I am typing this while we are on the flight from Toronto to Miami.  There is a bigger story here, but you must wait until the end.

To get here, we left Little Bay for an interesting sounding park in Sunnyside called the Sunnyside of Life B&B, RV and Tea.  It reminds me of the Monty Python song from Life of Brian.  It was also the one we mentioned to our friend Sid back in Cow Head and the owner is her friend from Toronto.   So, we had a bit of an “in” with this inn.  And we were not disappointed as Sarah and Danny, the owners, were absolutely great. 

The park is located across the street from the bay where their boat dock is.  And it consists of their house and the 3 rooms for the B&B.  Next to the house is the workshop and garage, the wood pile, the chicken coop, and her Craft and Gift store.  Then up the hill is an old large fishing boat that they bought and moved there to convert to additional B&B room.  A little further up are 6 RV pads with full hookups. And then you have the horse corral and small barn with 2 Newfoundland ponies.

They give each RVer a few freshly caught, frozen cod filets as a welcome gift.  And they know everything about the area.  They gave us ideas for a couple of driving trips while were there.   And because we were too late to see the whales, icebergs, and especially the puffins, we already made a reservation for next May for our return. 

Turns out Sunnyside has a bit of history too.  Initially it was called Truce Bay by  John Guy, the first proprietary governor of Newfoundland Colony, who named the area in honor of the good relations established with the native Beothuk tribe in the about 1612.  It is said that they met, had a meal and exchanged gifts on an island near what is now Sunnyside in Trinity Bay. 

The second major event in Sunnyside was the final connection of the first TransAtlantic telegraph cable from England to North America in 1858.  And a third more recent event was the construction and then final assembly of the Hibernia Oil Offshore Drilling Platform, the world’s largest.  The employees in Sunnyside built one module and 4 others were built elsewhere and moved to Sunnyside for final assembly before being deployed in the offshore oil field east of Newfoundland. 

On our first day there, Sarah told us there was a dump truck coming to add a gravel mix to the ponies’ corral.  It soon showed up and was bigger than we expected.  We didn’t realize how big it was until it tried to back up toward the corral over a small water drain.  It just would not fit and almost got stuck!  So, it backed toward the corral by our RV and started spraying the gravel over the water drainage from its conveyor belt!  It was called a “Stone Slinger” and that’s what it did.  Very interesting to watch and see how fast it emptied the truck!  Never knew there was such a job.

The rest of the day we drove the Osprey Trail, a short loop to Bellevue and Bellevue Beach.  We got out and walked the beach a bit.  Some believe that this bay is the location Leif Erikson first landed and named Vinland, mistaking the blueberries common in the area for wild grapes!   All of the site specifics that Erikson described exist at Bellevue Beach. It is a beautiful fjord-type setting with a big sandy landing beach – more beautiful than the barren rocky shore of the presently known Viking site which we will visit in the spring on our return.  We’ll let you know.

The next day we went to see Trinity, a Heritage site for its original buildings and part of the UNESCO Global Geopark that includes Trinity and 9 other sites on the norther part of the Bonavista Peninsula.  It was well preserved and one of the most picturesque we had seen.  We had our lunch sitting outside at the marina and then did some exploring and shopping.

Then up to Elliston and 3 more of the sites.  The Puffin sanctuary was there but no Puffins.  They leave for the winter and return in the spring.  So, they are also on our plan for next year.  But we met the builder of the famous Puffin chairs!   The other two sites were on the water where the waves had eroded the cliffs.  And finally, we stopped at the Bonavista lighthouse. 

And on our last day, we had to visit Come by Chance.  We gave this village the most unique name award!  The name was first recorded in 1702 perhaps in reference to the discovery of the harbor by chance in 1612.  It is the home to a large petroleum refinery that has a mixed history of success and ownerships since the 1970’s.  But I just like the name!

And we had to stop in Swift Current for our friends in Vancouver.  They are from Swift Current, but their town is in Saskatchewan and not Newfoundland.  We sent them photos and they replied that they didn’t realize there was another Swift Current here!

Then we drove out to Southport which is to the north along the Southwest Arm of Trinity Bay. Another picturesque village, lots of wood pile and some autumn color.

The next morning, we were off to our last stop, St. John’s.   It is the largest city and the capital with about 120,000 people in the city and 250,000 in the metro area.  It is like other big cities with stores, the airport and traffic!

We stayed at the Waterford River Valley RV Park in Mount Pearl.  The river flows into the harbor and runs along the old rail line that crossed the province.  Called the Newfoundland T’Railway, it covers almost 550 miles from St. John’s to the Port aux Basques.  We took the time to walk about 1.5 miles (3 round trip) of the whole trail. 

Our plan here was to prepare the RV for storage for the winter and make arrangements for the winterizing.  We chose this park because they have indoor storage and, even though the heated portion was already sold out, we could get into the unheated building.  We had to remove the food and pack our personal items to take back with us.  And we contracted a mobile RV tech to prep it for winter and work on some other issues.

We did take time to go visit 2 of the most famous sites in the area, the light house and the Signal Hill fort. 

St. John’s is the most eastern city in North America, and it juts out into the northern Atlantic Ocean.  The entrance to the harbor had used the light house as a guide since 1836 with the original tower and a newer one built in 1955.  During WWII, it was an important location to guard the harbor against the U-boats.  There was a fortress established there that was managed by the US Army until 1945 and there are still remnants on the point.  The large and crashing waves on the cliffs below are also part of the attraction.

And finally, we went to see the fortress at Signal Hill that is at the entrance to the harbor.  It is famous as the location where the British recaptured St. John’s from the French in 1762 and gave Britain the final control of the area.  It has been used as protection for the harbor since.  It looks down over the downtown and harbor waters. 

As we finished up the prep and made plans to come back, we packed up, did a quick tank dump and cleaning, and pulled the RV and Jeep into the storage.  Then we called an Uber and headed to the airport hotel for the last night. 

We were up early and at the airport in plenty of time.  But that’s when the fun started.  Our plane was late by about 30 minutes, and without the delay we only had1.5 hours layover in Toronto.

If you have ever been to Toronto, you know that you have to clear US Immigration in the airport before going to your gate.  The logic is that the Canadian flights can to anywhere in the US even if the arrival airport does not have immigration and customs.  However, if you only have a short layover, then it gets crazy. 

We didn’t have a carryon, just our back packs.  But we had to go through security again, then get in line for immigration.  Luckily, we didn’t need to claim our bags.  But as we begged our way up the line and tried to use the MPC precheck app, we, of course, got into a line where the one couple ahead of us had problems!  We finally got through, walked as fast as we could and reached the gate as they were closing the door!!  They let us in, restarted the closing process and we took off!  Closest we had ever been to missing the flight because of a delay. 

But we made it.  We landed in Miami and found that one of our bags didn’t!  Of course, you have to wait until the all the bags are out and then find the agent.  But we were back in Miami and very thankful! A hectic end to a great trip!

FYI, they delivered it the next day!  And FYI, I am obviously not still typing on the airplane.  In fact, it is three days later as we have been busy fixing things that have needed attention over the past 5 months.  The yard needed cleaning and both cars needed charging.  We had a big stop at the grocery store to restock the kitchen.  Lots of little things.

But the weather is warm!  And we are already starting to plan for next spring.  Stay tuned!

I will also post a final trip summary after this one. 

Thanks for following along.