Dinosaurs, a sketchy flight, a visit to cow town

Blog

Ha, ha!  A new blog, and this time shortly on the heels of the last mammoth entry.  

I/we have decided that in order to keep up to date with these, and perhaps not bore you to death, I/we will refrain from keeping you up to date with our every movement/fart/or whimsical fancy.  This may pose quite the challenge but considering that my facebook profile was recently cloned and there is probably a smarter, more handsome, less ginger Ryan in facebook land, this is probably a good thing :)

We are currently somewhere over Western USA.  This morning we took a nice slow drive from Lethbridge to Great Falls, Montana to catch a flight for, the first of many, Western USA roadtrips.  In true Ryan fashion we arrived a bit too early and decided to have a beer and some food at the Sip and Dip in Montana.  The Sip and Dip is a famed bar which features a large pool/aquarium where mermaids frolic while patrons drink oversized beverages and ogle mermaids.  Unfortunately the website was not forthcoming with when, said mermaids, like to frolic and we had a tasty beer and meal while we watched an empty pool/aquarium.  Still pretty cool and the bar looks and feels like an antiquated tiki lounge.  In any event, Adele has promised me that when we arrive back in Great Falls, a week from now, we can stop by and catch a viewing.

At the moment we are planning our trip.  We plan to drive down to Portland and make our way back along the Oregon coast.  Our flight has been pretty entertaining too.  We were delayed initially by about 50 minutes before we took off.  For some reason our flight consisted of a 20 minute leg, followed by a final push to Seattle.  If you know me, I am a white knuckle flyer, and this has been probably one of the most terrifying flights of my life.  The plane not only experienced turbulence in the normal up-and-down and left-to-right directions, but I believe may have crossed into at least 3 other dimensions, and possibly in a new, unheard of direction.  As we landed and the sound of me farting was thankfully muffled by the engines, I have to ask, why do I fly?  

In any event upon arrival the Alaskan airways network decided to give up the ghost and we spent the next hour and a half getting updates like, “we're not really sure what's going on folks”, to ,”our flight is a bit overweight, our computer is doing some calculations to see if we can fly this thing”, to, eventually,”we're going to have to take people off to make our weight requirement”.

At this point Adele and I made ourselves very small and hoped that they would not single out the ginger, or that maybe singling out the ginger would be likened to class discrimination, and they would let us stay on the flight.

It was at this point that the air steward approached the mother and daugher (3 year old) in isle 20 and said (I shit you not), “Maam, your party has been selected to be removed from the flight because of a weight excess.  Fortunately only one of you needs to get off.”  Needless to say, both did leave the flight, was pretty crazy.

Shortly after this we took off, relieved at not being offloaded, and very excited to get to Seattle.

It has been a fun and eventful day so far.

There have been a few other things that have happened between now and the last blog.

Of particular note is that there has been huge flooding in Alberta, Lethbridge has been unaffected, but it has caused huge damage in Calgary, High River and surrounding areas and has affected some of our good friends.  (Goes to show how much we are at the mercy of nature (and airlines, see above)).  It has been pretty terrible for some families, and I'm sure that Alberta will suffer the effects for years to come, but it has also brought Albertans together.  Scenes of people helping each other and fundraising have been pretty fantastic.

We were actually in Calgary about a week before to visit with Duncs, Chan and Matthew after their SA trip.  Was a wonderful weekend with friends and always great to catch up.  Was also very cool to see where Trent and Tina live and get to know them a bit better.

I have recently learned that I passed a pretty big exam and we have been trying to be a bit more social with some of our Lethbridge crew.  We had a delicious barbecue/braai with Rob, Linds, Adam, Candace, Vicks and Bradd the other night.  Always fun to get together but the main reason I bring this up, is that we had the most epic flash rainstorm and subsequent hail storm.  Problem when your chicken is burning and the roast you have been cooking for the last hour stands to be ruined.  In any event, Bradd saved the day, and I barbecued in the hail storm using a cardboard box as cover.

While Calgary and High River were flooded last weekend we had a very chilled and relaxed weekend with the wonderful Carrie and Eric.  We enjoyed dinner and a few laughs on Saturday, and a fantastic hike in Waterton on the Sunday.  We took our bear repellant along with us but apparently it was not needed because Carrie is a natural bear repellant.  She has never seen a wild bear in Canada in all her years here (she has been here maybe 3 years more than us and is now, officially, a Canadian citizen).  Eric and I are like Japanese tourists (sorry for the cliché Japanese readers) and snapped up everything we could see.  He has a new camera system – a new SLR system with a smaller camera and lenses – much better for travel.  Was a good weekend.  

It seems that I am on the verge of sharing too much detail again so the last trip I'd like to quickly touch on before our plane touches down in Seattle - +- 20 min from now – is a trip to dinosaur provincial park.

Dinosaur provincial park is in Eastern Alberta east of Calgary and below Drumheller.  When Nic and Claire came to visit, they visited the park and Nic was in dinosaur heaven.

We went with Carrie, Eric, Mark, Michael, Shauna and Carrie.

The weather report had been dicey for the week preceding and we were not sure if the weekend was going to happen or if it would be a bust.  

There were all sorts of weather warnings and thunderstorms but we decided on the Friday to brave the weather and chance it.

Adele and I drove down with The Boys and the other happy campers met us there later.  It was an amazing drive and felt like we were being chased by the storm.  We had beautiful scenery and you could see the rain falling behind us and to the left and right.

We had planned to stop but decided that we would soldier on and try get our tents up before we got wet.

A good plan, because shortly after our tents were up we had a flash rainstorm and had to help another group of campers take down their failing tent.

We had a surprisingly fantastic meal at the concession (if you travel here, their burgers are cheap and not half bad) and then didn't have any more significant rain for the weekend.

The weekend was fantastic with good coffee, fire cooked meals and wonderful company.  We created an awesome little camp and spent a lot of time around the fire enjoying some great camping.  

This park is very cool for so many reasons.  Firstly you travel on the prairies and just when you wonder if the landscape will ever change there is a sudden and dramatic drop off with hoodoos and valleys and rivers and all sorts of natural beauty.  It is spectacular.

Secondly the campsite is pristine and the lots are large enough so that you feel that there is never anyone breathing down your neck.  

Thirdly you can, and we did, walk around through the natural beauty and find fossils lying randomly on the ground.  How crazy is that!  There is also a great little museum, some displays of dinosaur bones half unearthed and it is all pristine and perfect.

I really like the fact that every rain storm might uncover a new find and the information about the dinosaur rush in the 80s.

The fossil deposits here are richer per metre than any other place on earth.

The plane is descending now and I am going to cut this blog off.  Do yourselves a favor and go camping in dinosaur provincial park with some friends, but avoid Alaska airlines if you need to fly to get there.

Love you guys lots.  Thanks for the good times and chat soon

Rooibaard