Heading Home

Showers, a typical free “continental” breakfast, pack up the car, drive to airport and turn in the car—which turned out to be a bit of a hassle.  Will think twice about using Budget again.  Easy into the airport with two carts full of luggage.  When we checked in on the computer it printed out our boarding passes, receipts and luggage tags and then we took all that over to an attendant and put the suitcase on the scale and onto the conveyor belt ourselves.  Easy through security and the gate was right there.  Wait went fast.  

John walked down the concourse and discovered a “living wall” and send me down there.  It’s a whole 2 story wall made of  plants.  The wall itself was made from recycled materials (milk containers etc), the plants locally sourced and it had a trickle irrigation system that watered it once a day.  There was wonderful signage about the planning and the plants used.  It is supposed to put a huge amount of oxygen into the air in the terminal.  Great idea!  These Canadians have their environmental heads on straight!

 

We’re off and away to Toronto!       

Lots more agriculture across all of Canada & US.

Had a quick layover in Toronto and home and in bed by shortly after midnight.  What a marvelous experience!

Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, Drumheller – Edmonton

Off to the Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.  It wasn’t open when we got there so we did a little wandering around outside.  

The Museum is named in honor of Joseph Tyrrell, a geologist who discovered the first dinosaur in the Red Deer River Valley in 1884. The Museum opened September 25, 1985 and was given "Royal" status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998.  Forty seven thousand square feet of exhibits in a series of  chronological galleries celebrate the 3.9 billion year history of life on Earth. Not being a dinosaur expert, I just found it intriging to wander and look and read the signs.  I certainly was more of an expert when I left!  Here are a few examples of what we saw...

The Death Pose again.

 

 

Each level had an entrance like this.

 

 They have a large active lab where they were cleaning fossils.

Also a lot of interactive stations.

Even the elevators had dinosaurs!

It was a wonderful Museum!  Outstanding displays and great information.  John has another 100+ pictures if anyone is interested in more.  I know two grandsons who would have loved it!!!  After a couple of hours of wandering we had to hit the road for Edmonton. 

We’ve gone from badlands to flat prairie to rolling hills.  There were some farmers/ranchers in McDonald's this morning and John asked them how to get to Edmonton so we’re on their rural route from Drumheller—9 to 56 to 53 to 21.  Very pretty drive.  

 

All along 56 have been small ponds with a lot of ducks.  We haven’t stopped to check them out but lots of geese, coots and mallards but don’t know what else.  The aspen are golden around here.  Wheat first, then range land and now back to wheat on 53. 

 

and my last train novelty--repairs on the tracks :-)

Will miss those endless trains!!

Nice drive and we’ve reached our destination – Western Budget Motel right by the airport.  We dragged in all the luggage and did the final check so none of them were over 47#.  We did manage to do that!  

Came home from dinner and had a short fire in the fireplace and then headed to bed.  Tomorrow it’s up, shower, breakfast here, turn in the car and check in for our flight and then hopefully smooth travels.  It’s been a WONDEROUS trip!!

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Drumheller

A cloudy sunrise today!

There's a bunny next door!

We had breakfast, took down the wet tent and headed northwest to Drumheller.  We had hoped to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum today, but it's closed on Mondays so we have decided to repack for the plane today and hit the Museum first thing tomorrow.

 

The back areas we're in today are in a wetlands area so lots of small lakes all along the way.  Lots of ducks in the ponds.  It was a lot of flat prairie but as we got closer to Drumheller we were back in badlands scenery...not as dramatic as yesterdays but still interesting.  You knew you were getting close to Drumheller as the countless dinosaur models began appearing.  About 65 million years before Sam Drumheller began promoting the 1910 townsite later named for him, the surrounding Red Deer Valley was the home of immense dinosaurs.  Plant-eating hadrosaurs, flesh-eating tyrannosaurs and their formidable cousins stomped through the swampy lowlands and forests bordering the Mowery Sea.  Fossils are discovered here also, thought not in the numbers found in the Park.  There was also a lot of coal mining beginning in 1911 but it has all but disappeared though you can still see some of the old mines.  But the lifesize T-Rex built over the top of the Chamber of Commerce pretty much defines the city with the exception of the world renowed Royal Tyrrell Museum.  But that's for tomorrow.  We checked out the few motels that are in town and decided on one and began unpacking everything from the car....everything! 

We had the heat punched up and ponchos over the spreads so we could dry out the tents and we tried to put things in areas of the room so everything alike would go in together.  So much stuff!

