Day 5 - R-sum

There are two words that are bandied about a lot here. One is "r-sum", as in, "you're going to the Stampede? Ohmigosh that's like totally r-sum", and the other is "broodle", as in, "oh man, the chuck wagon races are just like totally broodle".

Well driving on the prairies of Alberta is r-sum and broodle. In fact, it's almost punishing. You feel so exposed, for one thing, like you're the only bump on the landscape for miles and miles. I've caught a glimpse of the Rockies, but they're totally put to shame by the miles and miles and MILES of flatness you get on the prairies. I've taken photos and put them up on the Flickr site, but they really don't do it justice. Imagine being on a road that's as straight as a ruler as far as you can see. The sat nav (which I've had some arguments with today) says things like, "continue for the next 72 miles, then turn right". Imagine looking forward, left, right, and back, and seeing nothing but fields until the curve of the earth takes the ground away from you. If, perchance, you come to a slight dip in the road, then you breast the next rise with some excitement... only to be faced with more of the same... fields and flatness. But it doesn't depress you. Instead it knocks the wind out of you, and makes you go... "wow". It really is totally r-sum.

A bend in the road is exciting. Something to do. And a lot of the bends are 90 degrees; So many of the roads conform to this easy-to-navigate grid pattern (d'you hear that, sat nav? EASY-TO-NAVIGATE). You see a junction coming up from 10 miles away. Sometimes, as you approach it, you see another vehicle coming up to that junction, and having to give way to you. You can just about hear the driver thinking, "dang, it sure as heck is busy today".

The maximum speed limit can be as much as 110 km/h. Often I look down and see I'm doing 140. You just have no concept of how fast you're going, you're just aware that there's this long, straight road ahead and behind you, often without another vehicle in sight, often the only reminder of the existence of other people being the fact that the road you are on is tarmac and not just packed dirt. No wonder your speed drifts up and up.

It's not like driving in Norfolk. This flatness takes the flatness of Norfolk and multiplies it up many times. It's not just flat, it's empty. You come across a farmhouse, and wonder how on earth the family there ever get to meet anyone and mix up the gene pool... and then you stop wondering about that because you don't like the path those thoughts take you down.

Today we drove out to Drumheller. Eventually. The sat nav seems to have a bit of a bug when it comes to highway exit ramps. This is not me making excuses, Sandra was watching it at the same time and she agrees.

Still, once we got out of Calgary it was fairly plain sailing. My gosh though, this place is flat. And empty. It took us a couple of hours to get to Drumheller. We drove past the town centre, catching a quick glimpse of "the biggest dinosaur in the world" as we headed out to the Royal Tyrell Museum. It seems that there have been an incredible number of dinosaur fossils found in that stretch of Alberta over the years, and a huge amount of research is concentrated in that area. And the Royal Tyrell Museum is a collection of interesting fossils and artefacts and reconstructed dinosaurs. Well worth a visit.

Then back to Drumheller town centre and that dinosaur. My goodness it's enormous. 85 feet tall, with a staircase inside it so you can climb up it and stand inside its mouth and look out over the rest of the town. Dinosaurs are what Drumheller is all about. Apparently there used to be some sort of park here with loads of model dinosaurs in it. For one reason or another the park closed down, so they just spread the models all over the town. It's weird, you're driving down the road and there's a dinosaur staring at you from outside a shop... and then another by a builders' merchant, and then another just randomly by the side of the road.

Our final stop today was to look at the hoodoos, which I'd read about and seen pictures of. You get a rock on top of some limestone, the elements wash away the limestone except that bit that's sheltered by the rock, and you get these odd mushroom-shaped things called hoodoos. It took us a while to find them because the sat nav was having a total fit and kept sending us the wrong way. Eventually we drove past the hoodoos without realising it, because basically they are so SMALL. Only about 10-15 feet tall really. I thought they were going to be much bigger.

We've already been through one tank of fuel so far this holiday, done about 500 miles. This car eats fuel. We're going to have to watch that when we head out into the boonies I guess. Mind you, fuel here is about half what we pay in England.

Tomorrow, though, we're not driving anywhere. Tomorrow is the start of the Calgary Stampede, which runs for the next 10 days. It bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth". It starts with a parade through the streets of the city, and then we've got tickets to the afternoon and evening shows.

Should be mint.

Oh, by the way... yesterday, when we went out to 1720 Bow Trail trying to find our rental vehicle, the guy (Chris) who wrote out the address of National Car Rental for us did so on the back of his business card. His email address was on the front of the card, so I dropped him a line to let him know how we'd got on. He replied back today: "Awesome Dave, I'm glad it all worked out for you folks." Heh... r-sum.