johnboystravelblog

July 29, 2019

Sometimes I see things that bring out the juvenile in me.  There are now three things I have to tell you about – one I knew about before I left home but the other two I only discovered during this trip.

ITEM ONE – Simple

When driving near Belfast, Maine the day I arrived in the area for my 4-night stay at the start of this trip I drove over a bridge with this sign next to it and had to chuckle to myself.  I didn’t go back to take a photo of it as I assumed I would find one online (I did):

(Photo credit: tnotw.com)

I hope you find it as amusing as I did.

ITEM TWO – More complex (and arguably adult content)

You may want to send the children outside for a while…..

This one I knew about before I left home.  Tuesday I left where I was staying in Deer Lake to head east towards Gander.  Along the way I made a few side trips on scenic roads, including a drive up to a town called Twillingate.  As expected, I drove past this Provincial Park near the north end of that drive:

Once again, laughter from JohnBoy.  But it gets even better.  There is a town of Dildo in southeast Newfoundland (I may be driving through it tomorrow on my way to St. John’s).  The New York Times wrote an article about the town’s bizarre name back in 2016 and included this photo (in color so I assume it was on their website):

(Photo credit: nytimes.com)

The article started out as follows:  “An hour’s drive from the town of Come By Chance, past Spread Eagle Island, there is a large green traffic sign that often functions as its very own destination: “Dildo,” the sign proclaims, with an arrow pointing straight ahead”.

Now the definition of dildo used to include such things as a cylindrical object, a type of tree, or nautical pins.  Let’s just say my Google search didn’t bring up any photos of trees or nautical pins….

As for the locations name, they are mostly accurate.  And the arrow on the Dildo sign points left, not straight.  As I write this I am staying at my Airbnb in Sunnyside (south of Clarenville and Goobies).  Come By Chance is only 3.7 miles away, in fact it was the same exit I took off the TCH but I would have turned right instead of left.  I can’t find Spread Eagle Island but there is Spread Eagle Bay just across from the town of Dildo and there is a Dildo Island located inside Spread Eagle Bay.  I will let you ponder that and make your own conclusions.  The town of Dildo, population around 1,200, is 38 miles from where I am sitting but requires that you overshoot it on the TCH and then backtrack, so it would be shorter as the crow flies.

I’m not making any of this up (I’m not nearly that clever).  Feel free to Google all this to confirm the facts but before you do let me caution you – I already did and now shutter to think what kind of pop-up ads I’ll be seeing as I surf the web for the next month or so…..

ITEM THREE – Current events

This one I just learned Saturday as I took the boat ride through the Western Brook Pond fjord.  The crew of the ship pointed out several waterfalls along the sides of the fjord.  Unfortunately, most were on the side facing the sun and from 11am to 1pm my photos of them were all washed out.  I did post one photo of a very thin waterfall on the “sunny” side of the fjord walls.  We could see mist from the others but they were hard to photograph.

The funny thing is the name of the last waterfall they told us about.  It is called “Pissing Mare Falls”.  Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

(Photo credit: bobsnewfoundland.com)

Here is another photo I found online which doesn’t so much show the falls but does show it at that perfect moment on the right day when the setting sun hits it just right and makes it appear to be on fire:

(Photo credit: curiocity.com)

 

The Gros Morne posts (1-4) are complete.

Please enjoy!!

July 27, 2019

Saturday I took a 2-hour boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located inside Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada. After FINALLY arriving at the parking area (see earlier post!) it was a walk of about 45 minutes down a wide gravel path to the boat dock.

We would ride back into the roughly 10-mile long fjord, which was originally saltwater but has since transitioned to freshwater, and would provide everchanging views. The mountains and cliffs on either side can be as much as 2,000 feet tall. The fjord covers almost 9 square miles. This fjord is part of the Long Range Mountains which are the northernmost section of the Appalachian Mountains (which start in Georgia and run through western North Carolina).

We were told that caribou will descend from the left side (as we went in), swim across the Pond and climb the other side where they will give birth to their young.

I apologize if you see the tops of people’s heads in some of the photos. Keep in mind, I was on a moving ship and it became extremely windy during the ride. I had to keep popping up and down to shoot photos so as not to block the views of others. I generally took photos facing the front of the boat but would occasionally go to the back and take a shot of where we had just been. You may see what seem to be duplicates or similar shots of the same thing but again, we were moving and I just kept shooting nice images. Add to that, once we reached the back of the fjord we turned around and came back out so we basically saw everything twice.

There are several boat tours available at other parts but my Airbnb host I would be staying with Saturday night said that this was, hands down, the one to pick. I am sure glad I didn’t miss it!

I am saving one surprise from this excursion for a separate post which I will make tomorrow (Tuesday) night when I arrive at my next stop.

But for now, please enjoy!

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

This is what’s called a “Hanging Valley”

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

The photo above was taken after we reached the back of the Pond and had turned around to return to where we boarded.  What you will see next are shots of the trip out.  You may see duplicates of the same photo taken earlier.  These are posted in time order.

 

 

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

These were the folks I was sitting with on the boat.  When I saw they were having this scene taken by someone using their camera I snagged one with mine and told them I would be posting it on the blog.  They are from Clarenville, Newfoundland, near where I will be staying the day after I post this!

