NEWFOUNDLAND – ERRANDS.
Day 116 – Yesterday when we arrived we found we had no signal whatsoever here. Phone calls, internet, the blog, all would have to wait a couple of days. Without the internet, we had no weather information, so the rain we got last night & much of today was a complete surprise. We’d checked in advance and the claim was that no rain was in our near future. So I guess it actually makes no difference if you have a weather forecast or not……..
Last night we were the only people camping here. Several trailers & campers were parked here but no one was currently using them. The campsites are in a row right by the water. There’s a decent amount of property between the campground and the motel which has both rooms & efficiency units. There’s very few people staying here. Once all the fishing boats came in & people had cleaned their fish, it was quiet, except for the Sea Gulls & a radio occasionally squawking from one of the parked boats. Someone had forgotten to turn off their radio before they left. Rob sat out by the Bay this morning. He took a walk over to the fish-cleaning station. There were plenty of fish carcasses in the water, probably the Gulls or the critters will take care of that; everyone had cleaned up after themselves nicely. The grounds here are very well kept up. The whole motel/campground/fishing area property is for sale. It’s pretty nice. $500K Canadian. The owners are retiring. Anyone want a business?
We were going to go exploring today, but when the rain continued, we decided to go to Deer Lake to run some errands. Dominion is the good grocery store in Newfoundland, similar to the bigger, nicely-stocked grocery stores we’re used to. We thought there would be one in Deer Lake where we could finally stock up on some things we have been out of for awhile. On the Island, if you need groceries or gasoline, the small towns & villages have no stores, or maybe a convenience store attached to a gas station if you are lucky. Medium sized towns could have a grocery store & a gas station, but the quality & selctions of the food leave lots to be desired. Foodland is the one you find most of the time and shopping there is downright depressing. The larger cities like St. John’s, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Corner Brook all have Dominion’s. Deer Lake is not that big, more like Gander. Gander has a Dominion; we were hopeful that Deer Lake did, too. We were also getting low on alcohol. Most of you will understand that this could be a problem, LOL. There are not regular, privately-owned liquor stores in Newfoundland. Beer, wine, and spirits are sold at Provincial Liquor Stores which are usually attached to a major grocery store or in a smaller town, sold at a small store attached to a gas station or convenience store. The bigger the town, the bigger the Provincial Liquor Store, and the better the selection. Also, marijuana is legal in Canada. It can be bought online by Canadian citizens & delivered to their home. Or there are “C-Shops”, attached to some Dominion supermarkets. There are only a few C-Shops in Newfoundland. Shades of things to come in the States?
Okay, so back to running errands: first we looked for a gas station. The RV was getting low on gas so we wanted to scope out where gas stations were in this area. There are none that are operational. The one in Pollard’s Point was out of order. On the way to Deer Lake there was a gas station, about 60 km from the campground. This makes us a little nervous for our next voyage in the RV. Deer Lake was about 90 km from the campground. We stopped for lunch at Subway. We had a signal there on the phone, so we looked for a Dominion. None. Rob asked the clerk at Subway. The closest Dominion was about 60 km southwest of Deer Lake in Corner Brook. The grocery store in Deer Lake was a Foodland. We said, no way, not that place again, and headed for Corner Brook. Our two-hour trip of errands soon turned into a five-hour trip of errands.
We drove to Corner Brook. We’d never been there. It was a big city and they even had a shopping mall, imagine that! We got all of the supplies on our list at their wonderful Dominion and also stocked up on liquor. We’re glad we did this whole trip for groceries because the areas we’re going next – who knows what awaits us. The coastal towns in Labrador are definitely NOT bustling metropolis’s.
Because of the thermostat in the car, we know the high today was 76 & quite humid. The RV was quite warm when we got back; because of the rain, we’d had to close the windows. We turned on the fans & opened the windows. The girls were glad to see us. An RV had come in & had parked nearby. There was no fishing allowed today. Things were relatively quiet. We’d bought a large, ready-made Kale Salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries, and candied pecans at the grocery store. Salad! OMG, we’ve really missed it. We had dinner & relaxed; the rain appeared to be over.