Oh Canada………Glorious and Free!

July 1-3, 2006
We hauled out our 6” Maple Leaf flag and stuck it in a cup holder. We’ve had a two-month introduction to so many facets of this fabulous country that we’re feeling more patriotic than ever before. Newfoundland has been the cherry on the top of the sundae – it’s a microcosm of Canadian society thirty years ago

Joey Smallwood, the first premier of Newfoundland who stayed in office from their entry into Confederation in 1949 until 1972 was born in the little town of Gambo just east of Gander. He’s still remembered and there’s a lookout on the highway not far from town called ‘Joey’s Lookout’. A Newfoundland couple that we met along the way, Doug and Mary referred to him with scorn as a charismatic little Hitler.

Gander, a town where our son David was stranded at fourteen years old in1981 (or was it Goose Bay, Labrador?) was developed around the English air base built in the 1930’s. The airport was subsequently used as a refuelling stop for trans-Atlantic flights. This site was chosen because the area gets very little fog. It’s a quiet town with a brand new Walmart that has a freshly paved parking lot, new grass and trees and was closed on Canada Day, so we had it all to ourselves. What more could we want? A wifi signal only a quarter block away was just what I needed to catch up banking and other business. Unfortunately, the town Laundromat was closed – it would have been the perfect time to do the wash.

You’re probably wondering why a 14 year old would be stranded alone in Gander. He was joining his uncle, a seabird biologist with the Canada Wildlife Service on a two-month scientific expedition using Zodiacs to navigate the Labrador coast to Cape Chidley at the top end. His uncle was delayed and David had to stay in barracks for several days waiting for him. Forlorn and lonely, he was also ill with a touch of what might have been food poisoning. I just found out that it wasn’t Gander; it was Goose Bay. So this story is irrelevant.

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Sunday morning on a long weekend and the roads were very quiet. The weather was cooperative as we slid out of Gander but about twenty miles west we encountered a dark ominous sky laying dead ahead. It was like a dark curtain coming down on us as we approached the gloom. Sudden jagged lightning, driving sheets of rain propelled by hurricane force gales his us harshly from the side. Visibility was about zero, so Fernie slowed to about 20mph and fought to keep Maggie on the road. It was really frightening but about five minutes later it was all over. We were shaken at the intensity and so thankful that we could see a patch of blue sky ahead.

An otherwise uneventful journey took us to Corner Brook where we happily found a Laundromat. The Walmart accommodated several RV’s when we arrived and the Canadian Tire alongside had a free RV dump station. Such hospitality!

Corner Brook is the second largest city in Newfoundland with a population of only 25,000. It has a beautiful harbour and in certain positions along the docks, I thought I was in Vancouver with the mountains in the background. We took a drive down Humber Arm to Blow Me Down and the Bay of Islands but it was foggy and therefore not too scenic.

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Caesar had another bad night. These episodes are coming more often now - breathless, panting and restless but with his hip he can’t walk. In the morning, we were exhausted but Caesar settled down to a good sleep. He’s ok for now.

He hadn’t been to a groomer since he left Vancouver and his fur was long and thick. We expected that Newfoundland would be cold so didn’t want to get him trimmed until after we left. We were so wrong – out of twelve days here so far, we’ve only had one or two cool days otherwise it’s been hot. So maybe these panting nights would be relieved if he got rid of his fur coat. We were apprehensive about taking him to a groomer with his painful hip and thought maybe we should buy some clippers and do it ourselves.

We pulled into Stephenville on Monday, which was a stat holiday, and as fate would have it, right on the main street was a little ‘doggie parlour’ and surprisingly, it was open for business. It was a combination pet supply shop and grooming salon. I spoke to Florrie, a tough, heavy-set, heart-of-gold type young woman who loved dogs – she had four of her own and spoke of them with such adoration. When I told her about Caesar and his problems, she was so sympathetic and convinced the owner to fit him in right away. They told me that to keep his ‘Westie cut’ with the skirt and hairy legs would cause him much more discomfort than just shaving his hair down short all over. At this point, his comfort is worth more than his beauty, so I agreed as long as they kept his Westie head.

Two hours later, we picked up a new dog – smelling sweet with a lean little body. There was a litter of 7-week-old puppies running around, the owner’s little yorkie and a huge blue and yellow uncaged parrot eyeing us up from his perch. When they put Caesar down, he paid no attention to us but immediately limped over to the dogs, tail wagging madly. I think he enjoyed his afternoon at the doggie spa.

While waiting to pick up Caesar, we wanted to keep busy so we vacuumed out the Honda, found a free wifi signal and checked email, found the post office to mail some important letters and did some maintenance on Maggie.

We parked Maggie at an abandoned airstrip right beside the ocean – a great cement pad with a stupendous view of St. George’s Bay and the waves crashing on the beach. There was a free RV dump station at the top end and so we did a cleanup. An artesian spring at the top end of town supplies the locals with their drinking water. We figured we could fill up Maggie’s water tank there but the lineup of cars waiting to fill their jugs and the large pipe that the water gushed out of (that we couldn’t connect our hose to) convinced us otherwise. We had a couple of 10 litre water bottles in the car though and we filled them up. Hmmmm…where could we get water for Maggie? We asked at a couple of service stations and they didn’t have hose bibs and had no idea where we could fill up. Finally, just as we were about to give up, we stopped at an auto body shop near where we parked Maggie and the proprietor told us to pull her up and use his faucet. Nice guy!

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We were watching the local Vancouver news and they were doing a piece on how vandalism is out of control. We haven’t even see graffiti in Newfoundland. I’m sure they have their problems, but it’s a protected society of small towns and they seem to police themselves. They are family oriented and we’ve seen so many well-behaved and polite children. Yesterday in the grocery store, we overheard a small boy of about four years old say to his mother “That’s really nice of you Mommy to buy me some jelly beans. Thank you!”. We were so impressed and commented to the mother who smiled and said proudly “Yes, he’s a good little boy”.

Another time, we were having dinner in a restaurant and across from us was a young family – parents and two little boys about 6 and 7 years old. The parents talked to the boys over dinner and the boys chatted but they sat perfectly, never spoke loudly and had beautiful manners. As we left, I went up to their table and told the parents that we were so impressed with the lovely job they’ve done with their children and commended them. They were delighted.

We have seen no farms in Newfoundland; the rocky soil can’t be fertile enough. I’m surprised their produce isn’t more expensive when it has to be transported in by land and sea. Their prices are much like ours in Vancouver but I’m sure the wages are much lower here. We haven’t seen a dairy farm either nor have there been any cattle grazing other than maybe a half a dozen here and there.

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