On the Road to Newfoundland

I’ve been away for a few days in Newfoundland at a family reunion in my home town of Grand Falls. The trip there was eventful to say the least. By final calculation it took me and Jamjarjude 62 hours from Nanaimo to Grand Falls, 48 of them without any sleep, and an unexpected detour to Etobicoke General Hospital…

We left Nanaimo last Tuesday and overnighted at JJJ’s in Aldergrove, BC, dropped Ralphie off at the doggie hotel (AKA kennel) on Wednesday and headed off Wednesday night for the airport.,,

…where we arrived in plenty of time for our flight…

found out our flight was delayed by 2 1/2 hours, so there was only one thing to be done. A nightcap.

We finally departed from Vancouver at 2:00am but Jamjarjude got ill on the flight and we had the experience of paramedics taking her off the plane in Toronto on a stretcher and riding in an ambulance to the hospital…

…where we spent the next four hours while she recovered, while our flight to St. John’s, Newfoundland went on its way without us.

We finally made it back to the airport, and, after searching every luggage room there for our missing luggage, making phone calls, and re-booking our flight, we flew out that night and arrived in St John’s at 2:00am Friday morning without a hotel reservation, and not having slept since Wednesday.

Next morning we wake up in our hotel and head out along Water Street (one of the oldest streets in North America, having been established in the 17th century) for a coffee and some breakfast and then wandered along the street taking photos…

…of the colourful clapboard buildings…

…the war memorial — one of the first things you see when you enter the harbour from the Atlantic…

…and statues of Newfoundland and Labrador dogs — you just have to love a place that has statues of dogs…

…and then we headed up Signal Hill to Cabot Tower…

…where we had a fantastic view of St. John’s harbour…

…and the Atlantic, looking over to Ireland.

Then it was off onto the Trans Canada Highway from Mile 1 where we hit snow flurries…

…and found winter again.

We reached Grand Falls at supper time and pulled up at Hill Road Manor, www.hillroadmanor.com , where I’d lived as a child and which is now a lovely B&B.

And after supper and a late night catching up with brothers and sisters… it was finally time for bed, under a roof I last slept under when I was four years old.