Day 55 - Twillingate, Newfoundland

Today is another travel day so off we go about 8 a.m. on Tuesday to Twillingate, Newfoundland this 24th day of July.  I hate to brag; however, it is another gorgeous day.  It actually got up into the 80’s, which is so rare for this area, but we’ll take it.  There wasn’t a lot to see until we got to Gander, which was about 40 or so miles from our destination.

 You might recall the story about this little town, when on September llth, 42 aircraft – 38 commercial and 4 military carrying just under 6700 passengers and crew members, land at Gander.  Suddenly and without warning, the town’s population of less than l0,000 almost doubles as it’s inundated with thousands of bewildered passengers from around the world – many with no idea where they are, what’s going on or, how long they’ll be stranded.   The people from Gander all volunteered their time, houses, food and anything else the passengers needed or wanted.  It wasn’t until days later that they found out why they were there.  Even the pilots were told to land their planes there and not to ask any questions.   

There aren’t any pictures that I was able to take as most of it was all in writing at the air museum.   They had a video of the passengers being interviewed as well as the people from New Foundland.  Bruce put on a headset with conversations to the pilots ordering them to land and “now”.  How they even got so many planes onto the runways at the airport was just as amazing, but they did it.

A disaster also happened here on December l2, l985 when an Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes less than a minute after taking off from a refueling stop in Gander.  All 256 on board perish.  Among those lost include 248 peacekeepers mostly from the U.S. Army’s l0lst Airborne Division en route from a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Above is a memorial to the victims at the crash site that overlooks Gander Lake.  The sculpture depicts a soldier holding the hands of two children, each with an olive branch, symbolizing the peacekeeping mission of the Airborne Division.  The trio looks southwest towards home in Kentucky where another sculpture looks back in the direction of Gander.  There is a list of all those that died.

Someone laid rocks in the form of a cross on the ground as well as flags.  There is also a huge cross overlooking the grounds.  The cross has an inscription “Rendezvous with destiny” that was carved out of the doors of the plane.

This crash remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Canadian history.  There was no agreement as to the reason for the crash.  As we walked around the museum, we saw and read about many other plane crashes in New Foundland.

Twillingate is another small fishing village.  After dinner, Bruce and I hiked up to the top of some rocks protruding out into the Bay.  The campground is next to a Bay. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales.  As a matter of fact, we haven’t seen that many moose either and they are suppose to be in abundance here – sure!!! 

          Picture of the Day!

Today, it’s not so much about the picture, but the story that the picture tells.  These are just a few of the many Thank You letters written by the Passenger’s to all the Wonderful and giving people of Gander after their stay following September llth.  Some of the people still keep in touch.  I’m sorry you can’t read any of the notes, but I’m sure you can just imagine what was written.

      The sun is setting  so will close for today.  Have a good night!!