Feeling human again...

Camping was exactly what I needed. I feel refreshed, rejuventated, and happy. And broke, but hey, it was worth it. Shelley and I drove down to Drumheller Friday afternoon. It was a lovely ride, I managed to stay awake, and we just chit-chatted all the way there. Once we arrived, we realized rather quickly that we are both camping snobs with extremely high expectations of the camping experience. We are both used to camping in pristine, secluded, private, quiet, wild, campgrounds. There is nothing of the sort to be found in Drumheller. We spent as much time driving around the area than we did to get there in the first place just trying to find a suitable campground. There were massive, crowded RV and trailor parks, but nothing tailoring to tenters. After deliberating whether or not we should turn around and drive to the mountains, we decided that we could suck it up and make the best of what we had in Drumheller. So we settled for a nice patch of grass along the Red Deer River at Pinters Campground. We called this home for the remainder of the long weekend.

We were both completely and utterly exhausted by the time we had everything set up. I built a top-notch fire which we enjoyed for no more than an hour before collapsing in bed. Of course neither one of us slept that night - we had hooligan drunken neighbors that wouldn't shut up all night. It wouldn't have been so bad, but they were a girl's rugby team and spent half the night talking about the butchy lesbians on their team and just being assholes about it. Homophobic bastards. Geez. On top of that, Casper felt the need to sleep on top of my legs the whole night. So did Shelley. Needless to say, I woke up cranky, tired, and very stiff.

Shelley wasn't much happier. But she cooked me a wonderful breakfast, and we decided to make the most of the day. So we packed up a lunch and hopped in the truck and headed out to sight see. First stop - the public swimming pool for a shower (they sell them for $1). They were closed. Damn. Then it was off to Fields to buy be a hat to cover my horrific hair. I took my camera out to take a picture only to find my camera batteries were dead. Then it was off to the IGA to buy new ones. By this time the comedy of errors actually became funny, and our bad moods turned into good ones.

So by the time we made it to the Hoodoos, we were in high spirits. Of course when I see a mountain I need to climb it, so rather than sitting around saying "well ain't that pretty", we put Casper on her leash and climbed the big hill behind the hoodoos. We had a blast, especially Casper, who acted like she had died and gone to doggy heaven. It was steep, and I was only wearing my sandals. At one point I lost my footing and started sliding down the hill. I called out to Shelley "I'm fine! I'm just falling down the hill!" with shreaks of laughter. She laughed at me from the top of the hill. It was a hoot!

Later that afternoon we drove across the 11 bridges to Wayne to see the Last Chance Saloon. We weren't all that impressed by it, but were rather intrigued by the group of lesbians camping out there! We drove on further to another little town and wandered through an old school that had been converted into a museum. The woman working there had all sorts of stories to tell about "the old days" and the mining families and what it was like growing up there during the war. It was fun, and we spent a lot of time speculating about how different our lives would've been back then.

We then headed off further down the road to tour the old Atlas Coal Mine. It is the only all-wooden mine left in Canada. We got to climb up the timble and see how they sorted the coal, and the horrible conditions they had to work under. We learned all about how eastern Europeans came to the Drumheller valley to escape the wars and hardships so common there in the early 1900s. We were told about how each little village had it's own ethnicity (one was Polish, another Hungarian, another Ukranian), but how at work in the mine you could hear all the languages. We heard stories of men who worked for up to 9 years to save enough money to bring their wives and families to Canada, and how they kept themselves in the company of miners' daughters in the meantime. We learned about how it was a real boomtime in the valley during WWII, and then how mines started slowly closing down as natural gas became more popular. Now, these once lively villages are nothing but ghost towns.

After such a full day, we got back to our campsite hungry and looking forward to a quite night, which we got, thank God. I made a fantastic supper on the fire, and we sat and started into the flames all night long......sigh....

While Saturday was all about the coal and the history of the valley, Sunday was about the dinosaurs. We went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum first thing, and spent a good three hours there. We had a lot of laughs, teasing each other and imitating the dinosaurs, and looking at all the cute chidlren, daydreaming about the day when we get to have our own. It was pretty fantastic. After a nice lunch back at the tent, we headed out for a hike through the badlands. It was sooooo hot, but we walked for a good couple of hours. We saw a coyote (fortunately Casper didn't). It was a nice walk, although I was soooo tired.

Poor Casper was tormented the whole weekend. There was a baby beagle there named Jeremy who looooooved Casper. Casper tends to eat other dogs, so she stayed on a long leash the whole time. Jeremy knew to stay away, but he would come just close enough to Casper to drive her nuts. It was so funny watching them. In fact, one morning, while we were still sleeping, Jeremy was scratching out the outside of the tent, and poor Casper jsut howled! Shelley and I were hysterical. It was so funny. There also two yellow labs, both puppies, who enjoyed Casper, as well as her food. Jeremy just wanted to be involved in all the doggy activities. The labs were wrestling with each other, and Jeremy came leaping towards them with a both in her mouth, an you could just imagine him saying "can i play? can I play? I brought my own ball". I guess you had to be there....

Anyway, after a quick stop at Reptile World to admire all the frogs (love 'em), turtles (love 'em) and snakes (hate 'em), it was time to head home. We stopped at Horseshoe Canyon for a look on the way out. Turns out you can climb down into the canyon, and of course we couldn't resist that opportunity! And I slept all the way home. Poor Shelley.

The weekend was amazing for us. We somehow have a way of just laughing through all of our stresses. We were just so connected the whole time.....fantastic.