St. John's

Full tanks and empty bellies... Perfect combo for adventure.

The above photo pretty much says it all about Newfie roads.  Many are half washed away and the rest seem to be laden with truck size craters.

Roly poly fish heads

So, the Russell family first landed in Newfoundland from the old world many moons ago and lived in Blaketown.  Very cool.  We found a sign all about "Sandy (Russell's) Point" and poked around for a bit before heading up to Dildo.  Yes, Dildo.

They have a restaurant, loads of fishing peir and boats, a post office and a little shop.  Worth the stop if you can make it 🤣

Made it to St. John's late afternoon and we were all in a bit of shock.  It has been so long since any of us has seen anything resembling a city so we were in a bit of awe when we first  arrived. We squeezed Dragon into the overflow field of Pippy Park without reservations, giving us the option of touring through town without a trailer.  Good thing too... The roads here are steep and crazy.  So.e intersections have five or six entry / exit points where only some directions have stop signs.  A little overwhelming at times.

Once we unhitched the trailer we visited Hill before they closed.  It's another national Park so the kids got to earn another Jr Xplorer tag and guess what... They were out of English booklets so the kids were forced to practice their French skills... Fantastic!

Signal Hill has loads of history between national protection and wireless communication origins.  If you're not super into all that, it's still a gorgeous view of the ocean and St. John's.

Just down from Signal Hill is the Terry Fox memorial.  It is the starting point for his cross-Canada marathon where he dipped his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic ocean and began running.  Not sure if anyone remembers our blog from two years ago but at that time we also visited the end point of his run where his re-emergent cancer forced him to stop.  Thunder Bay.  It is pretty cool to have been to either end but to have been at both ends is inspiring.  Not saying that I am going to buy sneakers and take up running or anything ... Pshaw.  It does create strong feelings of wanting to make a difference in the world though.

We walked downtown a bit, saw George Street all closed off to minors for the beginning of a festival, grabbed some dinner at a pub and headed back to our field for bedtime.

Tomorrow's game plan is to head for a whale-watching tour and then check out Cape Spear.