The following morning we drove to Gander the town that hosted the passengers from the over 38 planes with over 7000 passengers that landed there on 9/11. There are two memorials in town one celebrating Ganders aviation history and the other the final resting place of a plane load of returning 101st US paratroopers from the 1980’s.  We didn’t stop at either but did our food shopping and continued on to Terra Nova National Park for a three night stay.

Upon our arrival at the Park we went to the visitors center for a short introductory movie then went for a walk on the campground trail. The trail took us down to the shore of Big Brook and back up to the campground at a different location. We got a little confused going through the campground to find our trailer. When we returned I tried our internet and it worked.  Within minutes however, Debby got an email from Verizon charging her $250 for data usage. I shut the internet and we called Verizon on my phone because hers doesn’t work here in Newfoundland. We thought our Internet radio didn’t work either and it hasn’t until now. Not that we can use it.

Prior to leaving the U.S. on this trip Debby spoke to a representative and was provided assurances that all three of her devices would work in Canada at no additional charges for voice or data. Those assurances turned out to be meaningless. Furthermore every representative we spoke to at Verizon in an attempt to clarify the situation provided often conflicting information. On the last occasion a supervisor failed to call back as promised. Debby even received an email confirming these assurances . The email was eventually contradicted by subsequent events. The result of all this is the eradication of any trust I have for Verizon. They did credit the $250 but after the last phone confirmation we would be crazy to use the device and her flip phone still doesn’t work.

It was raining the next morning we went over for ice but they had non. It seems as if the ice manufacturer has been effected by the same water advisory in the Park. We had more then half a full tank of fresh water so we are using water we brought with us and  aren’t bothered by the advisory except for the ice problem. The store agreed to freeze our blue ice and some water and a nice Newfoundlander was getting ice brought by a friend so he offered to bring us some.

After the rain we went down a large staircase to the coastal trail and hiked about 2 kilometers along the coastal trail before being chased back by the rain.

In 2016 we had gone to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. On a walk along the Ridou Canal which is part of the Parks Canada system we came upon two red Adirondack wooden chairs. It seems that these chairs are all over in the park system at interesting overlooks. On the 18 th we saw two on our walk on the campground trail and now on the 19th there were two more on the banks of the Terra Nova Sound.

The 19th was wet and raining none the less we found a break and walked or hiked (I am not sure I know the difference) on the Coastal Trail. We went about 2 kilometers before it started to rain again so we turned around and went back to the trailer.

On the 20th the sun was shining and it was a great day for the boat ride we had booked two days earlier. We drove out of the sound on the Zodiac type boat to the Atlantic Ocean. On the way we saw three eagles, two bald and one golden and took time to see the scenic coastline including a waterfall and grotto. The water was crystal clear I even took pictures of star fish and sea urchins. We continued onto an island here the puffins nest and watched them for several minutes before turning around and heading back to shore.

We, actually not me , saw a whale the boat driver said it was a minke. Later we saw a seal pop it’s head out of the water. Along the way we went into a cove witch had several cabins and docked at one the tour company owner owned. The driver other passengers two ladies and a child about 3 years old got out on the deck. They and Debby had artic water and a chocolate bar while I climbed up to use the rustic facilities in the cabin. There was a flush toilet but it didn’t flush, no water. The owner wants to rent it out but it needs a good cleaning and some repairs. None of the cabins are on the grid which doesn’t exist in that location a,though I did see one satellite dish. The holdings are all on long term leases from the government and only accessible by boat.

When we got back to the dock which is at  the visitors center we took the Coastal Trail back towards the campground and walked as far as a waterfall maybe a 1/2 kilometers short of where we turned around in the rain the day before. We returned to our car and went to buy ice.

Our refrigerator had stopped working several days prior and we have been using ice ever since. I had spent some time since the diagnosing the problem and am fairly certain our 10 year old refrigerator needs replacement. It’s doubtful we will replace it on this trip so we will just keep buying ice. We also had to throw out a substantial amount of food although we gave some of it away before it defrosted.

That night we went to the campground theater but the program turned out be be directed at 12 and below. People in animal costumes singing silly songs.  A talent show called Forrest Idol copied from tv "people have talent"  asking the audience to text its votes to different numbers. Frankly We thought it pretty lame even as Children’s theater and left.Usually these Parks Canada shows are excellent but this one didn't quite measure up.