This island is exactly one hour and thirty minutes ahead of the American East coast. Nowhere else in the world is on the same time as Newfoundland which seems fitting for such a unique place. 

“We go many amazing places, but how often do you find a place that you know will just stick with you.” These words resonated with me when Amy said them on our way back to the ferry. I personally am struggling to not turn around. It does feel like it has left some sort of permanent change in us. With just the things we missed here, I could plan an entire summer trip in Newfoundland. I want to stay. The island still has an old trust in their fellow neighbors and people seem genuinely kind and interesting. I have many friends who visit the Caribbean and talk about living the island life, I never found island life appealing until now. I think I could live here, from July to August every year.

Maple got a cheap plastic phone that came full of cheap generic candy balls. The phone has the outline of a fake weather app, Maple ran to me and told me she checked the weather and it’s 85 and sunny all day tomorrow! Honestly her prediction has as much a chance of being correct as the one on my phone. The days are so long up here this time of year, they seem made for me. The gas stations remind me of my youth, you just pump first and pay later. Americans are often shocked how trusting Newfoundlanders are and the level of their selflessness. As a family we have been listening to an audio book about 9/11 and how that day affected the town of Gander. In short, when the United States shut down their airspace there were hundreds of airplanes stranded over the oceans on their way to New York or other American cities. Over 6500 of these passengers were rerouted to the small town of Gander, Newfoundland. With seemingly no way to house , feed, or care for the stranded passengers in this unprecedented situation, the entire town showed exactly why Newfoundlanders have the reputation they do. Every business and citizen turned out to help welcome their surprise guests. For six days, the town showed the best of what humanity had to offer, in the wake of seeing the worst of what humanity had to offer. The town became a haven to those stranded during a very scary time. On our drive, we pulled off to see the town of Gander and perhaps experience a little of the community that those passengers did in September 2001. You feel good spending money at businesses you know dropped everything to help strangers. Maybe I’m hoping some of their selflessness will rub off on me. I’m jealous of the neighborly trust they have here. I’m no expert, but from an outsiders perspective, on the surface it seems like it might be because they aren’t constantly fucking by each other over. I’m gonna miss this island.

To get there, we first continue around the Bonavista peninsula on our geology centric road trip. Our guide Amy has two wonderful spots planned for the day. First up, The Dungeon. I imagine whoever named it realized that if an unfortunate person were to somehow fall in here, it would be near impossible to climb out. The dungeon is an old sea cave that had two entrances, the very waves that formed the cave continued eroding a bit too far until eventually the ceiling collapsed. All that has to happen and then you have to come at the perfect time in history to see these beautiful rocks. The erosion will continue and soon these will be evidence of the structures once there, replaced by sea stacks similar to those we have seen throughout our trip.

A bit further down the road Amy directed us to a small gravel pull off right along the coast. We followed Amy down to some ancient ripples which were formed along the sea floor long ago in an ocean that no longer exists. These ripples have been covered by volcanic explosions over time and then later again uncovered by erosion of those top layers.

I had intended to stay at the free lighthouse for another night but after our sedimentary and metamorphic filled morning, we had plenty of time to shorten our future drives by pushing ahead today. Really, we are excited to get back to Terra Nova which I mistakenly just had us passing through in the original plans. Once we saw the beautiful park on the drive East, we knew it was for us. Excited to hike or swim, we scurried along quickly. The campground had an awesome playground in the center filled with kids and our three disappeared into the mix instantly. Amy and I took turns dozing off for a mid afternoon nap until we eventually admitted defeat and stopped claiming we would get up and go soon. Eventually we did muster our energy to walk to the ranger talk about edible foods in the park. Fitz finally got to try to wild berries which are still a few weeks from appearing often. I’m thinking maybe I need to return for a few weeks each year.