20020614

June 14, 2002

Day 36

Start: Pippy Park CG & Trailer Park, St John’s, NF
End: Country Inn Motel & Trailer Park, Gander, NF
Miles: 213

The high today was 55f and the low was 39 last night or early this morning. The weather was mixed.

We ate & left St John’s on the Trans-Canada Highway going west (for a change) to Gander. The weather was partly sunny. The trip across was uneventful but for two things. First, the Newman Sound campground at Terra Nova National Park was closed due to a forest fire nearby. We saw the police on the 
highway and a patch of burned out woods. Later, we learned the road had been closed for brief periods. Also in the park, Dolores saw a moose.

Secondly, as we approached Gander, we ran into a line of small showers. They were the annoying variety, those that muck up the windshield but don’t clean the truck.

We set up in the Gander campground just as another shower hit there. We ducked inside until it went on its way. I talked with neighbors from BC who’ve been on the road a month en route to see their son in St John’s. They live on an island off Vancouver Island.

We had lunch in the little house, then I went off to do errands. I got the propane tank filled that ran out last 
night, fueled the truck for tomorrow, bought some beer for Bill (Quidi Vidi's "1892"), bought a couple of used paperback books, and got some cash. Then we loafed for the remainder of the afternoon.

The campground owner said there wasn’t much for dining in this town, but we went to the one she recommended. It was a motel dining room. The food was good, and the setting all right. Dolores had roast beef and I had salmon.

We returned from the restaurant and took a short ride on the way to see if any other moose were circulating. They weren’t, so we returned to the little house to read and relax.