Day Five

Where do I even start? It's hard doing this blog...I write it in the morning in a coffee shop and then all day I just edit in my head. "Why didn't I include that? How did I forget to include this! I had so many ideas! So many things!!!"

Having that much time by yourself is always going to lead to those sorts of doubts. You just have too much time to dwell. I like what i've been writing, but I'm learning to accept that it's impossible to condense an entire day's worth of stuff into a few paragraphs. Plus, then we'd eventually reach critical mass. "Woke up...breathed in....breathed out again." Nobody wants that.

One thing i've omitted somehow has been the mosquitoes. Manitoba was bad...and everyone i've spoken to TALKED about how bad Manitoba was for skeeters. But yesterday was by far the worst mosquito day that i've ever had at any point in my life. I think i've been bitten more times in the past five days than I have over the course of my whole lifetime. It is horrendous. In northern Ontario and parts of Manitoba, i'd get out of my car and think "Of course, i'm next to standing water, of course there are mosquitoes. Oh, they're quite thick." But in Alberta there are no warning signs! They are just EVERYWHERE and they will not be sated.

I'll post a picture of my leg at some point. It's gotten ridiculous.

The most horrifying moment, however was when late last night I pulled out of Drumheller around dusk. As I accelerated I noticed drops on the windshield, first one, then a few, then several. The pitter patter of impending rainfall was unmistakable.

Then I looked up.

There were no stormclouds. No clouds in the sky. It was completely clear and beautiful. But there were so many mosquitoes that I was driving through them like you'd drive through rainfall. It was disgusting.  I could barely see out the windshield after just a few minutes. Ugh.

But i'm getting ahead of myself.

Broadway Bridge, downtown Saskatoon

We left off in Saskatoon - a city both beautiful and lively. I wish that i'd been able to spend some more time there, as my first impressions of it were really amazing. It seems like a pretty cool place to live. And hugely booming, according to John Buday, whom I spoke to over coffee in the morning, as I was writing yesterday's post. In spite of the coffee shop being totally empty but for me and one other woman, he approached the chair opposite me and asked if he could sit. Granted, I was in the comfy chairs (they were closest to the wall outlet) but it still seemed odd. I realized quickly that he was just opinionated and hungry for conversation. It didn't take much urging to get him to do an interview and he'll serve as a tremendous counterpoint for many of the people i've spoken to already. He was very much a representative of the "Alberta mentality" us Ontarians all talk about. He was really great to get to chat with.

As I pulled out of Saskatoon, I realized i'd forgotten to ask a pivotal question...what do you call someone from Saskatoon? Or from Saskatchewan for that matter? I thought being a 'Torontonian' was bad...but imagine being a Saskatoonarian? A Saskatoonan? Or my favourite...A Saskatooner? Does that make you a Saskatooner first, but a Saskatchewanian second? Questions I wish i'd asked.

I passed into Alberta pretty quickly, and without incident. Only the mosquitoes got to me, and I was soon verbally abusing them...loudly...to myself. I'm not an angry person, but one can only be so itchy before one starts to lose their mind. I said some pretty nonsensical things that i'm glad only the bugs were around to hear.

On that subject, most people I know are at least peripherally aware that I talk to myself. It helps organize my thoughts. When you're left to your own devices for five days, this only gets worse. The weird thing is, I noticed yesterday as I was trying to recite the gameplan, that I referred to myself as 'we'. I don't know what's worse though, referring to yourself and some winter tires in the plural, or going on to berate yourself out loud for the incorrect pluralizing.

After so many thousands of kilometres of flatness - I was starting to wear down. This was the first day that was actually difficult. I realized i'd only been sleeping about 5 hours a night, and I hadn't had a really good night's sleep yet. It had been so hot, in some cases really humid, sometimes i'd tossed and turned all night, I just hadn't had quality rest. I was starting to feel the effects. I also had a long haul, my intent had been to get from Saskatoon all the way to Banff. Roughly 750 km. Which is hard...when the most exciting part of Alberta looks like this:

A bull.

