We are winding up our last week here in Newfoundland. On Thursday we will hop back on the ferry for a fourteen hour ride back to Nova Scotia. We are anxious to get back and see how Path the green dragon, our tandem bicycle is doing. Without our bicycle we have been walking everywhere to visit the sights. Yesterday we walked across the town of St. Johns, the Capitol of Newfoundland and its largest city. Our destination was Signal Hill. This is another of Marconi’s historic sites. This is the site of the very first transcontinental radio signal in 1901. The message was a single letter, “s” transmitted over and over. Marconi discovered what every ham knows, that radio signals will skip or bounce around the earth. Up to that time the scientists were predicting that radio waves went straight out into space and you could only receive them by line of sight. Our walk was a total of 20 kilometers yesterday and we endured several showers. We have been doing walks of 8 to 10 kilometers nearly every day, so we are getting in pretty good shape. By the way, 8 kilometers is 5 miles. St. Johns is built on several hills, and some of the streets remind you of San Francisco. Here the streets go just about any direction and many of then dead end in stairways. It took us a few bad turns and a few extra kilometers before we got smart enough to look at the map orientation. The map makers were able to save a few inches of paper by running North off to the right side of the map. “Yes, dear, you are right we should have gone the other way!”
I have a check list ritual that I go through every morning before we move. I check and double check the important things that must be done before we ever start up the engine. On Thursday I was working my way through the list when I had to do a double take on the tire pressure I had just measured. I was expecting 95 PSI and it read 70. I backed up and took that one again. It was indeed 70 PSI and the tire looked very normal. I got out the air hose and pumped it back up to 95 and then we started looking for a tire shop. What we found when the tire was removed was a half inch stainless steel bolt driven right through the tread and protruding inside the tire. Anything larger than a nail is dangerous to patch, so we wound up buying a pair of steering tires for Arcturus. Ouch! It was about then that we heard about Katrina and its dance through New Orleans. You all know what that means. The fuel prices jumped a bunch even here in Canada. Current price is $4.69 a US gallon in US dollars. Ouch again!
Our plans once we get back to the US of A are pretty vague, but I think we are going to skip New Orleans. We met a group of RV’s that are signed up with the Red Cross. I expect they have all been deployed to the region to help route supplies by now. It saddens me to see the way the Canadian news service plays on the ugly side of the disaster. They are really playing up the disaster as an example of how the US, the richest country on earth, cannot even get aid to our own people. To their credit, however, the Canadians are sending money, supplies and people to help in the region.
It is time to say good bye again. We are both fine and getting into super shape. We send love to all those back home and prayers for the victims of the hurricane.
Gary and Judy
September 5, 2005
Walkabout Update:
We were unable to get good internet access here in Witless Bay, but the campground on the beach is just wonderful. We are parked about 30 ft from high tide on cobblestone that gives way to a sandy beach. Yesterday we walked down several of the town streets and at the end of one street we located the East Coast Trail. When I post this I will place a picture of the trail below. This trail apparently runs the length of the coast. We have seen it in three different places. It is well used and well maintained. Along the trail were blue berries by the fist full, There were also two other varieties called bunch berries and partridge berries. The weather was sunny and warm. What a perfect ending to a visit to Newfoundland. The Canadians poke fun at their Newfi neighbors, but the people are warm and friendly. For the folks back in the lab, however, I am also including a photo of a Newfie ladder system that was being used to service the roof of a church in Bonavista. It gives a whole new meaning to “tying off your ladder.”
Bye again, Judy and Gary
