Whoo hoo, first day of vacation! Stephen and I set off at about nine in the morning, set the cruise control, and pointed the car westward. We drove through some heavy rain not far out of Saskatoon, then briefly into sunny weather, and in and out of cloud. We stopped in Hanna for gas, and discovered (woe!) that the KFC on the highway was closed. No food for us, except convenience store chips and pop.
We saw a sign for a "Scenic Route to Drumheller" and made a last minute decision to turn off. The Tomtom was not pleased, and kept trying to redirect us. Not sure how much time it added to the trip, but it was something different, and the scenery was pretty.
When we got to Drumheller, we could see the giant dinosaur looming over the treetops, so of course we had to pull over and take a look. Poor little small dino that used to be the tourist attraction! He stood all by himself next to the fountains, while behind him, hordes of tourists took pics of the New & Improved Big'un. Don't worry - Stephen and I took pics of both! By the way, you can climb inside the Giant Dino - costs $3, and you may have to deal with rude parents with noisy, oblivious children. (What the heck, it's only $3.)
Off we went on the road again, stopping briefly at a scenic lookout over Horseshoe Canyon. Very cool. Both in regards to the view, and the windy weather (brrr!). Then it was back on the highway. Reduce speed, cause there's road work ahead. Damn you, Beiseker! For the last 10 years you've been building highway! Why aren't you done yet?
We must have passed through four or five construction zones in total (of which Beiseker's was the longest and slowest and most annoying).
Finally, we're on the final approach to Calgary. It's like a panoramic view of impending disaster. Dark clouds everywhere, and lightning striking to the left and the right, and all over the place. Whee! We're driving into the heart of darkness!
So we finally get to the city limits, traffic is a bugger, and the clouds are REALLY dark and just overhead. It starts raining REALLY hard. Oh wait, that's hail. We played follow-the-leader and hid under an overpass with some other cars until the worst of it passed.
Then back into traffic. Good Lord, I'm going fricking 40 on fricking Deerfoot! It's jam-packed and crawling. We finally get moving - Bernadette calls us on the cell phone to let us know the password to get into the house, cause we've been stuck so long in traffic, and she's going out to a Stampede party. Yeah, good luck with that. She's heading the other direction, and that is three lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.
Tomtom guides us almost to her house (I think his directions are ever so slightly off), but we figured it out, and successfully got into her house. Her dog is agitated. Who are these strangers? They scare me!
We decided to go out and get some food. There was a Safeway nearby, but I realized I didn't have a Safeway card with me, and didn't want to pay inflated prices. So, next door to the pizza place, where we order a pizza. Tomtom claims there's a DQ nearby. Wrong. There USED to be a DQ nearby. Sigh. Fortunately, we find another DQ not too far away, and with pizza and blizzards, we sit down to eat.
It's cold and rainy, and feels like the Arctic Circle outside. Stephen hopes that monsoon season will pass soon.
We saw a sign for a "Scenic Route to Drumheller" and made a last minute decision to turn off. The Tomtom was not pleased, and kept trying to redirect us. Not sure how much time it added to the trip, but it was something different, and the scenery was pretty.
When we got to Drumheller, we could see the giant dinosaur looming over the treetops, so of course we had to pull over and take a look. Poor little small dino that used to be the tourist attraction! He stood all by himself next to the fountains, while behind him, hordes of tourists took pics of the New & Improved Big'un. Don't worry - Stephen and I took pics of both! By the way, you can climb inside the Giant Dino - costs $3, and you may have to deal with rude parents with noisy, oblivious children. (What the heck, it's only $3.)
Off we went on the road again, stopping briefly at a scenic lookout over Horseshoe Canyon. Very cool. Both in regards to the view, and the windy weather (brrr!). Then it was back on the highway. Reduce speed, cause there's road work ahead. Damn you, Beiseker! For the last 10 years you've been building highway! Why aren't you done yet?
We must have passed through four or five construction zones in total (of which Beiseker's was the longest and slowest and most annoying).
Finally, we're on the final approach to Calgary. It's like a panoramic view of impending disaster. Dark clouds everywhere, and lightning striking to the left and the right, and all over the place. Whee! We're driving into the heart of darkness!
So we finally get to the city limits, traffic is a bugger, and the clouds are REALLY dark and just overhead. It starts raining REALLY hard. Oh wait, that's hail. We played follow-the-leader and hid under an overpass with some other cars until the worst of it passed.
Then back into traffic. Good Lord, I'm going fricking 40 on fricking Deerfoot! It's jam-packed and crawling. We finally get moving - Bernadette calls us on the cell phone to let us know the password to get into the house, cause we've been stuck so long in traffic, and she's going out to a Stampede party. Yeah, good luck with that. She's heading the other direction, and that is three lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.
Tomtom guides us almost to her house (I think his directions are ever so slightly off), but we figured it out, and successfully got into her house. Her dog is agitated. Who are these strangers? They scare me!
We decided to go out and get some food. There was a Safeway nearby, but I realized I didn't have a Safeway card with me, and didn't want to pay inflated prices. So, next door to the pizza place, where we order a pizza. Tomtom claims there's a DQ nearby. Wrong. There USED to be a DQ nearby. Sigh. Fortunately, we find another DQ not too far away, and with pizza and blizzards, we sit down to eat.
It's cold and rainy, and feels like the Arctic Circle outside. Stephen hopes that monsoon season will pass soon.
Comments
Post a Comment