Farther Along the Viking Trail

October 30, 2015 by Let's CUT the Crap! 36 Comments

A warning light flashed on the bus dashboard. We stopped at an Irving Station (gas /variety store / liquor store) for a break and Shaun, our driver, had the problem checked out. Almost anything is available at some of the larger gas stations. It was a treat to move around and flex stiff joints and muscles inside the store. Some of our group grabbed coffee and snacks. Others used the facilities.

We’d met Margaret and her husband, Jack, when we first arrived at the airport. She came towards me with a brown paper bag wrapped around a bottle. “Oh. I see,” I said.

“Water,” she said. I thought she was fooling around.

Later, she called out and caught up with us while we were boarding the bus.

“It’s not water,” she said. “I didn’t know. He said it was water and I believed him.

“Ha. I knew that!” She wasn’t kidding.

I laughed. I know a wine bottle when I see one.  She blushed.

We did a lot of driving today: long stretches of empty highway, lots of roadside trees and more drizzle. I felt we were going in circles.

Gros Morne National Park is a world heritage site. The land has risen two meters (rebounding of the land) where the Vikings (now called Norsemen) landed. Temperature 1,000 years ago was five degrees warmer. The scenery is spell-binding. We didn’t get off the bus here. The following video gives you an overview of this wonder.

Credit:  The Tablelands, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador

 Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism

 

More about Moose:

• 1904 Four moose released from New Brunswick (not native to Newfoundland)
• This is the heaviest concentration of moose in the world
• Moose love balsam, birch and fir
• Haven for 5,000 moose in Gros Morne National Park
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dc42JAHNPw (check this out)
• Full grown moose ( about 12-1,400 pounds) can eat 50 – 60 pounds of young trees per day
• One area fenced off at Gros Morne to protect the trees / outside of fence, trees naked
• 500 moose allowed to be removed / hunted: a controlled hunt
• Woodland caribou are native to this area
• Native predators are insects brought in by international shipping
• John’s and 100 km. zone = 23 accidents in August 2015 even before month ended

On the lighter side:

In Saskatoon, a boxcar came loose and a guy brought home a wheel barrel full of salt cod, but he didn’t know what to do with it. It was hard, you see. So, he shingled a shed roof. It leaked a little, but lasted about two years.

Cod Quick Facts:

• Cod is king
• Cod Fishery starting to renew after more than 20 years
• 3-week recreational fishing allowed now (fish coming back)
• Sent salt cod to the Prairies in the 1930s
• Used to ship salt cod with liquor run (Someone released the wrong car. only whiskey; no cod)

No credit required. Found at Pixabay.com

Newfoundland Quick Facts:

• NFL lumber can be shipped to the US
• Most of the lumber cut here, therefore tariffs less than in British Columbia
• Considered private
• Logging mill keeps nine days supply
• Burn the sawdust to provide electricity
• Dairy farming big business
• Used to be sheep but coyotes can decimate them
• Put a donkey or a llama with the sheep and coyotes don’t come near

The Lighter Side:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribou_(train)

A conductor told a pregnant woman on the Newfie Bullet she shouldn’t have got on due to her condition. She told him when she got on the train she wasn’t pregnant.

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Tentatively on November 6^th – Continuing along the Viking Trail

© 2015 Tess @ How the Cookie Crumbles. All Rights Reserved.

For more related posts, click on Newfoundland / Labrador tab at the top of the page

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I have not registered for NaNo, but will be occupied for the next while. Will post as I am able.