Yvette and I decided for our yearly get together to go to Drumheller, the dinosaur capital or Canada. This seemed like a great idea, since it's pretty much right between our home towns of Winnipeg and BC, allowing us to drive there with our tent and Yvette to pull her 1970's trailer. The part that didn't seem so great was that one week before our trip, Calgary flooded, and high waters were coming at Drumheller too! Frantically, we searched the bad lands of Montana for alternate (aka non-flooded) campsites we could go to and checked our passports, travel insurance for pregnancy and all other necessities of going to the US of A. Just as we were about to trade the impending flood waters of Drumheller for the bone chilling waters of Glacier Park Montana, the Drumhellians (yes, that's what they call themselves) were spared the flood! In 2005 they had an "end of days" style flood, and had since increased the height of its berms. I called our riverside campground the day after the flood waters crested, and hallelujah! The water from Red Deer River went up to four feet from the top of the berm before receding. "God bless (not having to go to) America".
The kids were astonishingly good on the ride, with the help of Winnie the Pooh and Franklin in video format. And Gravol for Ollie. Because I am done with the horrible combination of barf and car seats. Which is exactly where Olivia barfed the morning we were packing to leave for the trip. The night before we left, Olivia had caught Robin's stomach bug of earlier in the week and it reared it's ugly head. We were at a Bomber game, and Ba'cha was there to clean it up (thanks again). The next morning, the day we were to head out, I was driving Robin to what was to be her last day of school and I made it half way down our back lane when I heard a quiet "my tummy hurts" from the back seat. Before I could say "what's wrong my sweet adorable child?" I said "AAAAHHHHH!!! Hold it in hold it in hold it in!!!" And parked as quickly as I could. I did so just in time to hear Mount Olivius erupt. The twitch below my right eye that I've named my "Olivia twitch" began again, and we went back home, deciding that Robin's actual last day of school was the day before. After cleaning the car seat in the many stages it takes to clean a puke laden car sear, I frantically finished packing and picked up Jen, with the wonders of Gravol keeping the vomit-monster out of our car the rest of the trip.
We made the first stop in a nice park in Brandon, with Gravol gorked Olivia making comments about the clouds and sounding like a teenager experimenting with acid. We kept trucking for a good 9 hour day. When arriving at Swift Current's Motel 6 at 2AM I discovered that clicking on "two beds" making an online reservation meant "I'd also gladly take one bed for four people please!" We had to drag the Thermarests and sleeping beds in for the kids. After telling the kids "Guess what?!? You guys get to start camping early!!!", we got excited hoorays, leaving myself and Jen to a comfortable bed one last night with them excited to be on the floor.
The following day we had a much shorter drive and made it to Drumheller. It was the Saturday of the Canada long weekend, and we had a campsite in the River Grove Campground, right next to Yvette's RV site . They had driven for the last four days from Vancouver through flood ravaged western Alberta, and we managed to arrive within 30 minutes of each other in town. We gave each other exhausted greetings then began to set up. Our spots were nestled at the back of a dead end lane, so we absconded the road to shove together our two picnic tables and corresponding picnic tents. Those tents proved very useful for keeping out both the rain and the bugs. Little did we know, it seems that valleys of Drumheller are home to the cousins of every single mosquito in Winnipeg, plus a few aunts and uncles. A Winnipeger apparently does not go to Drumheller to escape the bugs. As for the rain, well, that comes later.
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