Gander

 Aug 18 - 23

We headed to Gander and about 20 minutes out I heard a pop and a hiss. Fearing another spark plug issue we drove to the Gander Ford and spent the night parked there. Ford dealerships are so busy when they are closed! Seems like everyone in town comes to drive through to look at the cars/trucks. Monday morning we were up bright and early to enter as soon as they opened. The tech took it for a drive and scanned the computer and his determination was that it was the exhaust manifold and that we could continue to drive it, but it will pollute more and get worse gas mileage. None of that made us happy but we will press on. The service desk woman was a traveler also and did not charge us for the diagnosis. I laughingly told Matthew Ford should pay us to be a secret shopper. 

Love this view as we drove to Gander

Since hurricane Ernesto is bringing rain to this region I spent the next few days in the Gander Public library catching up on the blog while Matthew went to the North America Aviation Museum.

The photo below reads that the first refueling vehicle was a 45 gallon drum lashed to a sled and pulled by a Newfoundland dog named Pal.

Matthew and the Gander mascot Commander Gander

A partial steel beam from the Twin Towers that was donated in recognition of the part that Gander played following the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile I sat at the library and became familiar with a man from Pakistan who originally lived in the US but immigrated to Newfoundland and likes it so much better, and this man who was knitting this lovely mitten using a pattern he got from a Newfoundland knitting book called Salt Water Knit.

Monday night we went to the lovely Cobb’s Pond Rotary Park to make dinner, chatted with a lovely couple who were originally from Labrador and told us all the places to go, and then returned to the library to spend the night in their parking lot.

On Tuesday Matthew, driving around to be sure that the van was doing ok, stopped at the Commonwealth War Graves site. He hung out in the van much of the day while I continued on at the library. Found a place to get pizza and just as we were arriving a tour bus pulled up and unloaded. Fortunately they had ordered ahead and their food was already prepared. Walmart for the night.

The rain stopped so today we went to Gander Airport which also serves as a museum for the events of 9/11 and as a time capsule of  the 60’s style. 

The hours for the theater in the airport - such specificity

This was the height of high class modern airport design

There was a large exhibit devoted to 9/11 when 38 planes were diverted to Gander when the North American airspace was closed. If there was another terrorism act, Gander and its sparse population were deemed more expendable than that of more populated areas. The Gander control tower, in less than four hours, orchestrated the safe landing of of more than 33,000 passengers at airports on Canada’s East Coast, including the 38 planes with almost 7000 passengers onto its own tarmac. 

Normally working with 3 air traffic controllers, 14 came in that day and ended up having t use post its to keep track of everything 

Nearly 7000 passengers and crew had to be tended to in a town that had a population of less than 10,000. The next day the passengers were permitted to disembark and the town of Gander responded by providing everything they needed - food, clothing, diapers, hygiene products, animal care, phones to call home, etc - some even opening their homes when schools and other facilities filled up. The people of Gander and the surrounding communities met the needs of the passengers for 5 days.

This is a piece of the World Trade Center that was sent to Gander to thank them for their help during 9/11

In its heyday the Gander Airport was the refueling spot for planes coming and going to Europe, and thus the place that the rich and famous. Queen ELizabeth II opened the airport and it tickles me that her signature, and that of her husband’s, is just their first names - as if there is no other Elizabeth or Phillip

Planes from Russia and the Eastern Bloc also refueled here and to entice passengers to return to their plane and not defect they were offered a free can of Pepsi upon reboarding.

During a stop by Castro he borrowed a sled and panicked his security detail by sledding down the hill

Defections did happen though, one being that of the “Naplam Girl” of the famous Life Magazine photo

Got a kick out the matching chairs and jacket

My own dweeb photo - the text reads “Even royalty needs to freshen up after a long flight. Queen Elizabeth II sat here to powder her nose before opening Gander’s new jet age terminal in 1959.

And the men’s room had Frank Sinatra’s fedora and the words “Let’s fly, let’s fly away - but before you board fix your fedora and freshen up like Frank! Ol’ Blue Eyes was a regular at Gander International whenever he made his way across the Atlantic.”

The bar Frank would have enjoyed his favorite cocktail at.

Then it was on to the City Hall where Brian, the PR person there, came out to tell us the back story about this piece of the Twin Towers. This was originally gifted to the Bethpage NY Fire Department who lost 80% of their crew when the towers collapsed, where it hung on the wall of the station until they decided to gift it to Gander in 2011 in appreciation for all they did to help during that difficult time. First displayed inside, the decision was made to make it more accessible to everyone by placing it on a plain (so as not to detract from the piece itself) granite from a local quarry. There was a lot of red tape to move it 50 feet because the US is very protective about what happens to remnants of the towers. 

Then we went on to the Silent Witness Memorial which memorialized the crash of a DC 8 that was carrying the Airborne 101 squadron of soldiers home from a peacekeeping mission in Egypt onece 11, 1985. All 256 people on board died.

After a day reliving so much tragedy we went back to the Walmart parking lot and had Little Caesars for dinner. Friday was our last full day in Gander and we looked for a laundromat, but despite a population of almost 12,000, Gander has no laundromat. Drove an hour back t Terra NOva NP to take care of that chore. Then to Rotary Park to make lunch and the walked the 4km trail around the pond

Before watching Come From Away, a play about Gander’s 9/11 response.

The woman in the blue top was Beulah, the teacher, in the play. The woman in red is Heather, box office person and usher who befriended Matthew and was lovely. 

Settled in the theater parking lot for the night.