Ray and Lori's Bogus Adventure: St John's,,Signal Hill and Cape Spear

After Gander "we" were getting rather tired of driving through terrain you can "see anywhere" (guess who said that,,,, and the first hint is,,,, it wasn't moi),, We had originally considered driving out to Twillingate, which is known as "iceberg alley",,, but when our hostess from the B&B said we would not see any icebergs as it was too late in the season and it was an hour and a half drive in, and the same coming back,,, we decided to head south towards St John's.

Being the navigator and having the map in my hand, I have lots of opportunity to suggest little "towns" that we can go into, because yes, the highway was getting BORING! I read a rather amusing name on the map,,,,"Come By Chance". So we went off the highway a short distance to check out this place with the funny name. Well there was a handful of homes that appeared to be barely standing. Although we saw some trucks parked on the roads and some derelict old fishing boats, we saw no people at all. So back onto the highway we went. About 20 kms down the highway, we saw something that appeared to be smoke stacks. The closer we got we realized there was an oil refinery out in the middle in basically "nowhere". We had to check it out as it was the first sign of any commercial type employment. The refinery was in a community called Arnold's Cove. The roadway in was beautiful, probably put in by the refinery. But again when we got into the little town, everything appeared to be quite "dead". Probably all the townsfolk were working in the refinery?

We were really thinking by this time that we were alone in Newfoundland. We had the highway pretty much to ourselves, I mean we didn't even see any wildlife! Where are all the moose that are supposed to be jumping around on the roads???? We really were craving some people and some city life, so back we go to the highway and down to St John's we went.

When we got to Mount Pearl, which is a suburb to St John's, we stopped at good old Tim Hortons for a coffee and some free wifi. Because we travel by the seat of our pants and never book accomadations ahead of time, I needed to find us a place to stay for the next three days. I called every B&B that I could find on Google, but all were full except one. They wanted $140 a night! Ray is shaking his head at me, so I started to call hotels. It seems that there was a conference or two going on and literally everything was booked solid! Did they not know that two very important people were heading into town? Apparently, not! So I called the $140 a night place back and booked three nights. We left Mount Pearl and went to the B&B which just happened to be right downtown St John's. Perfect!

St. John's is the oldest "English founded" city in North America. John Cabot apparently sailed in to the harbour one Sunday morning on his big ole sailboat, in 1497,,, that makes this city of 200,000 about 605 years old! Yeah that is definitely old! So while I am giving you the little history lesson, I may as well tell you a bit more about some of the history of St John's. After the collapse of the cod fishing in the 90's the city (and Province in general) suffered from high unemployment for a good number of years. In the last decade there has been a boom in the oil business (hence that refinery in the middle of nowhere). There are now Hibernian oil fields about 200 miles off the shores of Newfoundland. So with all this oil going on, the employment rate and commercial development in general has improved for this much needed Province! You are probably thinking right about now,,,"wow, that Lori is brilliant",, so I must confess,,, I knew nothing of this until we visited the Geological Museum at the base of Signal Hill.

Speaking of Signal Hill. This is another huge attraction to locals and visitors to St John's. Signal Hill is where the first wireless transmission was received. Pretty smart cookie, you say??? Well actually Ray told me that. I did learn while touring the Hill, that the message was received by a guy by the name of Guglielmo Marconi in 1901. Macaroni,,,,I mean Marconi was the inventor of the radio and the founder of the the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.

Here are a couple of pictures of this very old building with a fantastic view of the Atlantic ocean, harbor in St John's and the city itself.

This is the Battery is a tiny community which sits on the entrance to the harbour below Signal Hill. During World War II, a large chain and anti submarine boom were attached to prevent the entry of German Uboats into the St John's harbour. We did not make it to the Battery, so only can tell you that much of it.

View of the city.

Before I bore you with all my knowledge, we went to visit Cape Spear. As we drove out to the site that fog was thick but you could see that it was really only a morning fog and not something that would last all day. There are two lighthouses on the Cape. The older smaller of the two was the original lighthouse and home for the lighthouse keeper and his family. It was built in 1836 and is now a National Historic site. The 2nd lighhouse was built in 1955. Cape Spear is the most eastern part of North America with the exception of Greenland. So standing there, we really were in eastern Canada!