Day 54
Slept fantastic, with a little help from dramamine. No praying to the porcelain god! The wrist bands worked or at least thank goodness for the placebo effect. Breakfast was a buffet and as soon as we sat down we noticed we were near land already. The pilot did a great job turning us around and backing in. We could not even feel the contact with the dock. Getting off the ferry took much less time than getting on. First stop was the info center 3 km away. There we turned the gas back on and started our refrigerator which takes 6 to 8 hours to cool down. Then a half hour drive to Rodrigues Winery and Distillery, a Harvest Hosts host. We do tour and tasting. Fruit wines and brandies. A little sweet for my taste. One wine was a cloudberry, definitely unique. It is also called bakeapple. We found out later that name was anglicized from the French, “baie qu'appelle” meaning, “what is this berry called”. We had planned on staying the night but it is mid-day so we decide to move on to St. John’s when we called our campground and asked to move up our reservation a day. Sure the gal told us. We hit the road for the one hour drive. Five minutes from the campground we get a call from the campground that no they don’t have room for us but we can stay in their overflow area without services for $31.50. Walmart it is tonight. We shopped at Walmart and the Sobey’s next door to fill up our refrigerator.
Day 53
The big day is here, our 16 hour ferry ride through the open Atlantic Ocean to the island province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We checked out of the KOA at noon and headed to terminal in North Sydney about 30 minutes away. Stopped for diesel as I am told the prices are much higher in Newfoundland. Also got propane at Canadian Tire which turned into an ordeal as its hose was too short. Had to detach the car and then back into a narrow space on my blind side to get close enough to reach. Checked into Marine Atlantic about 1:30 and got in line. Ate lunch in the coach and then went for a walk. Back to the coach at 3:30 and packed our refrigerator into a cooler with lots of ice as the propane must be turned off for the cruise. We did a good job of eating most of our refrigerated food and everything fit into our big cooler. We drove onto the ferry about 4:30. We checked into our deluxe stateroom and find a king size bed instead of the queen we expected. I take my first dramamine pill and put on my wrist bands. We headed out on deck just as the ship departed promptly at 5:30. We moved our watches ahead 30 minutes to Newfoundland Time, 90 minutes ahead of Eastern Time. We walked around the ship and watched the land pass by for awhile until it got too cold. We passed on the buffet dinner and opted for the a la carte dinner. We both had the halibut and the meal was very good. Service was a bit slow but it was not like we had someplace to go. The lounge area had “entertainment” of an old guy and a guitar playing our oldies. He missed some lines as he strained to read the words and substituted some humming. We headed back to our room and enjoyed the running water showers we took. Before bedtime, I took my second dramamine. To all my friends who tried to get me on a cruise saying once under way you don’t even know you are on a boat, I still don’t believe you! This 30,000 ton boat was rocking!
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