John talked to the staff here and asked if they would be interested in the cooler, water container and extra food we could not take on the plane and they said yes - thank goodness!!  It was a win-win situation.  We had worked the food down pretty well but had eaten out more than we expected during the last week so had some refrigerated food as well as some canned goods left.  Also the propane for the stove had to stay behind.  We spent all afternoon and a little of the evening getting it all packed into the 4 duffles and we did it - 47 pounds each!  The one with the sleeping bags and pads will explode if they open it for inspection...good luck getting it back in there guys!:-)  John took a break in the afternoon and headed to the carwash to clean the car inside and out...very dusty from all those dirt roads.  There was a pizza place next door to the restaurant that was calling to us so we headed over there for dinner and then hit the hay early so we can get up early, pack the car and hit the Museum for the 9:30 opening.  Busy day.  Can't believe this journey is almost over!

Dinosaur Provincial Park Exploration Tour

We got up early this morning to take advantage of the early morning sun.  Headed out along one of the public trails through the park.

 

 Beautiful beginning to this Sunday!

We started on the Cottonwood Trail.  There are 7 miles of the Red Deer River that are protected by the Park and along this river grow many cottonwood trees.  There are some that have been here for several hundred years and have gotten huge!The tree above is thought to be over 200 years old.  It was likely a sapling when the first white man arrived in Alberta.  The Plains Indians respected the spirit of ancient looking trees like this and used them as burial places placing their dead on platforms in these trees.

The thick bark of the cottonwood helps it retain water.

 There was a fire that went through here and the shrubby regrowth

attract mule deer.  We saw 8 this morning.

Then down to the Red Deer River

 Back to the frosty and wet tent for a quick breakfast.

 

Then to the Badlands section.  These are hoodoos.  They begin to form where sandstone with a hard ironstone lay begin to erode.  The soft material on the top of the ironstone erodes and leaves a ledge.  Erosion enlarges soft joints between the blocks of ironstone, creating separate pillars.  Each pillar is left as a hoodoo with an ironstone cap protecting the soft sandstone underneath.  Erosion undermines the cap until it fall off.  With the cap removed the hoodoo pillar quickly erodes to ground level.

  Erosion area.

 Another fossil site.

an overlook to the Red Deer River and cottonwoods & aspens.

another mule deer. 

Time for a quick lunch and then off for our Interpretive Tour.  We met at the Visitor's Center and all got on a 24 seater bus and headed for the Research area of the Park.  Brian was our guide.  The majority of the Park is restricted to Research personnel with only a small section for open hiking and wandering by the public.  These tours go into the research area so you can explore a little.

 Hoodoo

 

 

Dinosaur territory down there.

 major hoodoo

 This brass marker indicates a dinosaur skeleton was found here.

 A BONE!

A fossil of a plant.

This was a cast that had been made over a bone so it could be moved.

Death pose of dinosaur.

 Dinosaur jar and teeth.

 As found.

 Heading back...one lone aspen among the grasses.

 Oops - unexpected stop as a rattlesnake crosses the road.

It was an awesome tour and Brian was terrific!  Great personality and you could tell he loved his work!  We had several smaller kids and he was great with them too!  Highly recommend this trip!  When we got back he answered a few more questions and then we headed back to the campground.  It was a beautiful afternoon so did a little more wandering around here and came upon this...

 The John Ware Cabin.  

I found his story fascinating so am including an article from Wikipedia at the end of this entry.

Headed back and had dinner and then we had

this wonderful sunset.  Perfect end to a super day!!

John Ware (1845 – 12 September 1905) was an African-American and later Black Canadian cowboy, best remembered for his ability to ride and train horses and for bringing the first cattle to southern Alberts in 1882, helping to create that province's important ranching industry.  Ware was born into slavery in South Carolina. After the Civil War he left the Carolinas for Texas where he learned the skills of a rancher and became a cowboy. Ware's great stature and dedication to hard work made him a natural and allowed him to work his way up to Canada driving cattle from Texas to Montana and then into the great plains that would eventually become Alberta. Upon his arrival in Calgary he found work at the Bar U   and Quorn ranches before starting his own ranch near the Red Deer river. 
By 1900, he and his wife, Mildred, had five children. He moved from the  Calgary area to a spot northeast of the village of  Dutchess, Alberta. In 1902 his first home was destroyed by the spring flood. He rebuilt on higher ground overlooking a stream, now called Ware Creek. Three years later Mildred died of pneumonia  in the spring; despite being a master horseman John was killed in the fall when his horse tripped in a badger hole crushing its rider and breaking his neck. Ware's funeral was reported to be one of the largest held in the early days of Calgary.  The story of John Ware is that of a remarkable figure in history who helped to lay the foundations of the ranching industry in western Canada and at the same time defying stereotypes. Born a slave, Ware worked his way to being one of the most well-respected figures in frontier Alberta, crossing race lines thanks to his good nature and hard work.