Saturday July 30, 2016 Botwood, Newfoundland, Canada

I had the alarm set for 6:30, that’s AM.  Our wagon masters wanted us to leave the park by 8:30. Our group was scheduled for a tour of the Insectarium in Deer Lake, about 60 miles away.  We needed to be there so parking could be directed and make sure we all had room without unhooking cars.  We made our coffee and started to get ready to travel.

I got the power and water unhooked and the Jeep hooked up ready to travel.  It had rained quite heavily during the night and we had to operate the large slide in and out 3 times to get all the water off the awning so it would roll up correctly.  The route was a backtrack on Highway 430 toward Corner Brook.  The road was actually better going south.  Much of the repaving had been completed and there were no active construction zones on a Saturday morning.

At the Insectarium we were given a short talk about butterflies and the operation of the Insectarium.  The facility itself was a large dairy barn similar to those in Pennsylvania and other dairy areas.  It had been remodeled and a hot house added for the butterflies.  Of course it had a gift shop.  The butterflies were moderately active and there were many beautiful ones flying around.  The hothouse wasn’t good to picture taking.  The camera lens kept fogging up and most of the specimen were flitting around.  For some reason this wasn't a problem for Gerri's phone. Next we gathered in an auditorium for a talk about the lives of honey bees and their activities in the hive.  There was an active hive on display on the second floor.  It had a small tunnel to the outside for the workers to enter and exit for nectar gathering.  The 2^nd floor also had an extensive display of mounted butterfly and insects.  There was a partial 3rd floor dedicated to spiders.

This guy was about a foot long

Some could be held

Taken with the camera

A bee freeway

When our drive to Botwood resumed, we entered Trans-Canada Highway 1.  We were on that road for the next 130 miles and then exited toward Botwood and some other small coastal towns.  The Shawnadidhit RV Park is quite large.  We did have water hookup, and 30 amp electrical service but no sewer connections.  Our group was parked around the edges of a large clearing.  The sites are large with plenty of separation between sites.  Our site backs up on a quick flowing brook.  There is no Wi-Fi at this park and our Verizon, so far, is very slow.

After getting set up we drove into town.  Botwood isn’t very large but once was an important terminal for float planes and early transatlantic flights.  A Float Plane Festival starts this weekend but we only saw two during our drive around town.  One was a static display of a PBY water bomber and another privately owned small airplane with float landing gear.  Most of the activity schedule for the festival is in the late evening. The activities listed are a boat parade, fireworks and music, with an arts and craft show on Monday.

We stopped at a grocery store for a few needed items and then returned to the RV park.  We sat out at an impromptu gathering of many of our group, visited and had snacks.  Gerri prepared some salmon steaks we had bought in Rocky Harbour and served them with stir fried vegetables and the rice left over from out mussel dinner on Thursday.

We read for a while and called it an early night.  Tomorrow we are pretty much on our own.  The festival brochure listed ecumenical church service at 6 PM with local talent, whatever that means.