Rocky Harbour - a windy village in a windy province

We got up Tuesday morning and headed north.  We weren’t really sure how far yet but guessed we would probably go as far as Rocky Harbor where Gros Morne National Park is located.

It was a beautiful morning.  I could wake up to this every day!

The drive was more mountainous than Nova Scotia; but we didn’t have many steep hills along the main road through Newfoundland: TCH-1.

We drove past Corner Brook…

…and the first Wal-mart we came to in Newfoundland.

We drove past this ski run in Pasadena.

As we drove past Deer Lake…

…the road had rutted out tire lanes.  Chuck had to maneuver these ruts because they were just far enough apart to cause either the right or left side tires go through them.

As we turned down Hwy 430, we saw this sign warning about the moose.  The signs keep getting bigger.  I wonder if the moose are getting bigger too.

The road had more steep grades as we headed into Gros Morne.

On the steepest parts of the roads, there were “waves of ruts” across the road that also made it a little bumpy.

But the views were awesome.

We arrived at Gros Morne RV Park about 1:30 and our site #60 was basically in the middle of a gravel parking lot (which we found out later is what a lot of RV parks are in Newfoundland – gravel parking lots.)  The site was unlevel but we made it work with the jacks.  And we had full hookups with 30 amp.

The worst part about this park was the wind.  The Weather Channel said we were having 16 mph winds with 32 mph gusts but it felt more like 32 mph winds with 50 mph gusts.  Chuck said he could even see the rear slide moving in and out slightly.  Needless to say, we did NOT let the awnings out.

We walked over to the office and chatted with the office manager for a little while.  We loved listening to her talk.  Newfies talk with a blend of Irish and English accent.  “On me nerves.”  “Ya get yerself along now.”  “G’on b’uy.”   We really had to listen carefully to understand what she was saying…and she was speaking English, not French.  But she didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding us.  I guess it’s that S-L-O-W Southern drawl.

She and just about every Newfie we spoke with were especially nice and liked talking with us. 

We ended up staying at this RV park for 3 nights before heading further north.  And amazingly enough, we didn’t get blown away.