Sunday, June 25 - It's been a few days since we've had wifi, so there's a fair bit to catch up on. We're in the Golden Arm r.v. park, one of the nicest we've been in, with the best site so far. It's owned by one of the regulars, but he won't be here until later this week, so we got lucky. Private, with two decks. We have to decide whether or not to stay a second day. Weather has been a determiner, as it poured last night, maybe the tail-end of the storm that hit the east coast. But today the sky is brightening, so it might be nice to just plunk down for a day with no driving.

For three day, we did the Burin Peninsula, a long neck of land that stretches south from Goobie. It's very much different from most of the island, as it is a chunk of land that underwent a major scouring from the last ice age, leaving the landscape bald and barren in most places. There's a boggy feeling about it, with numerous small pools carved into the landscape as you roll along the 150 kms needed to get to settlements further south. It reminded us somewhat of northern Scotland...barren, of no use for agriculture or livestock. There are about 25 settlements scattered in the peninsula, but only one is within the interior. All the rest are along the coast, for good reason. Fishing for decades, and now tourism and fishing. But don't get me wrong, the terrain is so open and varied in form and shape, it has a lot of visual appeal.

We pulled off the main road to visit the tiny community of Bay L'Argent, which serves as a ferry terminus to two small communities on the south shore that can only be reached by the ferry. A group of young guys were clustered, focussed on their ATV's and motocross cycles. Inside a little convenience store, we encountered a lovely clerk, who we learned has lived here only 2 years. "How do you like living here?" nosey writer wanted to know. "Pretty quiet," she said. "What do folks do here for entertainment?". "Not much to do", she said. " Do you like living here?" asked Nosey. "You gets used to it. Quite a change from Brampton, where I lived before." "What do people do for work?" She replied, "Nothin' much. There's nothing to do here." "Then how do they put food on the table?" There was a local standing behind me, so she said "I can't really say much about that right now", rather ominously, leaving me wondering what that implied. Still wondering.

Marystown is the largest town in the peninsula, with the usual array of shopping inconveniences...Walmart, Can Tire, etc. But we went on and spent the night at the Golden Sands RV park. Seemed incongruous, golden sands in the middle of this boggy peninsula. But sure enough, there along the shore of our large lake is a beach of golden sand. The place is no doubt packed for the two summer months, as there were loads of seasonals in evidence.

We visited four of the shoreline towns: Burin, which was shrouded in fog, but still a very pretty and interesting town; St. Lawrence, a fishing town that boasts being the soccer capital of Canada, with much tradition of the sport going back 100 years; Fortune, still actively fishing, and the only port in Canada that has a France-Canada customs office, as it serves as the take-off point for the ferry to St. Pierre and Miquelon; and finally Grand Bank, the settlement famous for its offshore fishing for so many centuries. Each town had its merits, spread along their stretches of the southern shoreline.

We did some good hikes, especially out of Grand Bank, a 5 k hike up to the hill that hosts their communication tower. Got a great view of the town and the sea, as the fog of the day before had lifted. Foghorns were pretty constant the previous evening and throughout the night, so we were lucky to have a clear view of the land below.

Some of the people. We went to the Maritime museum in Grand Bank, and met Eugene, one of the hosts. He has lived in the area most of his life, so had stories about his early days, in a village that was uprooted during the province's resettlement days. His father and mother and 8 of their 14 kids were uprooted, father given $1,500. to leave their village and find another place to live. It paid for a boat and some furniture, which was moved into a house that father had inherited from his father. The house was disassembled and moved to town, where it is owned by one of the daughters today.

In Burin, we met two lovely ladies, who have lived in the town most of their lives. There is a large building in town, which was once a thriving seafood processing plant. It closed in the 80s when the cod fishery was closed. But it reopened again in the 90s, to process, get this, fish burgers for McDonalds, among other things for the mass market. That lasted for about 10 years, and then closed, costing about 300 jobs. Transportation costs were the main reason, as trucking product off the island was too expensive and time-consuming. The plant was moved to Nova Scotia. "So how do people get by?" I asked. " They gets some work, but mostly wait for EI, or have to go on welfare, or maybe they just don't have anything comin' in," They just shook their heads sadly.

In the face of this, people still have decent housing, drive cars, and there are clearly a good number of jobs in each area. Certainly you don't see street people, or any sign of the kind of sad situations we see in the large cities. So somehow the people get by.

While in Fortune, we checked into going to St. Pierre. It's only a 75 minute ferry ride, and lots of Quebecers come to do the trip, to get a taste of France. We didn't have our passports, and didn't have time to go anyway, as the ferries don't do an over and back run until next week. But it would be fun to do sometime, just to get a taste of a different island culture.

Another coincidence to report. Yesterday, we pulled up in front of a Home Hardware just beside the entrance to this rv park. We were trying to decide what to do, given the rain. A fellow immediately appeared at our window, wondering if he could help out. We chatted a bit about our options, and mentioned that we had been here before, visiting a friend of ours from home who had rented a place in Whiteway three years ago. His name is Bill March. Our friend at the window said, "Oh yeah! He's a cousin of mine." Distant cousin, but cousin nevertheless. Later, we had dinner at Brown's Restaurant in Whiteway, which is owned by another cousin of Bill's, who we had a brief chat with after dinner, learning that she's in regular contact with Bill and Susan.

That's about enough of my rambling for now. We have booked 4 days in St. John's, so will be there for the celebrations on July 1st. Before then, we will cross the peninsula and may go up to the tip above St. John's. Time is marching on, so we have to grab what we can of this fine island.

More later. Stay tuned.