Run Sheet
01/07/07
On the road.
We're here in a camp site at Willow Creek Alberta. We've been on the road since noon when I was able to finally crowbar Mary away from her grandma. I'd have liked to get a few miles behind us but didn't, what the hell, we're on holidays so it doesn't really matter. We're in a really nice campsite. There is a river, and the prairie stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction. I just cooked chicken breasts over an open wood fire with some tandoori seasoning and a salad (Sheer ambrosia). I have always assumed that the prairies would be flat, boring, and awful but I have to confess, there is one hell of a lot of beauty here. I'm enjoying myself thoroughly. It's hot as hell, but there's a constant breeze. the weather is really nice. I left my Jeep in Kimberley, we'll be stopping there on the way back to pick it up. I'm travelling with the family in the Pathfinder with the travel trailer. It's way more enjoyable to be with them than the trip all day yesterday by myself. the dogs are happy too. They're back with their pack and there are prairie dogs everywhere here (A rodent) so they're pretty interested in figuring out how to escape and eat a few of them.
01/07/08
Another long drive today but we're finally here. We're in Drumheller Alberta. Home of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology. We're camped in an "RV Park" which isn't camping by any stretch of the imagination as it's got flush toilets and showers, but it ain't a hotel either :) Tomorrow we visit the museum. I'm tired, sick of driving but still amazed at just how beautiful it is here. It's hotter than hell, (95 degrees F) but there is shade. I just made seasoned pork chops with new potatoes on the barbecue. I'm well fed and tired. It's hot, but there's breeze and shade. Life is good.
01/07/09
We went to the museum today. It was incredible. The area around Drumheller is the riches in the world for dinosaur bones and other fossils. It is literally possible to walk along the bases of the hills here and pick up chunks of petrified dinosaur bones off the ground. I know this because I was doing it today, pretty cool. Watched Red-Tail Hawks eating Prairie Dogs. Mary and I took the dogs and the boys on exploring adventures all over the place, saw many things, had much fun. Going back to the museum tomorrow for a guided hike into the bone beds of the badlands to look at stuff.
01/07/10
It was 100 degrees F in the Badlands today, walked four miles. Saw a dinosaur dig in progress, got shown what they had found so far. Pretty neat stuff. It's pretty cool to be on vacation.
01/07/11
Another hundred degree day here. Too hot to do much strenuous activity. We wentr for a drive to a place called "Horseshoe Canyon" which is a scenic overlook of the badlands. Some incredible scenery. There are a number of commercial Bison farms in this area so we went out and had a look at one of them. The people are really friendly here so far, haven't met up with any jerks. where I'm from there are a lot of people wh pretend to be "cowboys" but just manages to come of as redneck wannabees. The people in this area seem to take their cowboying seriously, there are some really incredible pickup trucks lemme tell ya, and some REALLY impressive belt buckles. We're talking silve and turquoise, and the size of dinner plates. I guess they sit "tall in the saddle" because if they slouched the belt buckles would dig in uncomfortably.
01/07/13
Back on the road again and going home. Passed through a town today called Nanton. It was one of the principal facilities for aircrew training in WWII. I'm a huge fan of WWII studies and aircraft in particular so I was interested in coming here and seeing if any of the facilities still existed, Wewll the locals have created a really top-notch museum here with a complete Avro Lancaster, A Britol Blenheim and several other WWII training aircraft. Along with the aircraft they have all three of the 1940 Ford Airfield Fire trucks. Pretty interesting stuff. We spent a couple of hours there. The boys were as fascinated as their dad and Mary was admirably patient with three boys running around and saying "COOL!" at a bunch of old airplanes.
Later in the Afternoon we got to a place called "Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump" I's a native interpretive site that is situated on a cliff where for 6000 years that can be proven the prairie natives used to annually drive herds of buffao over a cliff to kill them for winter food. It is an enourmously informative place. I'm really glad the boys got a chance to see it. Mary was pretty impressed as well. Drove to Fernie, camped there.
01/07/15
Got to Kimberley, picked up my
Jeep and we all drove home together. Made it to Manning park where we camped,
got on the road again first thing in the morning and came home. I'm sick
of driving, had a great time but enough is enough already.