RVing to Newfoundland Ep. 12 - Exploring Dildo and Gander! Come From Away & Airport Intl Lounge!

Way up in Newfoundland, which turns out is in Canada, there's a special place, a little gem of a city that needs a leader. That place is Dildo, and that leader is me. Yes, Newfoundland has a lot of uniquely named towns, and on this episode we head to one with a very curious name, Dildo. Yes, Dildo gained a lot of fame and notoriety about five years ago when it was featured on many episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, with Jimmy actually eventually being elected the town's unofficial mayor, and he erected a Hollywood-esque hillside sign in the town. And we'll also head to the town of Gander, a town that is steeped in aviation history and a direct link to the horrific and tragic events of 9-11. We are Terry and Cindy O'Keefe. We've been camping together for more than 40 years, and we invite you to join us on a 14-episode adventure as we explore Newfoundland and Labrador. Take exit 28, then turn right onto Trinity Road South. We set out from St. John's on a warm and sunshine-filled day. We'd driven as far east as possible in North America and were westbound for the first time on this trip. It was a short 100-kilometer drive to Stillwater RV near Dildo. Oh, 13 right here. Right here? Yeah. Okay. 14 is the one on the end. Oh, there's not enough room for the slide? Okay, I will move it over a bit. Thank you. This campground predominantly serves seasonals, but the owner told us he always keeps a few sites available for travelers. That better? Alrighty. From the campground, it was just a five-minute drive into town. Isn't it beautiful? Flowers along the side of the road. Boated anchor. And, of course, there's the iconic Hollywood-cum-Dildo sign, courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel. In addition to the picturesque harbor, the Dildo Brewery is a great stop. Here, you can try a local beer or homemade chowder. Here's a scallop. It's not like they're trying to produce double scallops. So, it has cod, scallops, shrimp, and salmon in a mussel. It's excellent. So, Cindy insisted that she didn't want any lunch today, but then she saw the shrimp that came in my chowder. Here you go. Oh, yummy. So good. It's so big and thick. We've got the Dildo Red and the Dildo Light. Which do you like? I definitely like the Dildo Red. I prefer the Dildo Light. Yeah, but you're a wine drinker. Never let a wine drinker pick your beer. Okay, it actually feels like summer after all the weather we've had. It's been fine. It's been great. Actually, I don't like hot weather. But, it feels like summer today and what a beautiful spot, Dildo. So, where did Dildo get its name? Yeah, she always gives me the hard questions. Well, I'm going to pass you the camera so I can try to explain this one. So, what we learned, and I mean, Dildo is a very old town. It's been around for a couple of hundred years. But, on a wooden dory, these little pieces of doweling that is the oarlocks, this is a dildo, and that's where the town got its name. And, as we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of Newfoundland towns and outports with intriguing names like Hart's Delight, Hart's Content, and Friggis. And because we had an extra day in this area and the weather was so amazing, we set out on a short drive to explore. This unique cast iron lighthouse marks the entrance to Hart's Content Harbor, considered one of the best in Newfoundland and once home to a thriving fishing and shipbuilding industry. And more than 150 years ago, in 1866, it became the location of the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable, reducing the time to communicate across the Atlantic from weeks to minutes. Hart's Content leaped into the history books, remaining a global communications hub for over a century. And you can tour the cable station from mid-May to mid-October. Next, we stopped for a few minutes in New Perlikin, that has an interesting stained glass studio. And our final stop that day was Briggis. We hadn't heard much about this small town and were genuinely surprised by how picturesque it is. It's just so pretty out there. You don't think this reminds you of Trinity? Yeah, it was nice. It reminds me of Niagara-on-the-Lake-ish, too. Mm-hmm. There's also a unique gift and souvenir shop in town. The next day, we hooked up and headed for Gander. Gander It was a kind of travel day that we'd become used to in Newfoundland, with nearly every kind of weather possible. And just after we got camp set up, the weather changed again. Crazy. And one of the touristy things to do is to visit the airport. Yep. And we're not going anywhere. Why would we go to the airport? We're going to the International Lounge. We're going to step back in time. Acclaimed by