Everyone slept very well last night and we were eager to head out to do some exploring. The day started out with clouds and a bit of rain but we weren’t going to let it stop us from heading down the Cape Shore route. 
The scenery was just breathtaking as we drove around the shoreline, headed for St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve which houses one of the most accessible seabird colonies in North America.
Unfortunately by the time we got there, the sky had opened up and it was raining up, down and sideways with wind blowing at 60-70 miles. We decided the weather was too bad to walk out to bird rock to see the birds but we did enjoy the museum. By the time we got back to the trailer, it was raining and blowing so hard that water was coming in the weep holes of the windows. We decided it was time to head on and try to get out of the wind. After a while, the wind died down a bit and it quit raining. The countryside was just as we had imagined with small villages tucked away between the unusual rock formations. 
While we were driving down the road, a wolf/coyote, or maybe just an old, beat-up dog, was standing in the middle of the road.
As we drove on, the fog began to start coming in to shore, but a little while later, it was once again clear and we passed a most unusual yard and I just had to take a picture. 
Our next stop was to be St. Vincent’s Beach on the Irish Loop where you can often spot whales. However, once again the fog came in and since we couldn’t see much, we drifted on towards Trepassey where Amelia Earhart departed in 1928 as the first female to fly across the Atlantic.
The wind continued to blow and howl and we decided to stop at the Visitor’s Center in Portugal Cove South.
There we met two very helpful ladies who told us of several places where we could stay overnight to get out of the wind. 
They also gave us the name of an excellent restaurant in Trepassey, called First Venture. We parked and headed over there for dinner. George had the Fisherman’s Platter and I had cod but more enjoyable even than the food was our waitress, Shirley. 
She spotted us as “foreigners” right away when she asked me if I wanted gravy and dressing on my fries. I must have given her a really dumb look because she finally suggested that she bring both the gravy and the dressing as a side and I could taste them before I covered my fries. Turned out they were both very good. The dressing was like fresh bread grated with spices, but it was not hard like you’d expect bread cubes to be. Anyway, we ate til we could hardly eat any more. We had been noticing along the way, that people had sale signs for bake apples and on the menu was “bake apple surprise”. We asked our friendly waitress, Shirley, what that was. She said she couldn’t tell us what the surprise was because then it wouldn’t be a surprise but she did explain to us what a bake apple was. It’s a tiny yellow berry, similar to a yellow raspberry that grows in the bogs and is very hard to pick. By this time we were hooked, so we ordered a Bake Apple Surprise. It was delicious. It had ice cream, cake, bake apples, and chocolate syrup. We thoroughly enjoyed this evening. We had delicious food, learned something about the tastes of the Newfoundland people, and were entertained by Shirley!
We had planned on making a trip out to Cape Race the next morning and then meeting up with one of the rangers for a hike to a fossil reserve. The refrigerator decided to act up again and we had to make some calls, but George once again got it running and by noon, we headed over to Cape Race. Driving to the Cape, was on a gravel road with some of the most beautiful scenery
you will ever see. 
The area is known as Hyper Oceanic Barrens. This landscape, which stretches locally from Chance Cove to St. Vincents, is part of a small distinct eco-region found only on exposed headlands in eastern Newfoundland. Oceanic Barrens are fairly easy to recognize.
Viewed from the sea, their headlands rise sharply in a series of rugged rocky cliffs. Venture inland and you discover a terrain that quickly softens into low rolling stretches of open barrens and bogs.
Just what I would expect to see if I went to Ireland. Close proximity to the ocean produces a climate marked by short, mild winters and cool, foggy summers. Dense carpets of heath moss mixed with lichens and low growing shrubs are everywhere you look.
Cape Race National Historic Site has a lighthouse with the most powerful light on the western side of the North Atlantic.
For five centuries it has been an important landmark for ships traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. With its ice, fog, and strange ocean currents, it has also been a place feared by mariners. Numerous ships have been lost at the Cape, earning it the title “Graveyard of the Atlantic”.
