– Blanc-Sablon, Quebec to Deer Lake, Newfoundland –

Well, we’ve survived the day. We were out of bed by 5am, as usual, but today we immediately hopped in the shower and rushed through bathing and packing. We were totally ready to leave just after 6:30am Quebec time, which is a little hilarious since we didn’t technically need to be at the ferry until 8.

We tried to get gas after we left the hotel, but the gas stations didn’t open until 7am. Instead, we drove over to check out the ferry and see what we needed to do to get ourselves checked in. We saw a line of cars parked on the side of the road leading down to the ferry, and a bunch of people waiting in line, and we had a minor panic attack, despite the fact that we had reservations.

Mom hopped out of the car and took the ticket information and went to wait in line while the rest of us went back into town to wait for the gas stations to open in a few more minutes. We stopped briefly on the way back, once we had our gas, to take some final photos of Blanc-Sablon. Our panic had subsided a little when we sent Mom to stand in the line, so we no longer felt as rushed.

When we got back to the line, we parked the suburban and walked down the big hill to the ferry office to pick up Mom. She told us we didn’t have to wait in the line, because we had reservations. Instead, we could go park our car in our lane for the ferry, further down on the docks. We promptly did that, and felt enormously better for it. We were still over half an hour earlier than we had to be checked in. We definitely weren’t missing the ferry.

It turns out that people that don’t have reservations have to come to the office early and get a number. If someone doesn’t show up for their reserved spot an hour before boarding, or if not all of the spaces filled, the numbers are called in (roughly) the order they are given out, based on vehicle size and a few other factors. People were waiting in the ferry office and cheering when their number was called. There’s only one more ferry each day, from what I can tell, so it is pretty important to make it on if you can. That’s why they had been there so early, before the ferry office even opened at 7am.

The ferry left not long after 9am Quebec time. It was 10:30 Labrador/Newfoundland time, so I’m going to switch to that, since that what we were using for the rest of the day. We had choked down a quick breakfast in the car while we were waiting on the ferry, but it turns out that they have a huge breakfast buffet that almost everyone else knew about and was waiting for. I don’t think we were too jealous, but it would’ve been nice to know, especially since we had trouble finding lunch later.

The vehicles in the bottom of the ferry were tightly packed, and everything went by very quickly as we loaded onto the boat and then hurried up to the passenger deck. We had to leave the dogs in the vehicle. Ripley stayed in her seat and seatbelt, but Sabre went in her crate. We left the windows rolled down, and I definitely fretted about Ripley the whole time. I was afraid I would be seasick when I saw that the ferry was small enough to rock around in the water, but I ended up being okay. The actual crossing only took about 1.5 hours, with an extra half hour added to the time for loading and unloading the ship.

I mostly sat in the cabin after I’d looked around a little, but Mark, Mom, and Dad went up onto the deck for a while and caught sight of some orcas. I’m a little sad I missed it, but when they got back they told me that they had to be told what they were anyway, so I guess I didn’t miss too much. All I can see in the photos is fins. Still, it’s pretty cool.

The ferry landed on Newfoundland just after 12:00, and we were unloaded not long after. It’s another rush to get down to the car and back in the vehicles, and many people can’t even get in, the cars are packed so tightly together. We had to stand in front of the Suburban while the giant bus beside it came out, so we could get in the car. When we got in, Ripley was flipping out. I guess she was pretty unhappy down in the dark, loud hold all alone. I felt very guilty. My poor baby. We will definitely put her in her crate for the longer ferry in a few days. I hope she feels safer in there, and isn’t as upset.

From the ferry, we drove in the opposite direction of our hotel, heading north to see the sights on the far end on the island. We were planning to stop at a restaurant for lunch, but we couldn’t find anything up that way, as it was pretty empty, so we ended up having a sketchy lunch from the cooler. We didn’t intend to do that today, since we haven’t been to a grocery store to restock, but we managed okay. The view was nice in the little dock area where we parked to get everything out.

