July 16th - Dollywood and Newfoundland/Labrador Thoughts

Today is Dollywood for Kellen. Kelly and I have been there before and were not overly impressed so I won't blog about it. Instead, as our trip winds down, I will share some thoughts and observations about our experience in Newfoundland/Labrador.

1. Newfoundland/Labrador is a much more remote wilderness than we expected. Driving always felt much more remote than when we drove through Alaska.  The coastal areas are the only places that have “towns” or clusters of people. Every harbor has what I call a “hamlet”, just a group of houses clustered together. Some hamlets have a small restaurant but rarely a grocery store, general store, medical facility, filling station, or any other commercial enterprise.  I constantly wondered where these people got there food, supplies, cars fixed, health care, etc.

2.  It was literally often a hundred miles between service stations and even then diesel was often not available. None of the personal vehicles up here are diesel, I suppose mostly because of the cold winters. At most of the pumps you pump your fuel and then go in and pay, like it used to be in the U.S. when I was growing up.

3.  All credit card transactions are done on handheld readers. All purchases have to be signed for.

4. All the way from Nova Scotia and back I only saw two privately owned dually pickups. There are many 4x4 pickups, but no duallys, again probably due to the weather conditions and the use of non-diesel vehicles. Most cars are small and many are small SUVs and I’m sure most are four wheel drive or all AWD. Fuel averaged about $5.00 per gallon.

5.  The highways are raised up from four to ten feet higher than the adjoining land. I imagine the reason for this is so that they can be plowed and there is somewhere for the snow to go.  On Provincial highways the shoulders are only about three feet wide, making it impossible to pull completely off the road for any reason. We ran across a number of vehicles pulled off as far as they could and the owners would just let the rest of the vehicle stick out into driving lane. We saw people stopped like this to tend to their gardens, go fishing, and even filling jugs of drinking water from the springs along the highway. Good drinking water was an issue everywhere in Newfoundland. Even if there wasn't a sign to boil your water, it often looked green in a jug so we didn't drink it. We purchased our drinking water in gallon jugs.

6. There are scenic pull-offs on the highways but not nearly as often as you would expect for a tourism trade. Unfortunately the highway department gave very little warning of upcoming scenic pull-offs so you missed them when pulling a trailer.

7. The highways have some non-scenic pull-offs but there aren’t any signs telling you that they are coming up. As a result you are on it before you know it, making it impossible to pull into with a trailer or motor home.

8. A big industry is making firewood for the winter. The wood is cut and then dumped on the right-of-way of the highway, or close to it, where it is cut up and stacked, and then hauled off. There are hundreds of these piles along the highway all across the province. Residents get a permit to cut.

9. On the right-of-way of the highways are hundreds of little garden plots. I asked if people got permits for this and was told "probably not". The reason the plots are along the right-of-way is that it the dirt there is a boggy, black dirt that will grow vegetables. Most land where the homes are built in the harbors are built on rock and have very rocky soil around them.  Most of the garden plots have fences around them to keep the Moose from trampling it. They have a very short growing season and can only grow potatoes, rhubarb, turnips, and carrots. Many sell what they grow at local markets.

10. The price of food is very high just as it was in Alaska and of very limited variety.

11.  If a hamlet had a little convenience store, the selection was also quite limited. Only the larger towns had small grocery stores with any fresh meat, vegetables, or fruit.

12. When the temperature got into the 60s the locals put on shorts and short-sleeved shirts while we still wore long pants and a jacket. In the sun it was fine but in the shade, with the wind, it was cold to us.

13.  I only saw one backhoe up there. All digging machines are excavators. I assume because of the rocky terrain.

14.  All the houses have asphalt shingled roofs and almost all are covered in vinyl siding. In about every hamlet there were houses or buildings where the siding had been torn off by the wind. I suppose they use vinyl because it is cheap and easy to repair. While there were lots of brightly painted clapboard buildings maintaining them is a problem because of the short season to paint and the constantly changing weather conditions even then. It can be sunny and beautiful then all of a sudden it is cloudy and raining.

15.  In Twillingate the campground owner was putting vinyl siding on his office building himself. He said they can’t get any tradesmen so you have to do everything yourself. No building inspectors I’m sure.

16. There were more lumber yards and hardware stores in these hamlets than grocery stores or medical facilities.

17. Paul, the First Mate on our iceberg cruise, told us that he burns seventy cords of wood per winter. He cuts and splits it all by hand even though he has a power splitter.

18. Most of the Trans Canadian Highway (TCH) is good, about 1/4 is rough. The provincial roads are about 1/3 good, 1/3 bad, and about 1/3 are worse than awful. There are constant potholes and foot wide areas that run across the highway at regular intervals like inverted speed bumps. I think these might be frost heaves that then sink down. It is really hard to judge how deep they are until you hit them.

19. In the little stores in towns if the cashier was talking to someone when you walked up to check out he/she would finish the conversation before waiting on you or acknowledging you. They were all very friendly though.

20.  The residents are very friendly and helpful and they talk very fast. They have a much different accent than other provinces. When we were making a reservation for one campground the lady said she loved our accent. A large portion of the population have retained a strong Irish accent.

21.  The majority of houses are of a split foyer design or built so that half of the basement is out of the ground. I suppose this is because they hit rock trying to go any deeper, but I don’t know.

22. Hardly any houses have attached garages. Many houses have unattached garages or out buildings but those house their four wheelers and snowmobiles rather than their cars.

23.  Kids don’t get out of school until the end of June. Their summer season is July, August, and into September. We were told they get lots of snow days.

24.  There are a lot of travel trailers, very few fifth wheels, and even fewer motor homes. I can’t imagine how far you would have to drive to get a motor home worked on.

25. We were told you by the locals that you don't live in Newfoundland for the weather. I wouldn't live in Newfoundland BECAUSE of the weather.

26. Moose are not native to Newfoundland. They were brought there from New Brunswick. They now greatly outnumber the native Caribou. We saw four Moose but no Caribou. They both have millions of acres of untouched forests to live in well off the beaten path.

27. I love the Canadian money. The folding money has a plastic coating which I’m sure makes it hard to counterfeit and makes it last longer. They have no dollar bills, but coins known as “Loonies” because they have a Loon on them. They have a “Toony”, which is a two dollar coin. They have eliminated pennies so any purchase is rounded up.

28. The sales tax is 12% which helps support their health care system. Beer is expensive, $20.00 for an eight pack. It is taxed for their health care system as well. Spirits were not much higher than in the U.S. We didn't check wine prices.