In 1851 the British Admiralty consented to the establishment of a navigational aid. This unmanned, ineffective wooden beacon was replaced by a cast iron tower that began operating in December 1856. It is still working and manned 24 hours a day. We walked up to the top of the lighthouse
and were able to go inside the actual light. 
It is really hot in there and makes you dizzy as it slowly turns.
Cape Race also has a direct connection to the Titanic disaster; since it was here that the stricken liner’s distress call was picked up and relayed to other ships in the area and to other stations down the eastern seaboard.
On the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic passed within range of Cape Race on her ill-fated maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Early in the evening, Jack Phillips, senior wireless operator on the Titanic, made contact with Walter Gray, Officer in charge at the Cape Race station. They had trained together and knew each other. They had a friendly conversation, mainly about the magnificence of the Titanic and the great time everyone was having. A large volume of messages were sent from the Titanic to Cape Race to be relayed to destinations throughout North America. Jack Phillips continued to send messages until just before midnight, but he was aware that the ship had struck something at 11:40. Walter Gray had turned the routine work of receiving messages over to his assistants while he performed regular checks on equipment. His second officer, found him to deliver the incredible news that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and was calling CQD (Come Quick Danger), the international distress signal. Phillips was also using the newly introduced SOS signal. Gray immediately prepared reports of the situation for the owners of the Titanic, one New York Newspaper, and the Canadian Marconi Company in Montreal, who owned the wireless station at Cape Race.
The world received the news via Cape Race Marine Radio that the greatest ocean liner ever built, the unsinkable Titanic, had collided with an iceberg and was sinking. The last signal from the Titanic was heard about 2:00 a.m. Soon afterward thousands of messages began flooding the Cape Race station. They were addressed to Titanic passengers on board the ships known to be proceeding to the disaster. The senders were no doubt reasoning that passengers might have been picked up by any one of the ships and were sending the same message to the same person on all the ships. Following orders, Gray ignored numerous requests for information from a variety of sources, including the Governor of Newfoundland. Gray telephoned Governor Williams and informed him that he had no public information about the Titanic and suggested he contact the Marconi office in Montreal. This action earned Gray a telegram from the Governor expressing his displeasure and stating that the matter would be taken up with Mr. Marconi himself who was currently in New York. Confident he had taken the proper action, Gray did not respond and he never heard of the matter again.
Governor Williams sent a telegram to Marconi International Marine Communications and they responded by saying they regretted the situation and that the operator had not carried out his duty to the Governor and the people of Newfoundland possibly because he feared that providing information about the disaster would be a violation of his oath to protect the secrecy of the correspondence which he received and transmitted. Guess that put the Governor in his place!
We arranged to take a hike with a ranger back to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. There were 9 humans and two dogs who took the 4 mile hike through the bogs back to the cliffs containing fossilized remains of a community of marine creatures from over 565 million years ago. These were soft bodied creatures without shells, bones, muscles, or eyes. They lived on a deep dark ocean floor and fed by filtering food from the sea water. They were wiped out and buried under tons of volcanic ash.
We took McKenzie with us on the hike and I must say she did really well.
She tromped thru the mud and river and stopped to have a drink of water every
once in a while. Once we reached the fossils, we pulled off our shoes and either walked in our stockings or used some booties to walk on the rocks and look at the formations. It was really remarkable to see how well preserved they were and to realize that we were walking on what used to be the ocean bottom millions of years ago. McKenzie and George identified several of the fossils
and we took pictures of the spindle and feather duster (spindle is the leafy thing on the left and
the feather duster is on the right). On the way out, we saw a harbor seal several times frolicking out in the ocean waves.
Well, believe me, we’ve had another really full day. By evening when the fog once again
enveloped our trailer, we were all ready to hit the sack. Tomorrow, we will hook up and head on toward St. John’s – the largest city and also the capital of Newfoundland. I’m sure we’ll find many interesting things to stop and look at on the way, though. Til then, take care!
