We actually left St. John’s this morning, but not early enough to escape the high winds.  That first hundred miles out of St. John’s was no fun with strong wind, periodic really strong gusts, rain, fog, and everyone going over the speed limit.  We made it to Gander where it looks like many RV’s are sitting out the fairly hard rain. 

I keep going to the ferry website trying to get an earlier departure.  Almost had one snagged for Sunday but it didn’t have room for the RV, only a car.  Did move our departure up by 14 hours and to a much better ferry, the Atlantic Vision. 

St. John’s is very colorful, with even the newer modern buildings standing out.  There is construction everywhere.  St. John’s definitely doesn’t look like the rest of Newfoundland.  Other than the downtown,  the city looked very much like a western US city, with open spaces, 4 lane boulevards,  suburbs, and several big newish shopping centers.  We didn’t see all that we wanted to but I think we are touristed out for a while. (Maybe 3 days).

Cape Spear lighthouse – about 15 miles from St. John’s

The large red roofed building is The Rooms museum.

Throughout town, no two houses next to each other have the same color and there’s always a wide trim around windows painted in a light color

Signal Hill is strategically located high above St. John’s  overlooking the ocean and the mouth of the narrow channel that leads into the city harbor.  It’s long been used for defense, observation, and has been used for signaling since 1704. There is a lot of history to this hill which you can look up if interested.  For instance, the hill has been captured by the French four times.  Cabot Tower on Signal Hill was constructed in 1897. 
Half way up the very steep hill there is a parking lot but we went to the top and managed to park even though there is no RV parking.  The views are 360 degrees and we had a clear day to see all the way to Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America; as well as the city, the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor, and far out into the ocean.
                                     Cabot Tower


                The point in the upper right is Cape Spear
      The visitor center is in the house with the peaked roof.  View of the city was not good because of glare from the sun.
        Signal Hill is also a good vantage point for spotting whales 
   

Getting ferry reservations with a few days notice was easy coming to Newfoundland.  We found out yesterday that leaving is a different story.  Just for the heck of it I logged onto the Marine Atlantic site to check what the sailings looked like and discovered the earliest available opening was 12 days out, August 9th.  Steve  called Marine Atlantic this morning and after a long hold found out that some people call every single hour hoping there’s a cancellation.  Plus the ferry line doesn’t allow waiting in line for standby, at least not during the busy season.  The agent was very nice and suggested we continuously check online for a cancellation opening, jump on it, then call to cancel our August 9th reservation.