NEWFOUNDLAND 2025
Gander
Today’s driving adventures saw us stop in the world famous town of Gander, the little town that hosted thousands during the 9/11 airspace shutdown. The town of Gander was once known as the "Crossroads of the World," due to its perfectly positioned airport. Once the largest on earth, with runways big enough to land the space shuttle, it was a strategic location for refuelling and a bustling centre during wartimes. In the pioneering days of air travel after the Second World War, it wasn’t possible to make the journey from North America to Europe without a refueling stop at the Gander airport.
As one of the few airports capable of handling the traffic when US air space closed on September 11, 2001, Gander was perfectly positioned to welcome almost 7,000 newly stranded passengers and their 38 international planes. Gander isn’t a large town – the visitors almost outnumbered the locals – and making room for all those unexpected guests, along with eleven dogs, nine cats, and two Bonobo apes, was quite a challenge. Even so, its citizens and Newfoundlanders up and down the Kittiwake Coast opened their homes and hearts to these strangers from all over the world. These travellers found warm beds and home-cooked meals during a truly terrifying time. And now the kindness and hospitality shown to visitors has become the basis for the Tony-award winning Broadway musical Come From Away. A trip to Newfoundland would feel incomplete if we didn't stop there.
Just off the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) is the Silent Witness Memorial, in memory of the 256 men and women of the 101st Airborne Division and the crew of Arrow Air who lost their lives on this site, Dec 12, 1985. They were returning from peacekeeping activities in Egypt when their plane suddenly descended after takeoff in Gander and crashed.
We also stopped at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum, which just happened to be right beside the colourful roadside Gander sign.
Our quest for Moose would continue as we drove down colourful single lane highways. This one is not a real moose. At least the changing colours of the leaves were nice to look at
Our original plans were to stay in the town of Trinity, and explore the Bonavista peninsula. The town was cute, but very small, and with most everything closed for the season, we decided to just visit, and end our day closer to St. John's.
The Clarenville Quality Hotel was conveniently along the way. It all seemed fine, nice room, breakfast included, but the quality was lost when we were woken up by the sound of jackhammers. They are doing renovations in the gym... directly below our room. Who in their right mind would put guests directly above a construction zone?
We did have a very nice dinner at one of the only remaining Don Cherry's Restaurant & Pub. Apparently all of the other ones had been taken ove by The Bigs chain, but these owners wanted to keep it. Had a great conversation with the waitress who it seemed had worked there for most of her life.
After being so rudely awoken, we packed our bags, ate our free breakfast and hit the conveniently located highway for a couple unique stops, as we worked our way to St. John's later in the day.
A friend had recommended Vernon's Antique Car Museum, so we took a slight detour to check it out. When we arrive we are the only ones there, and the guy that collects admission is taking us on a private tour. All kinds of details about each of the cars, showing us how the doors close so perfect, specific info about where the car came from, what made it unique.
I have made these a little smaller to protect your carpal tunnel from scrolling damage
After looking at this beautiful 1954 Kaiser Darrin, someone else comes in and yells "Hey Vernon, how are you?", turns out, the guy that was giving us the tour was the owner of the collection.
Even his desk and seating is classic.
I'm sure Norine didn't enjoy this as much as i did, but what a cool collection to peruse
with hardly anybody else around.
This 54 Kaiser was definitely my favourite... well that and the 57 Chevy Belair of course.
Our next stop was a place we "had to" stop... the fishing village of Dildo. These town names are crazy in Newfoundland. Apparently, if you want to get to Hearts Delight and Hearts Content you have to go through Dildo and Spread Eagle to get there.
The name, then written as "Dildoe", was first applied to Dildo Island dating back to 700 AD, located offshore from the present-day community of Dildo. Archeological records show it was home to four Indigenous groups, including the Beothuks, and it was home to the world's first cod fish hatchery, opened way back in 1889. The community name "Dildo" is documented in this area since at least 1711, though how this came to be is unknown. The origin of the word "dildo" itself is obscure.
Captain James Cook and his assistant Michael Lane, who mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, often displayed a sense of humour in the place names they chose, and were not above selecting names that might "offend over-sensitive" readers. Regardless of the origin, the name has brought the town of Dildo a measure of notoriety. In the 20th century, there were several unsuccessful campaigns to change the name. This is all the historical information on Dildo's that I will provide.
What better place to stop for lunch than the Dildo Brewing Company. It's been at least a couple of days since I had Chowder, and with this many unique choices, you have to get a flight.
In August 2019, the American late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! focused on Dildo over a number of episodes. As part of the activity, host Jimmy Kimmel was made honorary mayor of Dildo. Kimmel declared Hollywood as Dildo's sister city. As part of his gesture, he also gave the community a sign, in the style of the Hollywood sign, which sits on the hillside overlooking the community.
Captain Dildo
From Dildo, we drove our way to St. John's, maybe our last chance to see a Moose.