11 July - Monday - Calgary (Drumheller)

G'day All,

A bit of a damp day but it was road trip day to Drumheller. Dropped into a local coffee shop (Euphoria) for breakfast and a coffee and set out for the 2 hr drive to Drumheller.

Samantha's breakfast - waffles with a "small" coffee.

Road Trip - Oliver looks asleep and Sat Nav Sam is on duty

Canola fields all abloom

More canola

Driving through the farmlands presented a sea of canola contrasting with the sky and fields of green, then over the last hill the scenery changed dramatically as we entered the badlands.

And then we entered the Badlands

Drumheller  is a town (formerly a city) within the Red Deer River valley in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located 110 km north-east of Calgary. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often referred to as Dinosaur Valley, has an approximate width of 2 kilometres and an approximate length of 28 km.

Welcome to Drumheller

The town is littered with dinosaur structures, nearly one on every street corner, they are everywhere,  I gave up counting after 50 . . .

Today we went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology a museum that hosts Canada's largest collection of dinosaur fossils. It boasts 375,000 visitors a year, the largest of all provincial museum attractions. This is a well laid out museum that takes you on a journey through each world era with what seems like an endless collection of fossils and reconstructed skeletons from the tiniest creature to the T-Rex. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got lost in there for 3 hours which only seemed like an hour.

Royal Tyrrell Museum

A great day out but the day wasn't over yet, a quick dash into Drumheller town as the storm hit to visit the huge T-rex with a lookout from its mouth.

Who's a big boy then?

View from the top with the storm in full swing

From the car on the trip home

It was now time to head home and head for Big T's, a BBQ ribs venue, for dinner and they didn't disappoint with a great feed at low prices.

Pulled Pork, Half a Chook, Ribs, Brisket, Beans, Salad and Corn Bread, what more could a man ask for?

Chilli Cheese Fries would top that meal off!

We headed home with full bellies after that meal (lucky we share plated) and played a couple more new board games before hitting the sack for the night. A day in the city of Calgary tomorrow.

Cheers
Gary and Penny