the New York Times as perfectly preserved, the terminal is a time capsule from the heady days when air travel was exotic and airports were beacons of the future. The International Lounge was opened by the Queen in 1959 at a time Gander was one of the busiest and most important airports in the world, serving as a refueling point for most transatlantic flights. It features acclaimed modernist art, furniture and architecture, and a theatre and restaurant. Architects consider the lounge one of Canada's most important rooms. On the second floor, exhibits tell the stories of transatlantic aviation triumphs. A tobogganing Fidel Castro, whose flight had to lay over here due to a snowstorm, and other celebrity encounters. But Gander's importance faded when jumbo jets started crossing the Atlantic non-stop in the 1960s. Air traffic dwindled in Gander, and the airport's significance was nearly lost. But the tragic events of 9-11 thrust Gander back into the spotlight when North American airspace was closed and all transatlantic flights were ordered grounded, with 38 of them landing in Gander, with nearly 7,000 people aboard and 19 animals, basically doubling the small town's population in a matter of hours. Gander and its museum were presented with a number of pieces of the Twin Towers to acknowledge the remarkable assistance the people of the area gave to thousands of travellers from around the world. And there's more aviation history to explore at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. Here you'll find aircraft, learn more about Gander's importance in the development of transatlantic flight, and you can experience a takeoff from the inside of the DC-3 cockpit. The museum also hosts another piece of the World Trade Centre's South Tower and a recreation of the air traffic conversations with the pilots from that fateful day. There's also a wonderful display of letters and notes that were sent to the people of Gander by American school kids, by hundreds of plane people, and by emissaries of foreign governments with one heartfelt message. Thank you. It did not result in confusion, but instead brought hospitality never seen before. The citizens of Gander took the best care possible of our citizens. You can be proud of the city you are leaving. You can be proud of the people living there, who in these horrible days only reiterated the belief that solidarity and caring for others can make the people of this world happy. Hungary has a newfound friend in your city. In 2017, the musical production Come From Away hit Broadway, and it immortalized this incredible story of Gander and the plane people as they came to be known. And each summer, Come From Away hits the stage in Gander, performed by some of that original Broadway cast and some of Newfoundland's most talented performers. So it's our last night in Gander, and we're going to see that play. Now you've got to turn off your phone. I've got to turn off my phone? You're right. No recording allowed. So we have seen plays in London, Toronto, New York, but seeing Come From Away in Gander, Newfoundland, hands down the best. And what made it more memorable was the number of Newfoundlanders who were in the audience watching the play as well, many of whom who did offer assistance during that time. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry at certain parts because it was so wonderfully done. And it was fantastic. And there's one other aviation-related site to see in Gander, the Silent Witness Memorial. This tranquil park is dedicated to the memory of 246 members of the U.S. 101st Airborne Regiment and eight crew of their Arrow Air Charter who lost their lives on this exact spot on December 12, 1985. Their DC-8 crashed less than a mile from the runway after refueling and taking off from Gander. The soldiers were returning from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai. The memorial depicts an American soldier standing atop a massive rock holding the hands of a civilian boy and girl, each holding an olive branch, indicative of the peacekeeping mission. The trio look to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where a similar statue looks back. I was not expecting this. It was a very evocative, beautiful memorial. If you found this information helpful, please hit that like button. It does help Google and YouTube's algorithms know that you value this content. And also please hit the subscribe button, and that way you won't miss our next video when it comes out. And on that episode, we continue our journey west with stops in the beautiful town of Rose Blanche, a visit to Our Lady of Mercy Church, Newfoundland's largest wooden structure, we'll camp in one of Newfoundland's nicest private campgrounds, and we make an unexpectedly early start on our ferry crossing.