 

July 29, 2019 at 826pm Eastern Time

I am getting ready to make 4 posts about the activity I took part in on Saturday at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.  I am posting mostly just photos in posts 2, 3 and 4 and will explain what you will be seeing in post 1.  I will load the posts in reverse order so that when viewed top to bottom they will be in the correct order.  If you want to view the photos in the sequence in which they were taken, wait until later when all 4 posts are complete.

Thank you!

 

July 29, 2019

I know I am a little behind again with my posts but I want to share yet another amusing JohnBoy story which happened this morning shortly after I got on the road.  I was driving east on TCH-1 and saw what looked like would make a nice photo in a lake just to the right of the road.  There was already a car parked where I pulled off the road (and I already had my Safety Sam vest on) and there were two people standing on the safe side of the guardrail with a camera on a tripod.

As I walked over the man was telling the young woman with him where to stand down next to the water.  He was going to get a tight shot of her with their camera and said it was ok for me to walk back the road a little ways to take a photo of what I had seen with my smartphone.

I doesn’t look quite as interesting now as it did this morning.  Actually, the better angle was looking into the sun and I know those photos get washed out on my smartphone.

Anyway, I walk back to the guy and when they take a break I ask him where they’re from.  He replied “Ottawa, Russia”.  Out of habit I immediately said “Welcome to America” and as I was realizing my error he said “Canada”.  I said “Yes, of course.  I live in the US and always use that line when traveling in our country and have only been in Canada a little over 2 weeks…”

Sometimes I can be such an idiot.  I can hear my friends out there saying “Sometimes???”

But wait, it gets funnier.  After they reviewed the photos he just took I said “I didn’t know there was an Ottawa in Russia”.  “No” he said, he pointed to himself and said “Ottawa” and to her and said “Russia”.  Oh, I get it now…

 

July 27, 2019

Saturday morning I left Deer Lake early and drove northwest deeper into Gros Morne National Park than I had been the day before.  I had an adventure waiting for me…..

Gros Morne, by the way, means “large mountain standing alone” in French and is pronounced “grow morn”.  There is a Gros Morne Mountain to the right of the highway I would be traveling on but I don’t seem to have taken a closeup of it.  It does, however,  appear in the background of a photo I posted earlier from Woody Point.  Gros Morne is the mountain on the left in the background.

And since I’ve been mentioning the variations in mountains since I’ve been in Newfoundland let me say that other than the obvious exception of the Tablelands (see previous post) the mountains in the southern part of Gros Morne NP are very much like the mountains in the eastern US.

But as you drive further north in the Park they become more rugged and majestic.

The mountain which would be next in line to the left in the photo above is Gros Morne.

These warning signs are everywhere up here.  Gros Morne has the densest population of moose of any area in the world – and they’re not even native to the island.  They were “introduced” here in 1904 and have apparently taken a liking to the place….

Hunting has now been authorized, however, so the herd is getting smaller in size and moose/vehicle collisions are down.  Wildlife officials are trying to get the right mix of moose to vegetation so they don’t eat themselves out of house and home.  It seems that what they like to eat off the island doesn’t appeal to them on the island and they are eating the “wrong” things.

I stopped at the Visitor Center for the Park to get a map and then drove to the office of the company running my “adventure” to pay for my ticket (they wanted cash onsite and while I have Canadian cash with me I am trying to use it conservatively so I don’t need to get more).  The young lady working there scolded me (very politely, as a Newfoundlander would) that I was late and wouldn’t make it to the site on time.  Seems that our hero stopped to take too many photos this morning and inadvertently put himself “on the clock”.  She very kindly changed my reservation to the next event of the day and I now had time to stop in Rocky Harbour to take even MORE photos!

This is the lighthouse at Lobster Cove Head:

Despite their large numbers I haven’t seen a real moose on this trip (yet) but back in Rocky Harbour was this huge moose sculpture:

Too bad they couldn’t build a backdrop to hide the utility wires and houses behind it….

Back out on the main road I saw this interesting split in the mountain range to my right and ducked in to the next parking area to walk back and take a photo:

The mountains appear dark because the sun is still rising behind them.  I started to exit the parking lot to be sure I got to the staging area before my activity started (and not be late AGAIN) and realized that I WAS in the parking lot for that activity.  What followed was amazing…

July 26, 2019

After driving through several small communities near Corner Brook I continued north on the TCH to Deer Lake, where I would be spending the night.  After checking in at my Airbnb and dropping off some of my stuff I hopped on Route 430 to drive northwest to Gros Morne (pronounced grow morn) National Park.  Today I would only be seeing the southern portion of the Park as I drive west of Route 431 to the town of Trout River.

The first large body of water I can to was the South Arm, one of two “arms” which branch off of Bonne Bay.

The photo below is from Woody Point.  You are now looking out over Bonne Bay.

The brown mountains you saw the snow on in an earlier post are called the Tablelands.  They are very unusual mountains, devoid of trees or grass.  The Tablelands are actually made of peridotite, thought to originate in the Earth’s mantle, and were forced up from the depths during a plate collision several hundred million years ago. Peridotite lacks some of the usual nutrients required to sustain most plant life and has a toxic quality, hence it’s barren appearance.  It has a high iron content, thus the brown color when exposed to air.  The unexposed rock beneath is actually green!

 

 

After taking a short sit-down break after passing Tablelands….

….. I continued on to Trout River:

Then it was back out to the main road and down to Deer Lake for the night.

I’d have a busy day on Saturday as I have an activity planned in Gros Morne and then a long drive up to the tippy-top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.