The scenery was just breathtaking as we drove around the shoreline, headed for St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve which houses one of the most accessible seabird colonies in North America. Unfortunately by the time we got there, the sky had opened up and it was raining up, down and sideways with wind blowing at 60-70 miles. We decided the weather was too bad to walk out to bird rock to see the birds but we did enjoy the museum. By the time we got back to the trailer, it was raining and blowing so hard that water was coming in the weep holes of the windows. We decided it was time to head on and try to get out of the wind. After a while, the wind died down a bit and it quit raining. The countryside was just as we had imagined with small villages tucked away between the unusual rock formations. While we were driving down the road, a wolf/coyote, or maybe just an old, beat-up dog, was standing in the middle of the road. As we drove on, the fog began to start coming in to shore, but a little while later, it was once again clear and we passed a most unusual yard and I just had to take a picture. Our next stop was to be St. Vincent’s Beach on the Irish Loop where you can often spot whales. However, once again the fog came in and since we couldn’t see much, we drifted on towards Trepassey where Amelia Earhart departed in 1928 as the first female to fly across the Atlantic.
The wind continued to blow and howl and we decided to stop at the Visitor’s Center in Portugal Cove South. There we met two very helpful ladies who told us of several places where we could stay overnight to get out of the wind. They also gave us the name of an excellent restaurant in Trepassey, called First Venture. We parked and headed over there for dinner. George had the Fisherman’s Platter and I had cod but more enjoyable even than the food was our waitress, Shirley. She spotted us as “foreigners” right away when she asked me if I wanted gravy and dressing on my fries. I must have given her a really dumb look because she finally suggested that she bring both the gravy and the dressing as a side and I could taste them before I covered my fries. Turned out they were both very good. The dressing was like fresh bread grated with spices, but it was not hard like you’d expect bread cubes to be. Anyway, we ate til we could hardly eat any more. We had been noticing along the way, that people had sale signs for bake apples and on the menu was “bake apple surprise”. We asked our friendly waitress, Shirley, what that was. She said she couldn’t tell us what the surprise was because then it wouldn’t be a surprise but she did explain to us what a bake apple was. It’s a tiny yellow berry, similar to a yellow raspberry that grows in the bogs and is very hard to pick. By this time we were hooked, so we ordered a Bake Apple Surprise. It was delicious. It had ice cream, cake, bake apples, and chocolate syrup. We thoroughly enjoyed this evening. We had delicious food, learned something about the tastes of the Newfoundland people, and were entertained by Shirley!We had planned on making a trip out to Cape Race the next morning and then meeting up with one of the rangers for a hike to a fossil reserve. The refrigerator decided to act up again and we had to make some calls, but George once again got it running and by noon, we headed over to Cape Race. Driving to the Cape, was on a gravel road with some of the most beautiful scenery
you will ever see. The area is known as Hyper Oceanic Barrens. This landscape, which stretches locally from Chance Cove to St. Vincents, is part of a small distinct eco-region found only on exposed headlands in eastern Newfoundland. Oceanic Barrens are fairly easy to recognize. Viewed from the sea, their headlands rise sharply in a series of rugged rocky cliffs. Venture inland and you discover a terrain that quickly softens into low rolling stretches of open barrens and bogs. Just what I would expect to see if I went to Ireland. Close proximity to the ocean produces a climate marked by short, mild winters and cool, foggy summers. Dense carpets of heath moss mixed with lichens and low growing shrubs are everywhere you look.Cape Race National Historic Site has a lighthouse with the most powerful light on the western side of the North Atlantic.
