Transcanada - The Mini Adventure

Yesterday I found myself doing some errands in the box store business park out beyond the overpass. Out beyond the overpass is a local way of saying 'in the boonies', but as the city grows, more and more of the new suburbs are beyond the overpass. The overpass is the Trans Canada Highway which was extended only a few years ago to circle around the city, with exits for all the major arterials that lead to downtown so that the map looks like a bicycle wheel with spokes leading to the centre. Prior to that I think it just went to Kenmount Road and then used that road to get to the city proper.
It's an idea, founded in Canadian Geography, that the TCH stretches across the continent from St. John's, capital of the eastern most province, to Victoria, capital of the western most province. And yesterday, as I was just right there in the business park, so close to the actual easterly end of the TCH I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be fun to drive to Mile One?" So I got on the TCH heading east.
Mile One is the beginning of the TCH. Mile One is also the name of the Stadium downtown right next to City Hall, and I can be forgiven in thinking that Mile One of the TCH went to Mile One Centre on New Gower St.
After all, there are other cities which have important roads that lead to the centre of town. And I was expecting that somehow, I would get from the ring road to downtown St John's simply by following a route laid out in familiar white on green lettering. In Victoria there is a Mile Zero Monument at the end of Douglas Street and a Mile Zero Convention Centre and that is what I was expecting here too. (Yes, it is peculiar that Mile Zero and Mile One are 7800 miles apart.)
It started out fine. I entered a divided TCH from Aberdeen St. I passes the exit sign for Paradise. The TCH was no longer divided. I passed the exit sign for Logy Bay. Now I was down to just two lanes. I passed the somewhat smaller sign for Robinhood Bay Municipal Waste Site. And then that was it. No more TCH signs. The next sign was a 50 Maxium , and then I was on a street in Quidi Vidi with 60's era houses and neat front lawns. I came to a STOP sign at the Boulevard. I was thinking to myself, "If I were a tourist that had just driven from Victoria non-stop on the same road, I would be mighty confused."
And then I thought, "The TCH does not stretch from capital to capital. The TCH goes to a dump."
And then I thought, "If I lived on East White Hills Road, I could tell people coming for a visit to just get on the TCH going east and drive until you can't drive anymore."
It was a bit of a let down.