In a Land Before Our Time

Yeah, we're back in Canada! Our Canadian debit cards are working again, we have mobile internet again, and we don't have to be afraid of getting shot for no reason. Oh Canada! Our first stop should be the Dinosaur Park in Alberta. The way there was unfortunately not as exciting, as we had to drive through 'Iowa' for a while.

But before we looked at old bones, we had to take care of our home. Eva and I needed a new tent, because if you remember the Yellowstone blog, we slept in our very tight tipi with the broken poles for a while. Unfortunately, I had lost the receipt for the tent, and even though you can return almost anything at Walmart within 3 months, it was difficult without the receipt. When we arrived at the first Walmart, we wanted to exchange it for the same tent, which is possible without a receipt, but our tent was no longer available. Yes, we were told that the tent season was over. We looked a bit stupid, because why is the tent season over in August? We still had 20 degrees Celsius?! Well, we bought the cheaper version of our tent for now, and at the next Walmart, our tent was available, but for 4 people. We also spent a royal night in it.

Unfortunately, the tent was too big for our Walmart adventures, so we visited a 3rd Walmart nearby and finally got our 3-person tent back. So, we were able to exchange the cheaper tent, the large 4-person tent, and our broken tent for our old and new 3-person tent with only 2 women inside :) And because all of that was so great, there will be another discussion about tents at the end of the blog :D
When we arrived at Dinosaur Park, we had a déjà vu.

The park looked exactly like the badlands in the USA, with the big difference that more dinosaurs were found in this park than in the US. Especially skeletons can still be found here, and the archaeologists don't even have to dig them up, they just have to wait for heavy rain. Like the badlands in the States, the rock formations here are made of sandstone and are not particularly weather-resistant.

If you're lucky, you can just walk through the park and find some old bones. The Canadians I chatted with later at the campsite even found a few. But we found something else, namely a place to sleep in Calgary that I was offered by chatting up people. So, we had a bit of luck after all ;)

But my highlight was the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.

The museum is amazing! Especially because they exhibit the most impressive dinosaur discovery ever made (in my opinion).

It is the best-preserved dinosaur that has ever been found. I am so happy that this nodosaur fell so perfectly into the mud that we can now look at its real armor. It was bad for the dinosaur, but really great for posterity. The 'Borealopelta markmitchelli' was found in 2017 in a mine in Fort McMurray in Alberta, and because even skin was discovered on the nodosaur, we know that it had a reddish color. I'm still amazed!

The museum also exhibits this fish. The fish is quite famous, not only because it is over 80 million years old and completely intact, but also because another fish was found in its stomach.

After visiting Dinosaur Park, we went to Calgary and stayed with Kyle and Xenia, whom I had met at our last campsite. We were able to sleep in real beds for 2 nights, and there was a shower! Pure luxury.

In Calgary, I didn't really have an idea of what to see, and since it was a holiday (Labor Day), the city looked almost deserted. By chance, I came across this:

That's pretty much all I saw of Calgary :D But I would definitely recommend visiting Robert at his bookbinding shop 'Octavia'.

And as promised, more about tents ;)

10 times when sleeping in a tent is crap:

1. When it rains: every drizzle is a drum concert. You also always have the irrational fear that the tent will be flooded (technological devices in the tent), but you're already afraid that a bear might come because you forgot the toothpaste in the tent again. You have to remove all items with intense scents, and then you wonder if maybe my socks should be included, and if I should throw them out of the tent with my toothpaste.
2. Snow: quieter than rain, but when dismantling the tent in the morning, your fingers freeze off
3. When you have back pain
4. When you urgently need to go to the bathroom, but it's 2 degrees Celsius outside, there are no toilets, and it's raining... again
5. When you've seen a bear near the tent before
6. When you're camping at Walmart and the sprinkler system turns on
7. When you snore and your tent mate has tinnitus and can't wear earplugs because they become crazy and kicks you every time you snore
8. When you have a cold
9. When you're in a paranoid phase and you remember that there are not only bears but also wolves and coyotes in the park
10. When you're hungry in the morning, but all the food is in the car because of the bears, and the person in the car is still sleeping and is the driver and gets in a bad mood if you wake her up. But you're really hungry...

In the next blog, there will be lots of pictures of mountains and nature again, because the next stop is Banff National Park.

Until then.

Lea

*Bonus material