As Colonel Hannibal Smith would say on the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together” We planned our stop in Clarenville with the specific hope that we would be able to surprise someone who would not even remotely expect to see us there. And that is just what happened today. The “old timers” at Saint David’s will know that Keith Denman was the interim minister after Michael Wimmer. We sat there and watched as Keith moved from pew to pew greeting people prior to the service. When he got to us, there was that normal momentary delay when you see someone totally out of the normal environment and context. After the service we were so fortunate that Keith and Bev had time to join us for a meal. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.
Afterwards, the 2 of us sat in the truck checking weather, maps, and guide books as we tried to figure out what direction to go. After great deliberation and consultation, Saint John’s was chosen, so down the road we headed.
One of the goals in the Saint John’s area was to see Signal Hill. It is such and important point in Newfoundland history, Canadian history, world history and technology history. The amazing cell phones, internet, HAM radio, wifi and dozens of other current technologies can trace their roots to this single event on December 12th, 1901.
Anyhow, we pulled into Saint John’s and decided to take a drive through downtown. Past the water front, through the newer sections, through the central core and on to the older parts. The streets were narrow and became narrower. One could readily see the former stately nature of many of the buildings. The streets continued to narrow. And the hills, I mean serious hills. Randomly making left and right turns as we explored what was probably some of the original streets. Up a steep incline with a 160 turn at the top. Past homes that only had a part of a meter space from the road.
Up another steep incline, another 160 turn where we met a local who said “Don’t try to turn around, just keep climbing, eventually you will come out”. So we climbed. The road finally widened slightly and started to slope slightly downward. Finally an intersection. Left down, right continues up, then it happened.
We noticed the name of the road that we had approached. “Signal Hill Road”. Leaning way forward and looking back up to my right, I could just make out that we were at the base of Signal Hill. So up we went. The winds of 50-60 kilometers per hour did not deter us. Once donning several more layers of clothing, off we went to explore this historic icon. There is far more history to Signal Hill, battles, changing hands, more battles, WW 2 gun placement and the list goes on. For more about Marconi and Signal Hill (click here).
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