WIND BE GONE.
TRAVEL DAY
From: Oceanside RV Park, Port au Choix, NL.
To:Gros Morne/Norris Point KOA, Norris Point, NL.
Day 138 – We were up at 5:30 this morning so that we could leave in plenty of time before the winds got any worse. Supposedly the wind gusts would get stronger beginning around 9 a.m. The wind was strong enough as it was already. After dumping tanks, we departed Port au Choix at 7:35 a.m. It was 63 degrees, sunny but hazy and quite windy.
We headed south on Route 430. The farther south we got, the better the road conditions were. We’d been dealing with rough roads for so long, it was a real pleasure to have a reprieve. The journey was almost completely along the coast, much of it with mountain views. Very pretty. We’ve said it before, but Gros Morne National Park is one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been to, and even though it was hazy and not as stunning as it can be, it was great. We knew that since we were spending almost 2 weeks in Gros Morne, there would be some incredible driving around looking at the scenery, no matter what the weather was. We stopped for gas in the RV along the way; the wind gusts were decreasing in strength and it was getting cloudier.
We arrived at the Visitor’s Centre in Norris Point at 10:10 a.m. We were ready for a break. Our intention was to stay a little while in their parking lot visiting the popular Centre’s interpretive displays, while waiting for our previously-reserved campsite to be vacated & cleaned, so we could check in. Check in time was normally after 1 p.m., but because of the wind conditions, we called them yesterday to get permission to check in earlier.
Well, guess what. The Visitor’s Centre was closed due to construction. Now where could we go to kill time that would allow us to park a 31’ RV towing an attached Honda CRV? A grocery store parking lot? Hmmm. We do have a few items that need to be restocked. We looked at Google for grocery stores in this area. None of the big supermarkets with large parking lots came up. There was Coyley’s General Store…..
We drove through the good-sized town of Rocky Harbour, following the directions from the phone. The streets were narrow, not fun in an RV; we almost never drive the RV thru a town or city unless we have to. We found Coyley’s General Store. In front of it there was maybe enough room to park the RV – without the Honda attached. And no one else would be able to park there. Darnit. Where to go, where to go.
We ended up at a turn-out near the entrance to Rocky Harbour. We had enough room. We hoped no one else wanted to stop there. Not sure they would fit. We let the girls out and they had a bite to eat. They looked puzzled – “Is this where we are staying? Weird.”
We called the campground and left a message that we were in the area, and we asked them to call us back when we could check in. Only about 10 minutes later, they called and said for us to come on in. We packed the confused girlies back up, and drove to the campground, only a few kilometers from where we were parked. We arrived at the Gros Morne/Norris Point KOA at 11:35 a.m. It was 70 degrees and partly cloudy. We were assigned Site #8.
Driving to our campsite, we turned onto the narrow road that traveled by the sites. Ahead of us were a girl and a younger, smaller boy, each of them “driving” pedaled Go-Karts through the campground. They saw us coming up behind them and struggled to pull off to the side of the road to let us by. They were at the bottom of a hill. There wasn’t room for us to go by them, so the girl pedaled on ahead, while the little boy found he could not make it up the hill at all. He was struggling, trying to push the go-kart up the hill in front of him, and not succeeding, his little feet sliding out from under him. Meanwhile, his sister wouldn’t help him. Rob had stopped the RV, and he got out and pushed the boy up the hill. SO cute. Wish I had pictures.
We love our campsite. It’s by a body of water called Spirity Pond. We could kayak right from our site. There are two Adirondack Chairs and a fire pit set up near the water. Very nice. We are surrounded by trees; there’s a short path to the water. We have privacy and a water site. We set up camp and made lunch. Rob put up the screened tent, and we went out to read our books for awhile. No complaints here.
During dinner, Pixie was on the dashboard looking out the front into the trees, pointing like a dog. There was a large bird on the branch of a tree eating seeds right in front of her. Thank you for the head’s up, Pixie! Rob got his camera – dinner could wait. It was a Pine Grosbeak, a boreal forest bird that is rare in the U.S. A male, he was very pretty and quite busy. Yaay!
Back again! I thought we were done with the blog. Nope, there was a sunset. Rob just got back with the pictures.
