Lost in Newfoundland

Overlander forums touted Newfoundland as a top spot for crown land camping (our BLM). We took a 10 hour ferry into Port Aux Basque and navigated the 700 km TransCanada Highway to Newfoundland’s Capital, St. John over 30 days, visiting every national historic site and park along with countless seaside villages on quaintly named driving…

Eric returned from morning pickleball with the boys. He dumped three sweat soaked T-shirts in the washer as he limped in through the garage. Three shirts was a sure sign that the heat and humidity had returned. His heartbeat was ragged as he chugged a pitcher of electrolyte laced limeade then flopped into the pool…

It’s a hump and a half to set up camp. A quarter ton of bedroom, living room, kitchen and bath come out of the truck to be assembled on site; staked for wind and shielded for rain. It’s a double hump to break down but it’s a formula where the puzzle pieces fit one way,…

The town of Bar Harbor, Maine is one sexy girlfriend. Spooning with Acadia National Park, the cuddled harbor provides anchorage for lobstermen fishing boats, speedy pleasure craft, and touristy sunset dinner boats. Rising up from the waterfront, her streets are lined with perfectly maintained BnB’s and knickknack shops built in the traditional Maine style with…

Eric put Boss in Park behind a long queue of vehicles bound for the Rock. Marine Atlantic’s MV Blue Putees is an enormous ten deck ferry making an eight hour Cabot Strait crossing from the eastern tip of Nova Scotia to the western port of Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. It was a sundown to sun…

Cape St. George is no place for a truck that won’t start. Eric pondered the why without anything obvious coming to mind beyond a bunch of unhelpful coulda woulda shouldas. While there is no sense in looking backwards, it’s so hard not to get lost in that loop. He had thought to put a Stanley…

In 1991 when the Atlantic cod population was commercially fished to near extinction, Noof n’Lnd took the brunt of the collapse. The clusters of Caribbean colored cabins that dotted the rugged coast were abandoned as inhabitants fled to jobs in the burgeoning energy sector in Ontario and Alberta in order to survive. There were still…

It was a wet, insect infested, sleepless Monday night in Pistolet Bay.  The provincial park sits at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula, famous for L’Anse aux Meadows, the first known Viking Settlement in North America and the town of St. Anthony’s, patron saint of icebergs and whales,.  There are 30 of us here,…

Yvonne and Captain Keith were married for 28 years. Yvonne rented out three small cabins during the summer months on the quiet side of St. Anthony. Keith disappeared for months at a time on commercial fishing boats hauling in shrimp and halibut. Keith was a jokester, always quick with a seafarer’s pun. Yvonne had a…

When your father is a murderous wanna-be king, banished from the throne, living his life on the run, trying to take back what was once his, what are you supposed to do? Join his rebellion? Wander around grumbling and pillaging, trying to gather an army to take up his cause? Or do you strike out…

Gros Morne has an emotional weight reminiscent of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The Morne would be an excellent setting for Twilight: NL, the east coast sequel to the Forks, WA blockbuster series. In the middle of the night, with the moon and stars blocked by thick rolling clouds, it is so dark that…

See The Rock. From the southwestern Port aux Basque where the Marine Atlantic ferry deposits modern explorers, to the northwestern tip of the ancient Viking landfall. Visit the New World Isle of Twillingate with the commanding views of North Atlantic. Search the horizon for drifting giants conspiring toward Titanic II. Tread on tablelands and rugged…

When Riz Ahmed loses his hearing in the movie The Sound of Metal, he drives his RV to a camp for the newly deaf; a place to learn how to live with silence. In one scene, the counselor sits him alone in a windowed room and tells him to settle into the silence. If he…

“We can never know about the days to come. But we think about them anyway.” The anticipation of leaving is a reminder that the end of the journey is near. When the ferry is finally ferrying, we’ll board the slow boat to Nova Scotia, say goodbye to maple leaf skies, and fly south down I-95.…

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Eric would prefer you make lemon meringue pie, or perhaps a lemon cake, but lemonade is alright, and it rolls off the tongue, which is important for old sayings. Margie, the tourism Queen for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has definitely heard that saying. Jaques, tourism King…

Marine Atlantic’s brand new ferry, Ala’suinu, which we mis-pronounce to the consternation of Marine Atlantic employees everywhere, “Alls We Know,” missed its first three attempts at an inaugural crossing. Miraculously, the date we randomly booked three weeks ago held. In fact, our date turned out to be the actual inaugural crossing from Newfoundland to Nova…