afternoon and Tuesday was little better though in typical Newfoundland fashion just before dark gusting gales parted the clouds making sunset the brightest part of the day. It was hard to believe the temperature could hit 70 on Wednesday when it didn’t top 45 the day before so I sweltered all day under too many clothes. I hiked all the way to the harbour area, got brunch at a local cafe, and wandered into The Anglican Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist for a 1:15 organ concert. The church with its 4-foot thick stone walls and dark woods looks ponderous and solemn, the unadorned lead and tin pipes of the organ look hundreds of years old. The Catholic Basilica/Cathedral of the same name nearby has a brighter airier look about it and larger windows. I had to ask, the site where Mount Cashel Orphanage once sat is now a shopping mall. I survived the long hike back uphill.
Drove down to the foot of Signal Hill on Thursday where the Johnson Geo Centre provides parking. The place is a rock hound’s paradise with exposed rock forming its very walls. Just what the sinking of the Titanic has to do with Geology I’m not certain but the exhibit was facinating nevertheless. Upon entering the main theatre I questioned why the entrance was situated in the spot where the best seats in the house should have been located. Gordon Pinsent appears in his own window clad in Chambray work shirt, leather gloves and work belt, canvas jeans, and workboots to narrate the show, in subsequent movies throughout the centre I was amused to see how the buttons on that shirt came undone. An entire centre devoted to the rocks that make up ‘The Rock’.
The road up to the castle atop Signal Hill is a construction project though why the sidewalk was placed away from the view where everyone wants to walk I couldn’t fathom. On the rare day when the wind doesn’t bring tears to one’s eyes and the view isn’t obscured by cloud and fog the place is a photographer’s delight. The ghost of Marconi listening for those 3 dots is palpable. Although no icebergs have made it this far south this year thoughts turned to that wireless operator on the Titanic who having ignored previous iceberg warnings now franticly taps out SOS. A south-east wind brought traffic from the Torbay airport directly over the city and the air was filled with helicopter traffic--servicing oil platforms? However you draw the lines the airport is in Torbay and to the south lies the autonomous city of Mount Pearl though a visitor such as myself could be forgiven for thinking they all merge into one large metropolitan area.
Saint John's from Signal Hill
Saint John's from Mt Scio
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