Located in Drumheller, in the middle of the Alberta badlands, the Royal Tyrell Museum is one of the best collection of dinosaur and other fossils in the world. Admission is 10 dollars (CA) (v. cheap compared to theme parks etc) and you could spend all day here!
Wednesday 19th Aug 2009
Up with the dawn and onto the Drumheller museum. The roads here are crazy. They just go through the middle of nowhere. Usually in the widelands there is at least some evidence of humans (farmland etc) but here there seems to be very little even of that. Got to the Royal Tyrell Museum about 9.30. The museum was great for kids who just wanted to see lots of dino-skeletons, however as someone trying to put the whole thing together in my head, it was really too much and I guess thats unavoidable. Trying to keep track of what the land of alaberta was like over the past 500mn years and what fauna lived when its kinda tough (as the seas came and went). I mean biology is hard enough, but for this you need to expand the matrix of biology back over .5bn yrs. Hmm, methinks that be a years or two of work! Nonetheless the place is great! Many exhibits giving overviews of the geology of the place and the processes of fossilization, tectonic drift and evolution. The tour of the museum was kinda fun you start off in the Precambrian, then walk up to the present, each time surrounded by the fossilized life of the age, in many cases with fossils from Alberta. They also had one of the original archaeopteryx on display! I paused for a while on that! To actually see in person the fossil with the part- velocoraptor, part avian features was quite an experience.
Left the museum about midday (quite tired) and headed for the border. The road was VERY quiet. Got to the border about 5ish. The contrast between the US and Canadian border agents was vivid (although part of this may be that I went into Canada at the busy BC crossing and back at the nowhere Montana crossing. The Canadians were emotionally detached, but took time to explain in a reasoned fashion what they were doing etc. The Montana border agents frankly came across as powertrip jerks. The guy who I handed my passport to was the every part the stereotype for the part. Silvered sunglasses (something that noteably none of the Canadians wore). The line of questioning was needlessly antagonistic which spoke of someone who got his kicks out of being a jerk to people knowing that he was in a position of social authority, to which they could do nothing. Put simply the Canadians were professional and businesslike and played the role that one would want the law enforcement to play. The US guys were almost the archetype of those you wouldnt want being law enforcement officers. My goal was to cross the border without incident. This was achieved by playing the obedient beta role. Needs must as the devil drives.
The road south was equally deserted, the only brief moment of excitement was when some huge pickup (hammering by on the outside) had a blowout. Got to Great in late evening and managed (after some busy bouncing around at sears, target and various other stores) to find a big walmart that sold the aiptek action DV (had a considerable dilemma as there are reports that the aiptek HD will blue screen with loss of signal, hmm 170 bux, however it will certainly tell me if the AV kit is working, and if all else fails I can always return it). Headed south to Cascade where I found a quiet dirt road turnoff. Left the camera going on a fantastic night sky (it was about midnight by now and the body had quit took something to hold it together and get out of Great Falls!).
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