For five centuries it has been an important landmark for ships traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. With its ice, fog, and strange ocean currents, it has also been a place feared by mariners. Numerous ships have been lost at the Cape, earning it the title “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. In 1851 the British Admiralty consented to the establishment of a navigational aid. This unmanned, ineffective wooden beacon was replaced by a cast iron tower that began operating in December 1856. It is still working and manned 24 hours a day. We walked up to the top of the lighthouse and were able to go inside the actual light. It is really hot in there and makes you dizzy as it slowly turns.Cape Race also has a direct connection to the Titanic disaster; since it was here that the stricken liner’s distress call was picked up and relayed to other ships in the area and to other stations down the eastern seaboard.
On the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic passed within range of Cape Race on her ill-fated maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Early in the evening, Jack Phillips, senior wireless operator on the Titanic, made contact with Walter Gray, Officer in charge at the Cape Race station. They had trained together and knew each other. They had a friendly conversation, mainly about the magnificence of the Titanic and the great time everyone was having. A large volume of messages were sent from the Titanic to Cape Race to be relayed to destinations throughout North America. Jack Phillips continued to send messages until just before midnight, but he was aware that the ship had struck something at 11:40. Walter Gray had turned the routine work of receiving messages over to his assistants while he performed regular checks on equipment. His second officer, found him to deliver the incredible news that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and was calling CQD (Come Quick Danger), the international distress signal. Phillips was also using the newly introduced SOS signal. Gray immediately prepared reports of the situation for the owners of the Titanic, one New York Newspaper, and the Canadian Marconi Company in Montreal, who owned the wireless station at Cape Race.
The world received the news via Cape Race Marine Radio that the greatest ocean liner ever built, the unsinkable Titanic, had collided with an iceberg and was sinking. The last signal from the Titanic was heard about 2:00 a.m. Soon afterward thousands of messages began flooding the Cape Race station. They were addressed to Titanic passengers on board the ships known to be proceeding to the disaster. The senders were no doubt reasoning that passengers might have been picked up by any one of the ships and were sending the same message to the same person on all the ships. Following orders, Gray ignored numerous requests for information from a variety of sources, including the Governor of Newfoundland. Gray telephoned Governor Williams and informed him that he had no public information about the Titanic and suggested he contact the Marconi office in Montreal. This action earned Gray a telegram from the Governor expressing his displeasure and stating that the matter would be taken up with Mr. Marconi himself who was currently in New York. Confident he had taken the proper action, Gray did not respond and he never heard of the matter again.
Governor Williams sent a telegram to Marconi International Marine Communications and they responded by saying they regretted the situation and that the operator had not carried out his duty to the Governor and the people of Newfoundland possibly because he feared that providing information about the disaster would be a violation of his oath to protect the secrecy of the correspondence which he received and transmitted. Guess that put the Governor in his place!
We arranged to take a hike with a ranger back to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. There were 9 humans and two dogs who took the 4 mile hike through the bogs back to the cliffs containing fossilized remains of a community of marine creatures from over 565 million years ago. These were soft bodied creatures without shells, bones, muscles, or eyes. They lived on a deep dark ocean floor and fed by filtering food from the sea water. They were wiped out and buried under tons of volcanic ash.
We took McKenzie with us on the hike and I must say she did really well.
She tromped thru the mud and river and stopped to have a drink of water every once in a while. Once we reached the fossils, we pulled off our shoes and either walked in our stockings or used some booties to walk on the rocks and look at the formations. It was really remarkable to see how well preserved they were and to realize that we were walking on what used to be the ocean bottom millions of years ago. McKenzie and George identified several of the fossils and we took pictures of the spindle and feather duster (spindle is the leafy thing on the left and the feather duster is on the right). On the way out, we saw a harbor seal several times frolicking out in the ocean waves.Well, believe me, we’ve had another really full day. By evening when the fog once again
enveloped our trailer, we were all ready to hit the sack. Tomorrow, we will hook up and head on toward St. John’s – the largest city and also the capital of Newfoundland. I’m sure we’ll find many interesting things to stop and look at on the way, though. Til then, take care!
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