Ramblings with Randy & Heather

Failed to get a shot of our flight to Chicago - not that either is exciting Our travel day started off with 5:30am breakfast at our hotel followed by a short drive to the Calgary Airport where we checked into to our first flight from Calgary to Denver. The flight was on Westjet, a "partner" of United. We checked Heather’s bag since it had her hiking sticks, and was assured (hint, hint) that the bag was checked through on our Chicago leg. We were also able to pass through US immigration in Calgary, which was nice. The flight to Denver was uneventful and we arrived on time with about a 2-hour layover.  Boarding our Chicago leg was interrupted with an announcement that the air conditioning on the plane was not working, and everyone had to deplane (What a word. Do we Decar?  Deboat? Debicycle?) until the AC was fixed. About an hour later, we were ready to go, but between the AC and a long taxi, we took off about 2 hours late. The flight to Chicag...

Downtown Calgary We started off the day on hold with United again, this time for only 15 minutes or so, trying to get a new flight back to Chicago since the first one they booked us on flew out of Montana. When we agreed to drive there we didn’t know the rental car company would not allow us to drive across the border and not return the car to Canada. (We never stop learning.) The airline agents have all been very helpful, especially since what they have gone through the past few days can’t have been fun. Helping 1000’s of frustrated people get new flights due to Hurricane Erin, the Air Canada strike and bad weather in the Midwest. This time we got a direct flight back to Chicago. YEAH! On Friday. BOOO! After booking our hotel for another night and extending our rental car for another day, we headed over to the airport to see if a face to face conversation would help. It did not. However, while at the airport Randy noticed some new options pop up on the United app. A Wednesday flig...

Horseshoe Canyon Our final full day started with another wonderful breakfast made by our host Shawn.    German pancakes with saskatoon berries, which are common in Canada. They are a bit like a blueberry but more tart. Sorry we forgot to take photos. We then headed off for our last couple of Drumheller sites. First stop was an area filled with Hoodoos. The mushroom shaped structures are created when erosion carves away part of a hill but a large stone protects the soil directly beneath it.   The name is actually African and a variant of voodoo, since some people think the hoodoos were created by magic. Hoodoos We then made a short stop at the Star Mine Suspension Bridge and walked across it. The bridge was used in early 20th century to take miners and coal over the Red Deer River. The mines were shuttered in about 1957, and the bridge is now just a fun way for tourists to cross the river. Our last stop of the day before heading back to Calgary was Horseshoe Canyon. Not su...

Our morning started with a wonderful B&B breakfast made by our host Shawn. A potato based tortilla with sausage and pesto. Quite delicious. We were then off on our dino adventure. The land around Drumheller was once on the edge a large inland sea. Numerous dinosaurs lived and died here and thus the ground is fertile with dinosaur bones.   Our day started at the Royal Tyrrell Museum which is just outside of town. Joseph Tyrrell was an early geologist/miner who discovered a skeleton in the area in 1884 and reported it back to academics back east. Thus started the Alberta dinosaur fossil boom. The head is too heavy to mount and scientists still need to study it so it sitting below and a cast is mounted.   Scientist cleaning a fossil and very patiently answering everyone’s questions.  The museum is world class. Exhibits cover many of the types of dinosaurs found in Alberta. We were also able to go on a guided walk through the river valley where our guide showed us th...