Terry Fox, Mile 0, and the Market.

Sept 21, 2019

It is another mausey day here in St. John’s.  It rained throughout the night and now its windy, cold and rainy drizzle.  We went straight downtown this morning to enjoy a bakery that we had passed several times when we walked on Water St.  The Rocket is a bakery that has a local low budget décor but its reviews in conversations and internet posts tell about the amazing food.  We were going there for breakfast.  Debbie had a bacon and egg croissant and I had a quiche. Both did not disappoint.  Debbie had made an appointment for a hairdresser to do some trimming and this gave me the opportunity to post some blogs.  

When she returned, we decided to walk the length of Water Street and visit the Mile 0 location as well as the Terry Fox memorial. The war memorial and cenotaph is another impressive monument in the heart of the downtown area. We walked by the harbour monument. The city of St. John’s developed this square to commemorate the stages of development of the harbor and the buildings in the region. Included in this plaza is a tribute to the Labrador and the Newfoundlander dog. Another cruise ship had arrived and the streets were filling up with ”cruisers”, shopping and taking in the sights of St. John’s.

The Terry Fox memorial is at one end of Water St.  The City of St. John’s has developed a very well designed memorial of Terry.  This is the place that he dipped his foot into the ocean to begin his run across Canada. Debbie and I have now visited his memorial in Thunder Bay, where Terry had to stop running because his cancer had returned, and now this one where he started his marathon run.  Both these memorials are impressive, touching and inspiring.  His legacy lives on.

We walked back toward the center of town.  Along one side of Harbor Street, a huge mountain of sand/salt has formed.  This sand/salt mix will be used locally as well as other areas of Newfoundland to be spread on roads in the winter.  Cargo ships have off loaded this massive pile.  It will then be loaded later into holds of other ships to take to various other outlying harbors in Newfoundland.

We walked past the Arcadia cruise ship, all 950 feet of her. Passengers were coming and going, climbing onto waiting tour buses and walking in small groups downtown.  St. John’s has become a regular port of call for many of these vessels.  There were also two navy vessels that were visiting.  This is definitely a busy harbor. 

Our next stop was to visit the local Farmers market.  This market is held every Saturday in the old transit bus terminal.  It was a thriving place with many vegetable stands outside and inside were kiosks selling crafts, jams, clothing and jewelry and woodworking.  There were about eight different ethnic food vendors.  A large eating area is set up at one end and a musician entertains the diners.  Debbie bought a small plate of perogies and I had a bowl of borsht.  We enjoyed our time at the market and I bought a couple of small jars of local jam. We drove back to the trailer.  We wanted to make some plans and arrangements for our next leg of our journey into Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  We used up our root vegetables tonight as we cannot take them into another province, as well as cooked up our last fillet of cod.  Tomorrow we head down to Argentia to meet the ferry at 5:00 pm.