ElsieD

Those of us Canadians who are a bit older will remember Joey Smallwood. Gambo is where he was born. For those of you who don't know anything or much about him, he was the premier of Newfoundland when it joined Canada in 1949. It is said that he was loved and hated in equal measure.

Yes, toutons are really, really good. They are served hot out of the frying pan and I practically swoon when my plate arrives. They are typically served with molasses but most places will ask if you would rather have syrup or jam. I wish we could get them in Ontario.

@chromedome that hitchhiking story is really something. That's one way to meet long lost relatives! I went to Medicine Hat once on a business trip (yes, really! And Lethbridge Alta. on the same trip. The only memorable thing about medicine Hat that I remember was a suit I bought there. I also remember being at the airport in Calgary waiting for my flight for Lethbridge when I spotted by SIL who had just come from there. She worked for Molson at the time and was headed back to Toronto. I remembered that you had spent time on that peninsula but had forgotten it was on the other side. The couple we spoke with at breakfast were quite enthused with the place. Makes me wish we had gone there.

Lunch at Cashin's was a Turkey dinner for John and toutons and baked beans for me. Strangely, my plate came with a couple of pieces of cheese and yogurt. I guess the cheese isn't so odd but I thought the yogurt was a strange item. The toutons look a little burnt but they didn't taste burnt so I was happy. The food is always good there. We then drove the TCH to St. John's and have checked into our accommodations. We have a one bedroom apt. with a full kitchen should I feel inclined to cook. That's not likely going to happen. The meals will get more interesting starting tomorrow night. We have a bunch of reservations at different places but left lunch open for tomorrow as we were not sure as to what we would be doing. Our apt. Is smack dab downtown and we can walk to all our eating spots except for Friday lunch. I'm not sure what we are doing for dinner as we are both still full from lunch but no doubt we'll get something although I doubt it will be a full meal. Edited to add: that's how he likes his fries.

@blue_dolphin Yesterday we went toTwillingate via Lewisport. Today we took the other route to Gander and then to Gambo which is where we are now. After lunch we get back on the TCH and head for St. John's. A couple of pictures, one is the lookout just outside Gambo and the other is an information poster listing various species of birds and plants native to the area for those of you interested in such things.

It 's noon here and I finally have an internet connection. We had a great time at the show last night. Now, here is a coincidence for you. In this hall there are four long tables, each seating 24 people. We were the last two seats at the end of one side of the table and the rest of the table was full except for the seat ar the end and one across from us. 2 ladies sat down and someone asked where they were from. One said Montreal, the other Ottawa. We got talking to them at the break and to make a long story short, it turns out the Ottawa person lives in our building, having moved in a month ago. Small world. Breakfast this morning was at the Cozy Tea Room in Twillingate. I had toutons with partridgeberry jam and tea while John had the breakfast sandwich which consisted of a fried egg, bologna and cheese and coffee. We were very happy with both. The pair at the table next to us were from Huntsville which is also in Ontario. They told us about some interesting things they saw in the Baie Verte Penninsula, the one peninsula we haven't seen.. I think that is where @chromedome lived for a time. We are on our way to Gambo for lunch, heading down the Trans Canada highway.

It's a very special place for sure.

The jam-jams were homemade. They sure didn't make up for toutons though.

I saw this too. It's great!

And finally, a picture of Twillingate as you come into it. I had a better picture but my thumb managed to cover up a good part of it. The town's original name was Toulinquet. We have no plans for dinner tonight. We did not finish lunch until 2:30 so aren't very hungry. There are a couple of restaurants on site so we may get a bite after the show which ends at 9:00. We'll see.

We are now in Twillingate at our hotel. Somehow the one-bedroom apt. I thought I had booked had morphed into a regular room. We managed to straighten that out and are now ensconced in the unit I thought we were in. After checking in, we went to Auk Winery. I was sure we had been there before but it didn't look like anything I remembered. @suzilightning Do you recall when you were there last year that it resembled a souvenir shop more than a winery? On the way back to our hotel, I took this picture. Someone built what looks like a miniature village and it is on his front lawn. Tonight we are going to a concert to see The Split Peas. We saw them last year and really enjoyed the show so decided to go again. When I called for tickets to be put aside I found out that I was talking to, as she put it, "one of the accordian players". She informed me that at half-time they would be serving tea, but the toutons I was so looking forward to had been replaced with jam-jams. Seems they can't find anyone to make the toutons anymore.😟 I don't know anything about jam-jams but I don't expect I'll enjoy them nearly as much. Maybe @chromedome can tell us something about them.

