How to shake a dinosaur’s hand
My host were up before me for a change. Kyle and Kiera have a busy weekend planned so they got up early to get a head start on it.
I took the Nose Creek pathway out of Calgary, which added a lot of distance but let me avoid a lot of traffic. It was pleasant, with lots of birds and prairie dogs to see.
Look: a bidirectional bike lane routed around construction! What a concept!
Nose Creek Heron
I was sleepy today. I don’t normally nap, but had to stop twice to be able to keep riding. Once in a Calgary park, once under a tree by the side of the highway. What was supposed to be a 130km day ended up being 170 after all the detours and side trips, so I really needed those naps.
The spot of nap #1. Lots of baby ducks.
I spent so much of today feeling like I was in a Windows XP desktop image—blue skys with occasional clouds above, green fields below. Very flat for the most part, but I could tell something was up as I approached Drumheller as the terrain started to get hilly again.
Just begging for a Start menu at the bottom
Riding down into the badlands, I stopped to take my picture with the dinosaur by the welcome sign. It would not be the last dinosaur. The town is dinosaur crazy, with fibreglass statues everywhere. The main attraction is what they bill as the largest dinosaur in the world, which is big enough that you can scale several flights of stairs to take pictures from inside its mouth.
Once again, I’ve hidden my bike in the shot
After a dinner of Sidekicks and tuna, I pedalled my way to the outskirts of town to check out the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It was really cool. So many amazing dinosaur and other creature fossils. I’d love to come back when I have more brain energy to focus on the descriptions, but I was so drained I stuck to being astounded by the wonderful dioramas. The museum staff recommend saving two to three hours for the visit, but I was done after 45 minutes.
After the museum I made my way back to town, loaded up on supplies at the grocery store for the rural days ahead, and found a nice pine tree in the riverside park to sleep under.
Out of all the dinosaur statues, this one is my favourite
Today’s Distance: 170 km
Cumulative Distance: 1399 km
