Let's go dino hunting

I can see it has been quite a while since I have posted on here. It is well overdue. Just hard to find time with the work schedule I am currently doing but there has been plenty of fun activities happening. I have a post that I am finishing up about the end of the winter season here which should be posted within the next month.

In the meantime the last 2 months have seen the snow completely go and spring start which means that it is still relatively cool (not cold) but no snow.

My last week off work it was the first long weekend of the spring/summer season May Long. As a group had planned on going camping for the weekend but due to the still quite cold weather and high chances of rain we backed out and brainstormed a new option over a couple of bottles of wine and beer. We decided to find somewhere close by with some great activities to undertake so we decided to book some dingy hotel rooms in Drumheller and go there for the Saturday and Sunday.

For anyone unaware (most will be), Drumheller is a small town about 1hr 45mins north-east of Calgary. The town is most famous for the discovery of dinosaur fossils in the area (still being found on a regular basis in the area). The region is also quite different in scenery to the rest of Alberta as you start to head a across the flat prairies, Drumheller sneaks up on you as a town in the middle of a small canyon which is a good change.

On Saturday morning we started the morning with a touch of running around but stocked up the cooler with booze and stocked up Lauren and Nick's Dodge SUV with all 7 of of us and got on the road to Drumheller. Needless to say being a road trip we stopped every possible location and we drank at a bar in every small town on the way...

All aboard the cruise to Drumheller

The first town we stopped at was called Irrancana where I am pretty sure we disgraced the locals by jumping on their statue horse, taking a camera into the bar (lady was scared we were filming a movie haha) and just our general presence in the town.

Suzy defiling Silvester fire hydrant

The crew in Irricana

General inapropriateness

We ended up in the local lounge (which doubled as a Chinese restaurant) for a beer and to watch the second period of hockey playoffs. We then got back on the road to the next town of Beiseker which was a solid 15mins down the highway. We pulled up at a saloon bar and played some pool and drank a little more (I may add we had a designated driver the whole time if people are wondering).

We proceeded to Drumheller with a minor detour to a field in the middle of nowhere to shotgun some beers, shoot the bb gun in the field and get out and stretch.

Kids just having fun

BB Gun fun in the field

We eventually got to Drumheller... 1 and 3/4 hr drive became over 5 hrs with the pit stops and shenanigans.

Upom arrival we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and got to exploring the town. Now again for everyone who has not been to Drumheller, well to say that the town is founded on dinosaurs is an understatement. The whole town is covered in dinosaur statues and streets and shops are named after the ancient beasts.....

As such we proceeded to all buy dinosaur T-shirts and we pretty much wore them all weekend.

Rockin our dinosaur T-shirts

There also came a point shortly after this where I was dared to go for a swim in a local fountain, so I stripped off and jumped in. In doing so scaring most of the kids that were in the fountain (small clip in the video at the end of the blog).

The rest of the evening in Drumheller was a great evening involving "Cards Against Humanity" at the hotel, dinner, laser tag (drunk... yes I ended up running into the wall), then smashing karaoke until the AM.

The next morning we awoke (some a little worse for wear compared with others...) to get back on the train again. After breakfast and restocking the cooler with alcohol we got in the car and went to the dinosaur museum for an excursion. Really was cool to get a history of the area and see how abundant these creatures were in Alberta.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of a couple more saloon bars which were actually some of the coolest I had ever seen. The outsides of the bars were very Wild West feel which was quite cool. We had lunch and more beers at a small place called Wayne which is about 25mins outside Drumheller and anyone in Calgary looking for a good spot to go for a day trip I highly recommend going to this saloon bar for a feed and a bar.

Saloon bar just outside Drumheller

I believe we shamed and disgraced Wayne a little too

Last Chance Saloon for lunch

Drinks and lunch on the patio at Last Chance Saloon bar

We ended up back in Calgary later that night and continued on the drinking festivities. I know from the texts that I got the next day or two after this weekend that many in the group had a little too much "fun" and were still feeling this "fun" in their livers but apart from that was one of the best weekends had in Calgary yet. Looking forward to what the rest of the summer holds when it eventually starts here in about 3 weeks time.

Below I have cut together very quickly a video of some of the antics from the weekend. Play the Youtube clip if you are viewing it in Canada, for everyone else I have uploaded on my share drive and you can watch it on there (see attached link) as it sadly will not play in any other countries for some reason (will also post on my facebook page).

Until next time just remember a great travel adventure can be right at your doorstep, you don't need to get on a plane to "travel", explore your local area.

Gettin Heller'd in Drumheller (YouTube clip)

If not you can definitely view it from the link below. ENJOY!!!!

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=95CC06190383A04%21123