To St Johns, NewfoundlandAug 8, 2006
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To St. Johns, Newfoundland - 82 miles - August 8, 2006
What a beautiful day we woke up to. Sunny, and warm for here, we found we were parked by a long boardwalk just above an equally long beach. We were in the midst of the commercial part of a fishing village that was spread out over several small valleys. The commercial portion had a laundramat, a funeral home, pharmacy, grocery, auto parts store, small mall, and a Dollar store. All were small. It probably had a half dozen other stores we couldn't see. The info sheet we had on Placentia told a sad tale that is common to the Maritime Provinces, and move severe in Newfoundland. The town population in the last three censuses was: (1991) 5,515, (1996) 5,013, (2001) 4426.
A feature on TV this morning discussed the problem of retaining young people in the small community of Blackhead. An important source of income for the community is from tourists visiting a small craft store and their local museum. This year they were unable to hire a student to work in the museum and keep it open as had been done in past years. There were just no students to hire. Of course a small craft shop and museum doesn't really support a community - Provincial grants are the base funding. The basis to receive these grants is subject to the whims of what politicians are spending the people's money this year - a very uncertain foundation to be the lifeblood of a community.
A second segment featured Grey River, a community without road access. The scenery is spectacular. The communities future is not. It developed around fishing and a Tungsten mine, which closed. Down to 120 full time residents, it has 3 teachers for its K1-K12 school. The graduation of two HS Seniors places the school at risk of losing one of its teachers. That would cost it the High School portion, forcing those students to leave the community to continue education. A vicious snowball like spiral downward begins. On the other end, the youngest students are 6 year old twins; no births in the community for 6 years. The sword of Damocles hanging over their heads is a Provincial offer of $100,000 to families that will relocate elsewhere.
Placentia is a jewel in the eyes of the older generation; quiet, peaceful, and beautiful scenery. There are only a couple of receivable TV stations without satellite: one reruns the late night news again in the morning while the other has CBC children's programming - Arthur this morning.
As we could not check into the RV park in St. Johns until 11:00 most took advantage of the boardwalk and beach to walk, look for special beach rocks to add to the useless items carried in the RV, and enjoy the scenery.
It was a great day for travel to St. Johns. The plan may have been solid, however the communication of it was ultimately flexible to limp. With everyone parked as they were offloaded from the ferry the normal travel pairings were split and no travel meeting was held. I heard 9:30 and then a group of drivers seemed to have agreed on 10:30. I walked around the college to take a picture of the sign and came back at 10:00 to find several in their rigs with engines running!
I managed to take an early turn just after leaving the campus. Gave us a scenic tour of the fishing village, and a 4 mile shortcut off the planned route. Our travel companions feared we had turned into one of the many dead end narrow streets and chose to wait for us to turn around. Good idea, but the CB radios became useless in the rocky valleys and we never made contact again until arriving in St. Johns. While waiting at the end of our new shortcut we heard from others that our friends had stopped at a coffee shop, so being Australia/New Zealand experienced it was "not to worry mate" and we proceeded on.
Scenery has improved with our arrival in Newfoundland; rugged and rocky landscapes with lots of bogs and ponds. The wind she do blow too. In the boggy areas the power line poles are surrounded at the base with a large wooden crate holding big rocks - to stabilize them in the soft ground. Trees look like Alaska - for the same reason. What little soil there is only reaches a depth of a few inches. With no space for a root base the trees are limited to 10-12 feet tall, are very small, and many lean from the constant wind. Great land for moose; not so great for humans. No fruits or grains, and few vegetables are grown.
Arrival at Pippys RV Park was a bit challenging for some. The park was completely full, and had not reserved a block of spaces for us so we wound up scattered all over the 130 spaces. It's a nice park with lots of trees and relatively private parking sites. The dispersion of our group, and a congested entry did make things challenging for the Wagonmasters and apparently a bit to frustrating for some of our group. Feelings were hurt when someone got yelled at. Tsk, Tsk. Must have forgoten that this was an Adventure - which leaves a lot of room for the unexpected.
