Wayward Newlyweds – Day 10: Bentley/Drumheller

The Badlands

We started the day by heading to Toller’s Bistro in Lacombe, a specific suggestion and favourite of Manda’s. It was an excellent suggestion! Dodd had a cappuccino and I had a London Fog, most excellent beverages done very well. The special thing about this bistro is that they do in house doughnuts as well. So we may have acquired a box of six… We shared one for breakfast and then got on the road to Drumheller.

The drive was good, except for some serious wind! Dodd was having a time dealing with gusts. We did ok, and it was not too rainy specially when we got going south. My memory of Drumheller was spoty at best. What I do remember is driving along a rolling plain, and then suddenly the ground fell away to reveal huge layered canyons. I think when I was there last we approached from a completely different direction because I did not get quite the same impression this time. Instead the ground began to sink away and rise up in places and we actually got to drive through the canyon rather than have it open up below us. It was pretty cool!

We arrived at the Royal Tyrell Museum around 1:30/2:00pm. We nearly got

blown out of the car, but we made it up to the view point to see the wondrous landscape. After some pictures, we went into the museum and got started. The first bit is a display of Albertasaurus which I have decided are one of the derpy-est looking theropods ever. As much as they do resemble their intimidating counterpart the Tyrannosaurus in terms of big teeth, huge legs, and general ferocity, they have the worst overbites ever!

Dodd actually gave me a bit of info about these guys: Originally, paleontologists thought that the juveniles and the adults of the species were completely different creatures. The changes that happen from youth to adulthood in these creatures are so immense that scientist actually thought they were completely different animals! We had a truly great time at the museum. It has really been updated since I was last there. There is lots of great information and a really cool walk through time that really demonstrates the diversity of early life and what lived when. I also appreciated that they no longer had a life size, life like mammoth on display anymore…that was scary!

 

We finished around 4:30pm then poked around in the gift shop and got a few keepsakes. Then we had a quick snack at the cafeteria and got back in the car to head back to Bentley. We also had one more doughnut each…Once again the drive was pretty good. There was still a fair amount of wind, and then the rain started. We did fine, but Manda called after she was done work just to make sure we hadn’t died from the torrential downpour they had been experiencing. We reassured her and made it back to her place all in one piece with no problem.

We made breakfast for dinner with bacon, eggs, and toast. The we had the last three doughnuts for dessert. I did some blogging, then…we chatted…and chatted…and chatted. Suddenly it was 2am and time for bed!

 

We sadly had to give goodbye hugs then because Manda still had to work the next morning, and it was unlikely Dodd and I would be able to get up that early. We hit the sack and were asleep by about 2:45am…yikes.

Cheers

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