#25 Plum Point, NL: A Newfoundland Bucket List

Bucket List Item 1: See a Dog

What are the odds of one province giving its name to two breeds of dogs?  100%.  Newfoundland and Labrador.  What are the odds of spotting your favorite breed in its natural habitat?  Approaching 0% as we get nearer the ferry that will take us off the Rock and over to Labrador.  There have been a number of famous Newfies in history.  Nana in Peter Pan.  A Newfoundland saved Napoleon from drowning.  Seaman the Newfie accompanied Lewis and Clarke on their Corps of Discovery.  And in Newfoundland itself stories abound of daring sea rescues by their eponymous dog.

In our short time on the island I've been analyzing every dog I've seen as to its pedigree.  Not a single Newfie. So where are they?

Bucket List Item 2: Eat Traditional Food

Ever since we were in Newfoundland eight years ago we've been hankerin' for fish and brewis.  We asked a local and he said that Facebook made traditional food pretty hard to find.  Fish and brewis is basically hardtack (thick, rock-hard crackers) soaked in water with cod added.  The resulting mush is delicious but monochromatic.  Apparently it doesn't have the 'wow' factor that would get it a Facebook post.

Bucket List Item 3: Blow Some Money

I've had some money burning a hole in my pocket.  I wanted to buy something and it didn't really matter what.  The would-be recipient was more important.  Before Newfoundland became the last province to join Canada in 1949, they had their own currency.  The coins had exactly the same size and denomination as their Canadian equivalents so I'm guessing Newfoundland coinage just got absorbed into mainstream usage.  A few of them made it out as far as Manitoba and became part of my coin collection.  I pocketed a couple of them before our journey and looked for some backwater salesman that would be worthy of such a payment.  But so far no one had turned up.

Two hours before the ferry we swung off the road into Plum Point.  I needed to pick up some firewood and spotted a pile by the street.  We greeted the two couples chatting on the porch - Bern & Jim and Ev & Jim.  It wasn't their firewood, but that didn't prevent a deep dive into our respective biographies.  But before all the details were established we had been invited in for some toutons.  I figured out that toutons are something like bannock or roll kuckhen but with the Newfoundland twist of molasses on top.  

I told Bern that I was paying her 75 cents for the grub, but before the predictable protest I pulled out the Newfoundland coins.  Bern: "These are treasures!  I'm not spending these!"  With the transaction complete we still had enough time for pictures and hugs.


I kind of forgot about my bucket list, but let's see ... traditional food: check.  Blow money: check.  See a dog?  I HAD actually seen a labrador retriever the day before.  Seeing as labs were originally bred from newfies, I'm counting it.  Check.  New friends in Plum Point? The best thing of all.






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