Monday, July 25, 2011

Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure...Day 39...Saturday, July 23, 2011...On to Gros Morne National Park






"When life hands you moose,
Make a curry."
-William Thee, from "A Camping ife", circa 2011


Ah...the familiar sound that greets me almost every morning...plop, plop, plop. It has rained all through the night and, now, into the morning. Coffee-making is out of the question...I can barely manage to make it from the tent to the car without getting drenched. I listen to the news on satellite radio and have a cigar until Ed gets up. Then we take down the tent and pack everything up wet (yet again).
Once out of the park, we head to the nearest gas station for coffee...much needed this rainy morning. We've got about a 300 mile drive from Terra Nova to Gros Morne National Park way back over on the western part of Newfoundland. We stop around 9:30 in the town of Gander (of airport fame)...more coffee, breakfast at McDonald's (yech), groceries...and another visit to our favorite store, Canadian Tire. Ed and I have been going over our drive across the Labrador Highway, and it looks like two legs of that drive exceed the cruising capacity of the Escape...nothing like running out of gas in (truly) the middle of nowhere. So...we're buying a five gallon gas can at Canadian Tire...just for a little insurance.
It would not be a camping trip without a "wormhole" and, sure enough, on the road to Gros Morne, we hit one. That familiar sulphur odor, the tingling in the hands and fingers, the flash of light and...boom...we're sucked up in a wormhole and dropped out on the road...somewhere else far away. But where? The signs tell us that we're in Green Bay, Wisconsin...Wow! We just have enough time to grab a hamburger at the famous "Wertles" before we are swept up again and spat out on the highway in Newfoundland...very exciting!
It's a long drive, but we're at our campground at Trout Pond in late afternoon. The rain has stopped (for the time being), so we are able to set up camp under relatively dry conditions. Te drive into the Park was gorgeous...lots of mountains, bays and other large bodies of water (including the Atlantic Ocean nearby).
Our friend from Terra Nova, Gary, has given us more than arthritis medicine...he also threw in a box of Cuban cigars...and...two packages of moose (sausages and loin pieces).
So...tonight, we're trying to figure out what moose dish to make. Stew has been suggested by a number of fellow campers, but we'd need a lot of vegetables that w don't have to make that. Someone also mentioned moose curry, so we decide to go with that. I've got these great spice packages from a company called "Asian Home Gourmet"...they're "pastes" of different herbs, spices and oils...handy and very good.
We use Indian meat curry ("Rogan Josh") for the moose, and it is excellent! All the more so with a nice bottle of 2005 Bordeaux. After dinner, we're relaxing when a Ranger stops by...they're expecting more rain tonight...great!

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