What do you do, really?

I tried snacking, hadn't really eaten well enough and had a bit of a dull headache from the coffee i'd been drinking. But then things really, really turned around.

I'd been here once before, as a kid. Our family did a trip all around Alberta, to Banff, Lake Louise, Calgary, Edmonton, etc. But the highlight for me was always Drumheller. I can't remember exactly how old I was, suffice to say that it was only just after the peak of my dinosaur fascination. I had a lot of phases as a kid, outer space, the deep ocean, dinosaurs, you know how little boys are. But going to Drumheller really blew my mind.

Ceratopsian dinosaur diorama

Everywhere in town, there are dinosaurs. EVERYTHING is dinosaur-themed. You know how in little Italy, on the lampposts there are small, light-up outlines of the country of Italy? In drumheller, you get lamppost dinosaurs. They have the largest artificial dinosaur in the world. You can climb 160 stairs and take photos of the town out of it's mouth. It's like Disneyland for the budding paleontologist. Going back here after so long was just amazing - and I'm still as spellbound by dinosaurs as I ever was.

I visited the Royal Tyrell Museum, which is royal thanks to the Queen visiting in the 90's. It's the best dinosaur exhibit of any i've ever seen. And not just from a dinosaur perspective, but from an art perspective. Just look at the way some of these skeletons, models, casts, and mockups are presented...it's gorgeous.

An Albertasaurus savages a helpless Camptosaurus, 

as two Ornitholestes wait their turn to scavenge the remains.

Ankylosaurus swings its armoured tail at an approaching Gorgosaurus.

Gorgosaurus chases a diminutive Compsognathus

The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex

Such pains are taken to breathe life into bones that are literally hundreds of millions of years old. It's really breathtaking, and I appreciate it now on a level I couldn't really when I was a young kid. I could go on...I probably took enough photos to start a dinosaur blog, but let's not go there.

I spoke to Brett & Daniel from Calgary outside the museum. They'd just up and decided to road trip out to Drumheller, see what they could glean about dinosaurs on a warm Sunday afternoon. While we did our interview, and I tried to pierce to the heart of what it means to be Canadian, a much more striking example of Canadianism was on display.

I'd blocked off the walkway to a lookout point that overlooked the museum and much of the badlands. I was on one side, and these two guys were on the other. People literally had to walk through the interview to get to the lookout point. Even though I waved everyone through, smiling, saying "Go ahead, don't worry!" people were absolutely petrified of walking through. Mumbling half-spoken apologies under their breaths, people hustled through, or ducked beneath the lens, or quietly scolded their children as though it was their fault they were interrupting. It was amazing. No one should've been apologizing. I was quite selfishly blocking the way to the big attraction they'd just climbed a flight of stairs for. And yet, everyone felt the need to say sorry. Everyone was flustered. It was very Canadian of them.

I'd spent so much time in Drumheller that I didn't think I was going to make Banff...I was getting sleepy, and it was getting late. The mosquitoes were coming down in the dusk like rain. I didn't want to drive tired so I pulled over to the side of the Alberta highway and took a ten minute nap. It was starting to get dark. I pressed on after my quick refresher but again found myself too tired to concentrate. Pulling into a grocery store parking lot in Calgary, I napped again. I can't actually lay the seat back in the car, because of Alex's winter tires, or I would've just spent the night there. So after 20 minutes or so, I pushed on again, feeling a little better, and draining the remnants of this morning's cold coffee.

Finally, I pulled into a campground on the west side of Calgary, just as a bus full of stampeders arrived for the night. No one was there to register me, so I engaged in some guerilla campgrounding, and zipped away before the sun was all the way up. I'm sitting in Canmore now, just outside Banff. Then it's Lake Louise, and finally Vancouver tonight! It's been 3700 long kilometres, and promises to be about 700 more, but i'm nearly there! Wish me luck.

-Jeff