I’m finishing up a month-long solo RV tour of Newfoundland.  This is truly a beguiling place with vast amounts of seascapes, cliffs, and wilderness as well as tiny fishing villages and busier hubs like St. John. The vast Great Northern Peninsula is as desolate in areas as the Yukon Territory with nary a Tim Horton (Canada’s answer to Dunkin); while St. John’s is a major shipping port with countless restaurants and museums. I began my trip at Port aux Basques where I could travel for hours without seeing any facilities and I am finishing up my trip outside of St. John’s which has 40% of the province’s population complete with parking garages and pedestrian thoroughfares. There is a lot of contrast here and I’ve loved every moment.

Here are the 25 peculiarities of Newfoundland:

1. Pronouncing it. I have been corrected on the pronunciation of Newfoundland by several Newfies. From the best I can figure it is pronounced: New-FUN-lAnd. I tend to say NEW-fin-lund. 
2. No Newfoundland dogs.  Outside of statue of a Newfoundland and Labrador dog in downtown St. John’s, I have yet to see a Newfoundland dog here.  I had a client ask if there were herds of them here. There are not.
3. Only Dairy.  Especially in the remote northern end of Newfoundland, I could not find any non-dairy milk or yogurt.  It’s all dairy, dairy here.
4. Moose. I went to a nature park called Salmonair and traveled over 1,000 miles in Newfoundland. I have yet to see a live moose although they claim that there is one moose for every 4 people or 125,000 moose. That’s an amazing number considering they were introduced here in 1904.
5. Icebergs. I saw eight icebergs on my trip here and if you come in June and are willing to travel to St. Lunaire or Twillingate, I can pretty much guarantee you will see an iceberg and it’s an awe-inspiring sight.
6. RDF. A Newfie clued me in that this is the general term for weather which stands for Rain, Drizzle and Fog (St. John is known as Fog town). There is no telling when it will rain and when it will be sunny and, in general, the forecast is wrong. This can make planning difficult and you just have to be adaptable. 
7. National Parks. There are two National Parks (Gros Morne and Terra Nova) on Newfoundland and they are beautiful and super inexpensive compared to the US. It’s only $11.00 to enter these parks for the day.
8. Provincial Parks. I saw several Provincial Parks and all of them have been free. The most stunning was the Dungeon Provincial Park which is a collapsed sea cave.  It was a gravel road out to it, but when there is a clear, blue sky and pounding waves below in “the dungeon”, it’s a spectacular sight. 
9. Potholes. When I drove the Alaska Canada highway last year there were always signs to indicate that potholes were coming and they were accurate. While the Trans-Canada Highway here is terrific, there are several secondary roads that were riddled with potholes and/or frost heaves (undulating roadway from temperature changes). Sometime I had to drive 20 miles an hour to make sure Abeona held together.
10. Brogue. Many of the locals sound like they are from Ireland or Scotland. A server or customer service person would approach me and I must have had a deer in the headlights look because I have no earthly idea what they just said. Expressions like “Whaddayat” or “How ya gettin’on” at times made me think I was across the pond. 
11. Chatty. I was mentioning to a Newfie I met in St. Pierre that people were so nice in Newfoundland and she said, “Well, they are really just chatty.” She is right. People would talk to me about just anything but most likely the weather (see #6).  I had an older man come up to me while I was gassing up Abeona and said, “Whaddayat” and “Come from away” (are you visiting).  He thought I had a really nice rig and asked “Do you have a man in there?” The folks here are chatty.
12. Time zones. I think it’s bizarre but Newfoundland and Labrador are a half hour ahead of the Atlantic Time zone (Nova Scotia, etc.). So, they have their very own time zone.
13. Gas. A lot of the gas stations only have regular gas and you pump and then pay inside. Similar to my trip through the Yukon, I gassed up at almost each gas station I found open (some are closed on Sunday).
14. Potable water. I was prepared for this before I came but several campgrounds had boil warnings on the water. I had to be sure I filled up at the campgrounds with safe drinking water.
15. Cover shopping carts return. I found it strange that grocery stores had covered places for the carts to be returned. Gas stations were not normally covered (like they are in the US). 
16. Cod. Cod is the center of the universe here and when there was a moratorium on cod fishing starting in 1992 it devastated the region.  As they say here, fish is cod and cod is God. The fishing just restarted in 2024 but only partially. It’s why the area was settled 400 years ago.
17. Jigg’s Dinner.  This is a classic Sunday dinner in Newfoundland and is only served on Sunday.  It’s a boiled dinner that included salted beef, turkey, potatoes, turnips, mashed peas, carrots and greens. The whole thing is covered in gravy (similar to Poutine which is fries covered in gravy). I was finally able to be at an open restaurant on Sunday that was serving it and it was delicious.
18. Lupin. Besides thousands of dandelions that almost look like they are cultivated along the highways and byways, swaths of lupin in blue, pink and white are along hiking trails and highways.
19. Balsam Fir. Most of the landscape on the Great Northern Peninsula is barren and grassy but along the Avalon and Bonavista peninsula’s there are miles of balsam fir conifer forests and the smell is breathtaking. 
20. Moose burgers. Besides fish and chips (see #16), another staple at roadside restaurants on the Great Northern Peninsula  is moose burgers. It’s more prevalent than regular hamburgers. 
21. Painted Rocks. I found painted rocks on random hiking trails where school children from a particular class room painted rocks to line the trail at its apex. There are large boulders painted as well. It’s like finding Easter eggs while driving or hiking.
22. Partridge Berries.  These are small red berries that are tart like a cranberry and many restaurants made tarts from them.
23. Gift shops.  There are tiny gift shops next to lighthouses and on the road next to restaurants. These shops are filled with handknit gloves, homemade partridge berry jam (see #22) and painted rocks. They are all locally made and quite homespun. 
24. Wood piles. I saw this the most on the Great Northern Peninsula but there would be random piles of wood along the Viking Trail on my way to St. Lunaire. Apparently, locals have a place to keep their wood for the winter.  It seems random but it’s not.  The same goes for piles of lobster traps.
25. Names. I find it funny that there is an island called Random Island and two lakes right next to each other, one called 3 Corner Pond next to Triangle Pond. I wondered how they knew the difference since isn’t a three-corner pond a triangle? There is also the town of Dildo which Jimmy Kimmel featured on his show. There is the inappropriately named Western Brook Pond which is a fresh water fjord that is 10 miles long and 250 feet. Not really a pond. 

I love that Newfies and Newfoundland are so quirky and friendly. Regardless of whether I was walking down a trail, doing laundry or paying for gas, these people are so welcoming to those that come from away.  I can’t wait to return.