At lunch, we had to wait before we could get seated. When we did, we shared a table with 3 other people. They ordered some deep fried calamari and I know a few of you will be horrified to learn they dunked the rings in ketchup!!! When we left Gander this morning, it was hot outside so I had hoped that we could have lunch on the pier. But it started to rain just as we go there so no lunch on the pier for us. The restaurant has an underwater camera located next to the pier and it displays what's happening in the water on a TV in the restaurant. John took this picture.

Lunch today was every bit as good as we hoped it would be. We both had the seafood chowder, shared an appetizer portion of scallops then we each had a sandwich. We ordered a crab salad one and a lobster salad which we shared. We both had blueberry cheesecake and coffee for dessert. The chowder is very rich and chock full of fish, lobster, crab and mussels. No spuds were sacrificed in it's making.

The seafood is vacuum packed and frozen. Something you don't see much and I admit, hard to see in the picture but in front of the scallops there were smoked capelin. To the right of that is frozen lobster, the frozen meat of 1 lobster per package. Also for sale were various fresh items, such as lobster, halibut, mussels etc.

We are just outside of Lewisport on the way to Hillgrade where we will have lunch. We stopped at this place where they sell all kinds of seafood. Pictures are a bit dark, but that is one big lobster! Also beautiful scallops, carb, mussels, etc. We stopped here once before on another trip and they put out free buckets of mussels. I bought some summer savoury to bring back with me. The last picture is the view from the back of this place.

We hope to have some lobster for lunch but I'm not sure if it is in season right now.

We have just had breakfast and are getting ready to check out and head to Twillingate. We plan on stopping for lunch at Doyle, Sansome and Sons, where the food is terrific. They have an outside seating area and it is a beautiful day here today so we hope to take advantage of that. We stayed at the Comfort Inn last night and breakfast was better than I would have expected.for a middle of the road place. I had oatmeal, yogurt and tea while John had scrambled eggs, sausages, juice and coffee. Also on offer were hard boiled eggs, assorted muffins, baked items, fresh fruit and waffles which you cooked up yourself. There is a tourist information place across the street where we will pick up a map. I forgot to pack ours and our rental does not have GPS.

Hard to compare, though, unless you have seen them both.😀

Thank you. It appears that there is about a 50% premium on the tea here.

Maybe. I've never seen a moose turd. You?

Tonight we ate at a place called Rosie's. We both had fish and chips, although John had more fish than I did, plus he had dressing and gravy for his fries. The food was disappointing. The fish was cod, but it was the thinner piece of the loin and was a bit dry. The fries were not crispy but at least they weren't greasy. The cole slaw was good as was the ketchup for the fries (not pictured). Tomorrow promises to be a much more interesting day food-wise. @suzilightning We dropped in at the Newfoundland Tea Company to check out their teas. I found it expensive but then I don't often buy flavoured teas. These were about $18.00 per 100 grams. Is that a reasonable price? They had some interesting flavors one of which is blueberry. Hmm, may have to go back and get some.

Yes, that is Rosie's. We ate there tonight, write- up below.

Spotted in a bakery just now

@Darienne I respectfully disagree about the accent. This is my sixth visit here and everyone I have spoken to sounds like him. There are slight regional variations but in the main, they sound like him. We just got to our hotel and this is what we had on the plane. The first leg gave us orange juice and cookies, the second water and pretzels. The cookies were good.

Good morning! We are packed up and are leaving home at 8 for the airport. Our flight is at 10:25 and we will be landing in Gander at 15 :43 after a short stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is a time difference of 1.5 hours. I'm looking forward to our trip. @Darienne Swarvin', another word for swervin' means to meander. Another one of those odd words. @kayb You can be sure that if I come across a parrot, I'll post a picture.