2016/08 Newf'land trip - Gander |
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Saturday August 13th
Our camper battery was dead by morning so we couldn’t run the furnace without running the engine. It was a cold morning, overcast and drizzly. We had hopes of picking up another battery in Grand Falls in the centre of the island. This is close to Gander where we were visiting the island’s only quilt shop supporting Sandie’s Row by Row quest. This was going to be a driving day.
It almost ended in disaster. I was toodling along, like most of the traffic, at 50 mph on a winding up and down road. We heard a screaming noise and there was a big cloud of smoke in my side windows. My first thought was that I’d blown a tyre and was now running on the rim. But then I saw there was a red sports car in the middle of the cloud with all four wheels smoking. It slid behind us and we passed an approaching car that was partly off the road. My guess was that the sports car driver came over the last rise at high speed, and swung out to overtake us, not seeing the approaching car, and had to change his mind in a hurry. Hope the guy in the other car didn’t have a heart attack.
At Deer Lake we joined the Trans Canada Highway, the only road that joins the east and west sides of the island. It’s four lanes and well built and edged by forest so it was fast and boring with no reasons to stop, and we made good time.
This was just as well as the car parts guy in Canadian Tire spoke Newfy and had trouble understanding most of his Canadian customers. I was in the queue there over an hour while he upset customers looking for brakes and starter motors, until I was rescued by a lady from service who sold me a battery. Sandie shopped for food while I installed it.
Gander announces itself as the Crossroads of the World. Back in the 1950s that was true as airliners could not cross the Atlantic without refueling at Gander. It’s been quiet in Gander since then except for the week after 9/11 when about forty flights landed there after US airspace was closed.
We found the quilt shop and Sandie got her pattern. We went to the liquor store to top up our beer and wine and were reminded of that sign back in Labrador limiting how much could be imported from Quebec. On average the prices were 50% higher than in BC. A $12 box of wine in the US costs about $39 in Quebec, but it was $57 in this store. It’s NL’s correct official price and the two provinces have similar duty and “provincial markup”, so I don’t know what the secret cost is. We didn’t buy much!