We did stop a couple of places to look for lunch, but Google maps lied to us a few times, and one restaurant we found didn’t serve even one thing that could possibly be vegetarian. There really aren’t many along the road north until you get to the very end, at St. Anthony, and we actually turned around before we got there.

It took just under two hours to reach our destination for the day: L’Anse aux Meadows. The park is a Canadian National Historic Site, and part of their national park system. It is the only confirmed site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America. It dates back to around the year 1000, and was only discovered in the 1960s. People believe it may be part of “Vinland,” which is a land full of trees mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas.

At the visitor center, we bought our Canadian National Park Pass. It was $136 CAD for a family pass for a year, which is just over $100 in USD. We needed the family pass because they also sell individual passes for $67 CAD, that cover only one person. It would’ve been much more expensive to buy one for each of us, and my parents probably won’t use theirs again. I think Mark and I might go to Banff sometime in the next year with it, since we have it. We briefly talked about trying to visit in the winter right after we bought the thing.

For us, the major attraction at the site was the replica Viking settlement that they’ve created and populated with reenactors for park visitors. A secondary, bonus attraction was that Ripley and Sabre could walk freely though the park. They even got to walk through the visitor center.

All six of us walked out to the replica settlement and explored the buildings there. Along the way, we stopped to chat with several people that wanted to meet Ripley. She certainly makes us friends up here, almost as many as we make from having Texas plates. Everyone wants to talk to us about Ripley and the drive up from Texas. We’re popular folks.

The settlement has sod houses with grass on the roof, a forge, story-telling, replica equipment; it’s really neat. We probably spent 30 minutes wandering around just that one site. It was very popular, too, since today is a Saturday. We even ran into some of the people that were on the ferry with us. It’s one of the major things to visit on Newfoundland, from what I can tell. Mark had multiple people recommend it to him.

When we finished at the settlement, Mom, Dad, and Sabre were ready to head back, but they told us we were welcome to continue on if we weren’t ready to go yet. We ended up walking out onto a little point and up onto a cliff to look at the little bay the park is on.

The view from the top was very nice, and Ripley had a great time on the walk. She really needed the exercise since we didn’t get to run this morning, and the ferry had her so worked up earlier in the day. By now, she’d clearly forgotten her ferry trauma. She practically dragged me up the steps to the top of the cliff.

When we finished and came out to the Suburban, it was just after 4pm, and we realized with a sinking feeling that it was still five hours to our hotel in Deer Lake. We’d driven two hours north, and our ferry landing was three hours from our hotel. We, very sadly, hit the road.

Once again, finding food was difficult, since there weren’t any restaurants between the ferry landing and the park we’d visited. We didn’t get to eat until after 7pm, and that was at another Pizza Delight, which some of us didn’t particularly care for the first time. Mom and Dad had pizza, again, and Mark and I had a calzone, which is basically a folded pizza, and a salad. I can’t believe I had to eat pizza again. Ugh.

It took forever to finally get to our hotel in Deer Lake. The last portion of our drive was through Gros Morne National Park, which we plan to explore in depth tomorrow. For today, we simply tried to make note of places we wanted to stop along the road.

It was after dark when we got to our hotel, which turned out to basically be an entire house. We could sleep at least 9 people, possible more, in this place. It has a full kitchen, bathroom, multiple bedrooms, and a living room to boot. It’s only missing a washer and dryer, which would’ve been really nice. Fortunately there’s a laundromat in another building on the premises, but that costs money, unfortunately. We are here for two nights, and it is the only time on the trip that will happen. It will be nice to spend two nights here, in this big house. It’s a nice change from the hotel rooms.

Tomorrow, we will drive out to visit Gros Morne, then probably come back to the hotel around 3-4pm to do laundry, wash Ripley, and generally do some housekeeping and grocery shopping. We’ll need to do more in St. John’s in a few more days, but for now, we should have plenty of time, and it should be a nice, relaxing day. There’s even a running trail right out front of the house.

– Trip Total : 3,905 miles –