Alberta in a Nutshell: II

After Calgary, we were headed to Drumheller, where we planned to check out the new exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. The museum and a visit with our friends in Calgary was the whole point of the route we'd chosen, which jagged us back up north a little out of our way before we went south again.

Yeah. The museum never happened. We hit vicious headwinds and some nasty road construction and we just didn't make it in time. We still got to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the Badlands, though.

We ended up spending the night in the teeny little village of Delia. Delia is at the base of an ancient mountain range that was never covered by the glaciers, so the old mountain peak, Mother Mountain, sticks up over the prairie. You can see the peak as soon as you come back out of the base of Drumheller.

Delia turned out to be something of an adventure because the water services at the little campground were broken. A local man who saw us pulling our bikes in came over to explain the situation and, not wanting us to go without a place to stay, he GAVE us the keys to the town's old one-room schoolhouse, which now serves as a place for dance classes, and invited us to stay there. It had a washroom and running water and lots of room for us to set up our beds on the floor.

This was a pretty cool arrangement all in all. Until the lights went out. There's a reason people don't typically spend the night in creepy old buildings and that's because they're creepy. Creepy as in, "Uh, Honey? Was that you? No? That's...interesting." There were...noises. Thumping, creaking noises. The sound of the chairs lined up along the wall creaking. And then a thump over at the table. And then a thump right next to my head, a thump I actually FELT. At that point, I made Kieran go turn the washroom light on and the thumping died down shortly after that.

After Delia, we were off to Oyen, where we met my parents who had driven the five hours from Millet to visit with us. We all stayed in a B&B in an old Eaton's catalogue house and spent a day exploring the area, including a visit to a restored grain elevator. In the end, leaving Alberta was a little hard because it meant all our visits with friends and family were over for a number of weeks. We were a little down as we said our goodbyes and headed towards the Saskatchewan border.

Yes, yes, yes!

A head-in-the-hole picture from Calgary!

For My Great Aunt Margaret

How cool is it that my great-aunt not only reads my blog, she checks out our Flickr account? Hi Auntie! I took these pictures just for you.

The General Store in Irricana.

Big Sky on the outskirts of Irricana.

My great-grandparents were some of the original settlers in Irricana. In fact, Kieran and I stopped by the park, where my great-grandpa had helped to plant the trees. It was a pretty cool moment.

I really just...

I just don't KNOW what this means.

A cryptic message about recycling?

Alberta in a Nutshell

Our first stop after BC was in Pincher Creek, which happens to be one of my favourite spots. The view changes every time you look up. This was the night the freaky weather hit BC, causing everyone to worry about us. In fact, had we been a day behind schedule, we would have been hit with those storms. Instead, we got to watch the clouds and lightning engulf the mountains from our vantage point in the east. The wind was so strong in Pincher Creek that night we actually saw the windows of the restaurant warping and bending inwards and then springing back.

Our next stop was in Nanton, a tiny town just south of Calgary. Nanton turned out to be another pleasant surprise, with lovely little cafes, tea houses, and antique shops.

We wandered up to the local tavern, which doesn't appear to have been redecorated in the last 100 years. The walls were decorated with antique guns and animal skins, including a buffalo hide, and all manner of ancient farming equipment, including an old leather yolk for oxen. I wanted to take more pictures, but felt a little sheepish in front of the locals ("Oh, hi! Your little tavern is just so QUAINT! Can you BELIEVE how QUAINT everything is? Pose there by the deer head, will you? Now act QUAINT!")

I did sneak in a picture of one of the pieces of lobby furniture, which was made from old whiskey(?) barrels and upholstered with patched buffalo hide. There was also a matching chair and footstool to this piece, but I did, indeed, catch a glare from the locals when I snapped this shot.

And then we were off to Calgary! The ride into Calgary was something of an unmitigated disaster with a flat tire (mine) and a fainting spell (Kieran's)* and our stress was compounded by the fact that we had friends waiting for us. But we finally got there and we enjoyed a couple of nights of sleeping in a real bed and eating great food and getting tipsy and giggling until the wee hours of the morning. Thanks to my Karla Bean and Jonny P. for their amazing hospitality and, as always, for their friendship!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a single picture in Calgary. I guess I've been there so many times, it just didn't occur to me. You would think I would at least think to get a picture of the four of us together at some point. But no.

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*Yes. Kieran fainted. On the C-Train. FAINTED ON THE C-TRAIN. I didn't realize because he was still standing. With his eyes open. So I got OFF the C-Train. And then had to force the doors back open to figure out what was wrong with Kieran that he was just looking at me blankly and not getting off with me. And then I had to pull the emergency stop button and get the driver to stop the train and the only person who would help me was a teenage boy while all the adults just stared and one person even got all snotty and mean to me. But anyway, the fainting. It was reeeaaaaaalllly stuffy on the train and Kieran was hungry. Kieran came to and me and the kid ushered him off and he ate a banana and had some water and then he was fine and we got back on the next train.

So.

We've been busy. (Check out those stats!)

We also took a long ramble through a whole lot of nowhere. Well, not nowhere. Charming little somewheres. But little. Little somewheres. And now I've got some catching up to do.