Reprinted from Downhome, February 2021
by Joe Seward, Wolfville, N.S.
By ferry, car and train, an adventurous drive from Nova Scotia to eastern Newfoundland
On July 30, 1958, I took my car to Milnes garage in New Minas, NS, where I purchased two extra spare tires and tubes, had an oil change and grease. The car was ready. At 11:45 p.m., I said goodbye to my fiancée, Marie Lockhart (now my wife), and left Kentville on the first leg of my journey.
Arriving in North Sydney at 10 the following morning, I went to the CN ferry terminal to buy one-way tickets to Port Aux Basques. Told there was no space available for my car (the ferry only took seven vehicles, all on deck), I arranged to ship my car by a freighter leaving later in the evening and I took the next passenger ferry. In Port Aux Basques, I found a rooming house for the night and was at dockside at 6:30 the next morning when the freighter arrived. The tide was low, and my car on the freighter’s deck was still some meters below the jetty’s topside. A stevedore had to go down on the ship and drive my car up on a ramp, where a cable was attached to one end to hoist it level with the dock, and he drove the car uponto the pier.
Jpeg
I left Port Aux Basques and followed the very narrow dirt road that ran parallel to the railway. I drove through Maidstone, Jeffery’s, Mckay’s and Heatherton, past Stephenville and on to Curling and Corner Brook, arriving there at 1:30 pm. I stopped for lunch and gas, then left for Deer Lake, where I contemplated staying overnight. On arrival, I was not feeling tired, so I topped-up the gas tank, bought two hamburgers and a soft drink to take with me. I was ready for the long drive across the interior of Newfoundland.
Departing Deer Lake at 4 p.m., driving was slow on a very narrow, and not well-gravelled, or well-travelled road – it was not much more than a wide footpath. Darkness came and driving became more difficult. Alders hung over the road, forcing me to dodge and weave the car around outstretched branches. At one point a moose crossed the road in front of me. I didn’t relax even a little until daylight, when I was certain I had survived the night without going in a ditch, and more importantly, without having a flat tire.
Just outside Grand Falls, a lady and a young boy jumped out on the road in front of the car, forcing me to brake to a quick stop. She needed a ride to Grand Falls. My back seat was packed with my clothes and the trunk held the three spare tires, so we all squeezed into the front seat. After dropping them off to a house, I pulled into a service station around 8 a.m. There I filled the tank with gas, ate breakfast and departed for Gander. The drive from Port Aux Basques to Grand Falls had taken over 25 hours – and the worst was yet to come.
Just outside Grand Falls, I came to the Exploits River. With no bridge crossing, I had to drive my car onto a raft and be towed across the river. A bulldozer pulled the car up over the bank on the other side and I continued on. A short time later, I was stopped by a mudhole about a hundred meters long. A bulldozer pulled me through, only to be stopped again a short time later by another mudhole, and another bulldozer waited to pull me through. The mud was halfway up my car door.
I arrived in Gander at 2:00 in the afteroon. During a stop there for gas and a meal, I saw scratches down both sides of my car from the roadside alrs the night before.
By 5:30 I was in Gambo. There was no road from Gambo to Clarenville. I had to put my car on a train ferry which left on its eastbound run at 1:30 p.m. daily. So I found a rooming house and had a well-deserved rest. The next day at noon, I loaded my car on the ferry, and after the train left, I went back to the dining car and enjoyed a good meal. Arriving in Clarenville at 4:30 p.m., my seven-year-old brother, Clarence, was there to meet me.
It would be seven years later before I again drove across the island. It was February 1965, and the Trans-Canada Highway was close to completion. The last pavement was laid in November 1965, in time for the 1966 Come Home Year.
_______________________________
Transcribed by Wanda Garrett, September 2021
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material