From San Francisco to St John's is over 1000 miles farther than to Deadhorse, Alaska.
Newfoundland is in time zone all of its own which is half a hour later than Atlantic Time. I've never heard of a time zone being half hour different.
With 120,000 moose on the island it is the most densely moose populated area in the world. There were 660 moose collisions last year and over 300 human deaths. It is said that the Newfoundlanders avoid driving at night when the moose are out. They had moose detection radar in some areas where they frequently cross the highway.
It historically was a fishing and logging center.
We stopped at this little place for a great lunch in a perfect setting.
It was in the low 80's and very humid. We were able to sit outside in the shade of the building on the back deck by the sea. The blue crab sandwich on homemade bread was delicious and for dessert we shared a local wild berry pudding with rum sauce. It was the kind of place were the waitress calls everyone "Love" and makes you feel right at home. We heard the locals talking and apparently the place will close in September for the winter months. It was the only restaurant in town and had large open space inside. They had music and events here.
This to was a photographer's delight.
This is the only city in the Province of Newfoundland since all of the other locations are too small to qualify as being a city.
With the music being played on the street, you can hear the Irish influence. The local music store had a big selection of accordions, tin whistles, banjos, Celtic harps and various pipes. There were also several Irish pubs on the main street.
We stopped by the Eastern Edge Gallery which has been a working cooperative for over 30 years. Unfortunately, they were between exhibits.
Around the corner we stopped by the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art to see some great painting and incredible hand made clothing and cloth bags. After talking with the clothing artist we exchanged cards. I greatly enjoyed her and she seemed excited about the possibility of having a place to stay with us near San Francisco.
The gallery exhibition space had one of my favorite exhibits by Pam Hall called Houseworks. They did not allow photographs of any of the artwork.
She had three "houses" in this exhibition. You can see at this link one of the houses she created using women's aprons. The house had hanging printed apron for walls and thin gauzy aprons for the ceiling with their string hanging down.
This house project used the aprons of women who worked in a seafood packing plant. The artist had a photo and history of each worker with her apron. The history included the number of hours each woman worked at the plant and the unpaid hours she worked at home. There was a series accompanying installations using these aprons that can be seen at link below.
The museum states the following:
Pam Hall’s creative and social engagement with community is a long-standing and significant part of her artistic practice. She invites members of the public to be creative collaborators – among these, a medical school, a fish processing plant and a small rural parish hall. The house – with all of its physical, emotional, cultural, social and gendered connotations – is the broad theme of this exhibition. The works, both displayed and performed, represent the union of Hall’s solitary and collaborative practices.
She had four "houses" in this exhibition. The other houses were equally as interesting as the apron house. All of the houses had installations segments as well as public participation. One house included prayers on strips of cloth that the museum goer could add to.
"More than 1,000 years ago, the Norse slowly pushed the boundaries of their world across the North Atlantic and became the first Europeans to settle here. By 985 these small-scale farmers, traders and craftspeople had settled in Greenland. Fifteen years later their explorations took them south and west to Labrador and Newfoundland. They established an outpost on the Northern Peninsula at L'Anse aux Meadows at the north of what they called Vineland. But Vineland was too far from home and church, difficult to supply and the area already inhabited - Europeans encountered North American Aboriginals for the first time here. After less than twenty years the Norse abandoned the outpost, though it appears they had continued making periodic voyages to Labrador for wood over the next three centuries."
"At least 600 years ago the first Inuit people arrived in Northern Labrador. Traveling by umiak, kayak and dog sled, and hunting large bowhead whales, they had a sophisticated technology that sets them apart from their Paleio-Eskimo predecessors. They eventually populated much of the Labrador coast, making Forays as far south as the Strait of Belle Isle. Their descendants still live in many Labrador communities."
We felt that this was our turn around point for the trip. After reaching this point we headed in the direction of home. We made a few circles of the parking lot and I gave out a few whoo hoos to celebrate!
We never saw another vehicle from California while in Newfoundland. People were surprised that we drove there.
It took us almost 4 months to reach this point and we estimate it will be over two months to travel home.
Berry Hill Pond - a great place to take the dogs for an off leash trail experience
We took a boat tour of the bay and into the ocean. The crew were local people with fun tales and lots of laughs. The ended the trip by playing some Irish gigs and reels. All the crew were musicians!
We were able to see several of Bald Eagles in the trees and flying above the shoreline.
The Mudge brothers came to fish in this area for many generations. The Canadian National Park has preserved these buildings and their contents as an exhibition. Three Mudge brothers came each year in April with their wives and children. They fished, grew crops and worked to bring back food with them to help them survive the long winter months.
It was a treat to talk at length to the ranger and learn that each year his family has been coming to a beach just up the road for four generations. He knew the Mudge brothers and had some good stories once Tom got him talking. His family put all of the livers from the cod into a barrel. Over time the oil would rise to the top and each day it was given to the family members. All of the students in his school were also give a dose of the cod liver oil each day so he got a daily double dose.
The cod population has dropped so dramatically so that it is no longer fished. The spawning areas for the cod are still currently fished by other countries so that the outlook is not promising. The communities welcome tourist to help fill their economic needs. Having a local fisherman as a ranger benefited us as well as him.
The fog was trying to blow in on a warm day.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Folkart-Things/545470712148439
Newfoundland music - I bought CD's from the people below and we listened to the music as we traveled in Newfoundland.
Daniel Payne's music at a kitchen party - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7qMXRAcxOY
Charlie Payne playing the accordion in his youth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xlhy2bXVsk
more of Daniel playing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7CYbign4Ks
Another Newfoundlander, Tony Blanchard playing Hohner Corso 1960s model,French Newfoundland Style - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_sYr2PXaS8
Folk music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tldbV9nMhCo&list=RDh_sYr2PXaS8
Many of the people in Newfoundland have the most interesting accent. At times when Tom and I would over locals speaking to each other and we could not understand much of what they said.
Newfie talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8rIbitJAbQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqLuIXwsLDw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xmqb4W2T0M
After driving the first two hours from St John's in the direction of home, Google maps calculated the mileage home to be 4.414 miles.
Tom drove most of the way while I used our Rand McNally GPS in combination with my iPhone to guide us. Both devices were often flawed so we had to have a general idea of the direction we should be traveling. The iphone had many advantages over the traditional GPS unit, but it is often out of range in remote areas. Getting lost occasionally is part of the adventure.
I am excited about turning many of the photo compositions from this trip into abstract and impressionistic paintings when I return. I now have so much rich material.
A great number of the photos were taken from a moving car and usually through the windshield. They were often framed and composed on the run in a few seconds.