2015-07-16 Gander, NFLD

2015-07-16 Gander, NFLD

We had a nice drive from Twillingate to Gander. Weather was clear and the roads were good.

Our First stop was at the Silent Witness Memorial for the plane that crashed December 11th, 1985 with 248 of our American Soldiers of the 101st Airborne aboard . The plane had just gotten airborne when it descended into the rocks. All aboard perished.. It was caused by Libya (explosives were in a bag on board by order of Qaddafi). Jesse grew up with the father, Frank Kee, of one of the men on the plane Sp4 J.S.Kee.

        Aviation Museum

Just can't pass up a good aviation museum. This one was mostly as tribute to the history of aviation in Gander and also had a tribute to the 9/11 episode.

The 9/11 story was very moving.  When our nations planes in the air had to land ASAP, 32 of them landed at Gander because Gander has one of the longest runways in the world and it is a vital location for aircraft.  The passengers waited in their respective planes up to 20 hrs until they could deplane. At that time, the people of Gander had brought food to the airport and fed them and then opened their homes to them for several days, until the all clear.

12 Cylinder

12 cylinder

R1850

Our next bike.

Fantastic and delicious fish & Chips. The best yet.

Salmonid Viewing Station

We had the opportunity to visit the Salmonid Research and viewing Station for the Atlantic Salmon. Unlike the Pacific Salmon, the Atlantic can and do spawn two to four times in their lifetime. A record of eight has been recorded. The pacific salmon spawns only once and then dies.

The Atlantic has only one species of salmon, whereas the Pacific has five different types. Spawning and growing is pretty much the same: from hatching and consuming the milt they hatched in to alvin stage, to Parr and then to adult.  They swim to the ocean transferring from fresh water to salt water until they spawn again.  They return to the place where they were spawned to reproduce.