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Ian Rambles
As we headed east the Rockies rapidly flattened out
and became Praries. long straight roads on a grid through
farmland.
When we shopped I found "Twinkies" - one
of those iconic food names that I have heard used in
American books and films as if everbody knows what they
are - but have never tried. They were a bland and oversugared
and everyone liked them!
Fiona's Journal
Monday July 14th
Today we instructed Sean to plot the shortest route
to Drumheller which took us off highway and onto gravel
roads for quite a bit of the journey. We have left the
mountains to our West and are now crossing wide rolling
fertile plains. It is agricultural land and vast swathes
of it are bright yellow with rape in full flower and
other stretches are brilliant green. There is little
evidence of artificial irrigation being needed for the
most part.
Alberta is also an oil rich state so dotted across
all this cultivated land are hundreds off “nodding
donkeys” slowly and patiently pumping up the precious
fuel from the pockets in the rock below the fields.
It is not at all how I imagine the oil industry –
no massive industrial plant with gushing spouts of the
“black gold” shooting up out of the ground,
just this dispersed, small scale, low tech, agricultural-looking
process going on amidst the corn and the cattle feed.
We stopped off at Horse Shoe Canyon which is very beautiful
and, I image, a geologists dream as a teaching aid.
The canyon was carved out of the sedimentary rock by
a massive rush of water over quite a short period of
time (melting ice at the end of a mini ice age I think)
and this has revealed cleanly defined horizontal layers
of rock in an impressive variety of colours, clearly
displayed in the walls and in the conical pillars of
non-eroded rock scattered across its floor. I think
it is only the pillars that have large discs of rock
balanced on their peaks that are calleds Hoodoos.
There were many ground squirrels running around the
top of the canyon and some were quite bold so with a
little patience and the crumbs from the bottom of a
packet of Ritz crackers I got one to eat out of my hand.
We drove on to an RV camp a bit beyond Drumheller,
in pursuit of a site with affordable internet access
that also allowed dogs. It is the base of the Red Deer
River Canyon which has Hoodoos and layers just like
the Horse Shoe canyon and we are apparently in the midst
of the Canadian Badlands here.
While Ian battled with slow and intermittent WiFi connection,
George and I cycled alongside the Red Deer River the
7 km back to Rosedale to get a few extra provisions
for supper. Then we sat by the river and drank our sodas
before cycling back.
We had a barbecue supper and built a fire in the pit,
with Keith giving the boys lessons in the use of an
axe to split logs for firewood. Then we played volley
ball (very badly) and a young boy from another RV joined
in so George made a friend for the evening. As the sun
set gloriously and the colours in the canyon walls changed
with every minute we moved onto Flashing Frisbe at which
we were rather more successful until it was too dark
even for that.
Tuesday July 15th
We headed back into Drumheller this morning, with a
brief detour to stop and walk across a wire suspension
bridge over the Red Deer River which had been built
100 years ago to give access to a coal mine.
Once in Drumheller we had breakfast and then the boys
climbed up the inside of “The World's Largest Dinosaur”
and appeared between its jaws some 50 feet above me
but not visible enough to photograph.
Keith and Sarah have decided to part company with us
at this point and so they headed off back towards Kamloops,
partly in order to prepare for the arrival of Robbie's
friends from England who are due this weekend and partly
because Keith doesn't really have the stomach for all
the child-centred activities we have planned, I suspect!
They have left us their gas barbecue and folding chairs
and we have remembered to transfer the cans of oil for
the VW's leaking gearbox, which we had been carrying
for them. There will certainly turn out to be something
we have forgotten and so is now in the wrong vehicle.
We headed for the Tyrrell Museum of Paeleantology which
turned out to be fantastic with the best collection
of dinosaur bones and complete skeletons I have ever
seen (better than London's Natural History Museum –
sorry if that is heresy) and really excellent recreations
of the habitats these animals would have inhabited,
They had a comprehensive collection of fossils of all
types, including some brilliant microscopic ones and
the whole thing was really well presented so that I
came away feeling I had a better understanding of a
whole lot of things, not least the timescale of all
the momentous events in evolutionary history. I hope
the boys gained as much from it as I did, they certainly
enjoyed it anyway.
At George's request I took him and Harry swimming at
Drumheller's Aquaplex swimming pool which also turned
out to be great fun. The main pool was a decent size
and not overheated and had some fun floating toys to
play on. There was a good flume which George must have
been down at least twenty times. It also had a proper
12 foot diving pool (with spring board and rope swing)
from the bottom of which a rather good looking young
dad had to retrieve my glasses when I forgot to remove
them before diving in. He became an instant super hero
in the eyes of his two young daughters, looking on from
the poolside!
Still in search of reliable internet connection we
chose another RV site on the edge of Drumheller. The
most charming feature of this campsite is its resident
population of 20 or 30 domestic rabbits of every colour
imaginable who live free-range but are very tame. Only
without the dogs could we have stayed here. Oh and by
the way, that is the thing we forgot to transfer. We
still have all the dog food!
Wednesday July 16th
We stayed put and had a leisurely day today. Arthur
and I caught up a bit with our diaries and Ian caught
up with his e-mails and websites (all except our one,
of course). I got a load of laundry done and the boys
made excellent use of the outdoor swimming pool but
it was too windy for me to endure for long. Harry joined
in a game of Marco Polo with some other kids in the
pool, which seemed to be a sort of wet version of “blind
man's buff”.
Harry and George also made use of their bicycles to
explore the quite extensive campground – I am so
glad Ian thought to hire bikes with the RV. Arthur may
be a bit snotty about the quality and maintenance of
the bikes themselves but just having them there has
given the boys a bit of freedom and space from the proximity
of parents, and each other.
Arthur managed to set fire to Sarah and Keith's barbecue
and cremated a pound of good bacon in the process. Ian
burnt his index finger trying to rescue the situation
and has an impressive blister on it. George has given
names to all the rabbits that he has seen over the course
of our stay.
Arthur's Log:
Today
we went
the sean way
hay hay
and it was flat flat flat all the way.
George's Musings
I rode a dinasaur in Drumheller.
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