ON NEWFIE TIME

How relaxed are the Newfies?  Relaxed enough that they give you 64 seconds to cross the street!  😊   The day was pretty much a beeline for St. John’s from Millertown.  It’s more than a 5-hour trip, so there was no dawdling about getting up and out of the Lakeview Inn this morning.  After an evening walk, and a few photos of the flywheel down at the lake across the road at Millertown, I slept pretty well. 
 
With the long ride to do, today needed some rest stops.  The first of these was at Gander.  You may have heard about the role of the town of Gander and it’s neighbouring villages in the 9/11 disaster.  When the US shut down its airspace, this tiny town opened its runways to 38 trans-Atlantic flights.  Over 7000 passengers eventually disembarked, almost doubling the population of Gander.  The city created accommodation, opening their community centres, schools and homes to the stranded travellers, including 17 cats and dogs and 2 great apes!   We stopped at the airport because they have a piece of the World Trade Centre on display that was given in appreciation of their outstanding generosity.   Gander also won my heart by having the strawberry shortcake donut at their Tim Horton’s.  Haven’t seen it for awhile. 
 
The airport also has the most amazing chairs for relaxing.  I asked the security guy if he turned his back could I smuggle one out.  He said they were about $1200.00 each, but we could walk out with one right now for $1000.00.  Joking, of course.   It’s probably one of those things that seems like a really good idea at the time but when you get home or have to move it, you realize it’s actually a pain in the butt.   As an aside, when I parked Fury, I went to put $ in the meter and there was a little painted feel-good rock at the bottom of the parking meter!   How nice, and an indicator of the community’s heart. 
 
Back on the road, the traffic was getting busier, but on we flew, not stopping for another hour and a half.  Clarenville was the next stop and it was now time for lunch, so we pulled into Mary Brown’s.  This is Newfoundland’s fried chicken chain.   There is no doubt that Mary makes very good fried chicken!  Restored by the break, we filled up with gas and got back on the road. 
 
With one more brief stop along the way, we arrived in St. John’s about 3:15 p.m.  I took Fury straight to the bike shop, where I have asked for a new headlight bulb an end-to-end inspection to ensure she is healthy for the rest of our journey.  Entreating them to be very nice to her because she has worked very hard the last 3 months, they assured me they would secure her in their yard and treat her nicely.
 
Booked into the Hampton Inn, bags and suitcases were unloaded and a cab called to go down to George Street.  This is the “pub” district in St. John’s and one of the “places to see”.   Deciding to check out a few places, the first stop was the Yellow Belly.  This is a local brewery and we stopped in to try a flight of their local beer.  For me, it was the bakeapple cider, which was pretty good.  A warm pretzel appy filled in one chink until dinner time. 
 
The next stop was Bridie Molloy’s.  We sat on the patio and sampled their beer and I ordered a scallop appy to fill in another chink until dinner time.  Last, but not least, the Celtic Hearth was the choice for supper.  Choosing a table near the window that was beside that of another couple, we struck up a conversation with Joanne and Jay from Grand Prairie, AB!  We enjoyed our visit very much. 
 
I ordered the creamy seafood dish with shrimp, scallops, cod and mussels.  Served on nacho chips….?  OK.   This dish came and it was gigantic!  It was delicious and I did my best to make sure I ferreted out all of the seafood.  There were lots of nachos left on the plate and I couldn’t eat all of the mussels.  Not going to lose any weight in Newfoundland even if I was trying!
 
The evening wrapped up with a short stroll down to the waterfront where there were some big boats sitting prettily in the evening light.   Then back to the hotel and time to get some rest in preparation for further exploration of St. John’s.