05-22-22 Coal Mines and Canyons
This morning we finally got our poop in a group and headed south to the Atlas Coal Mine Museum. It was really impressively done, the tours don’t open until next weekend but we paid and were able to wander the grounds, reading signs, ducking in and out of buildings. Each one felt very caught in time and I think everyone enjoyed it. At one point Sawyer and I turned to each other at the same time and said, ‘That looks like a face”! I would go back there and take the tours, ride the narrow gauge railway, go underground, etc. I did buy some wash house soap and a dinosaur egg bath bomb as well as a nice small print to frame.
We headed back into town and stopped at our dream grocery store Freson Bros. What a lovely place with so many incredible options. It was easy to find food to take to Horse Thief Canyon for a picnic. We also met a dog named Moose celebrating his 4th birthday.
The drive up to Horse Thief was nice and the view down into the canyon was spectacular. We all settled to eat and then people started heading in different directions down and up and back again. Suddenly there was a fleet of emergency vehicles crowding the parking lot. It turned out someone had fallen and broken their ankle on the other side out of sight. I felt for the EMTs who did not seem equipped for hiking. The way down was long. some of the trucks found a way to a closer spot and the person was eventually carried out in a basket. All very exciting!
After that we drove North to the Bleriot Ferry which is the halfway mark on the Dinosaur Trail. It was a cable ferry, free to take and operated by a single person. Many of the features are quite antiquated and we were told she had to leave people behind because of the number of life jackets, despite room on board still.
Coming back down the other side of the river we saw the welcome to Drumheller sign and just had to stop. It was also the site of a previous coal mine. Turns out so is our hotel. I like the signs around the area explaining the history.
Back to the hotel as the pool was open again, having recovered from a burst pipe. I sat and blogged about yesterday and others rested. I have decided not to go home tomorrow but to carry on to Calgary with them all. We plan to shop tomorrow, no provincial sales tax so it saves us 7% and then go to the zoo the next day when Alberta kids are back in school.
We fed all the kids and then Rae-Anne, Roger, Ashlée, Deanne and I walked next door to O’Sheas for a nice dinner. Well, that was what we hoped for…. My steak that could be cut through because of sinew was not the only thing to go wrong and it took a very long time so we were freezing on the patio by the time we were done. They did give us a 20% discount after the manager came to sit down and get to the bottom of it all. Unfortunately it made the night end sooner than we had planned as we are all tired and just done. We got the boys in our room organized for the morning and we will have breakfast with an intended launch of 9:15.
I did get some sun today but am happily tuckered out.
triumphgal 