It is Day Something-or-Other of our Maritime RV trip. This is our last day in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Tomorrow we leave for Bonavista, NL for 3 nights. We understand the campground does not have sewer hook ups and the electricity is 15 amps max. We are plunging into the wilderness as we leave St. John’s.

On Monday we had a bus tour of St. John’s and surrounding area. This is the view of St. John’s from Signal Hill which is the highest point above St. John’s and guards the harbor. It was a point that was traded often between the French and the English, a story repeated at almost every stop of our caravan trip. Finally England prevailed and the French left for the final time in the 1760’s, but they retained two small islands off the coast of St. John’s. These islands are still in French possession, and to visit, one needs a passport because the visit takes you to France.

The weather has been rainy and foggy. Newfies call it “RDF” weather or “rainy-damp-foggy” weather. Apparently it occurs often. It was funny to have the guide on the bus pointing at landmarks, and all we could see was what you see above. The sun did come out today for the first time since arriving here on Monday.

We had a free day today, and we returned to Signal Hill. The view was much better. This is the view of St. John’s and the harbor. You can see the clouds are moving in, but at least we got to see the city.

The harbor entrance is very narrow which provides protection and ice free conditions making St. John’s an important shipping port. However, the ferry we rode from Nova Scotia does not come into St. John’s but arrives at another port 80 miles driving distance away.

One of the stops we made on Monday during our bus ride was at Cape Spear National Park. It was another lighthouse with some claim to fame as the earliest something. There was also a WWII era  American artillery battery dug into the cliffs below the lighthouse. It was hidden sufficiently that German U-boats could not see it. Apparently u-boats were common off the coast of the St. John’s area, and a significant amount of transport ships as well as one passenger ship were torpedoed by the Germans early in the war.

 Cape Spear also marked the eastern most point of land in North America. We were told that we were closer to Liverpool, England than Montreal, CA.

We also visited St. John's Basilica, a symbol of Irish Catholicism in Newfoundland. Newfoundland was established as an English colony and was dominated by Protestants. Today it is a reminder of the Irish ancestors that settled Newfoundland. In a room in the convent next to the Basilica is a famous piece entitled, "The Veiled Virgin." It is remarkable. It is carved from a single piece of marble, and the sculpture created a marble veil covering the face. 

On Tuesday we were scheduled to ride share to watch an international tattoo. We found out that this past Sunday was the final show, and so we had the first of our two free days to explore the area. However, Tuzi became ill, and we hung around the motor home doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning up dog barf. Fortunately by the evening she started to perk up, and by this morning she was bounding off the walls just like the Tuzi we have gotten to know. We are not sure what she picked up, but as of this blog post, Tuzi seems to be pretty much like Tuzi.

So, it’s hook up the car, put things inside the motor home in places where they will stay when we travel down the road, hope our slides go in and our jacks go up, and head north toward Labrador.