Just in case you didn't know that Drumhellier was home to the largest number of intact dinosaur skeletons on earth, the good people of the town built a World's Largest Dinosaur to highlight it.
It was a bleak sort of Spring day when Laura and I took a day trip 1.5 hrs northeast of Calgary to Drumheller. We travelled through the "badlands" (they are actually called that) a desolate wasteland-looking region which was full of fossils, queer small canyons and where you felt anything could go wrong.
The Badlands have been the backdrop for countless movies, especially westerns and I was fascinated by how quickly the landscape could change from flattish-prairie, covered with snow and mountains in the distance, to a lower, rockier are of greyish dust. The areas is also known for it's Hoodoos, a peculiar rock formation. I am learning. Before that day I just thought a "Hoodoo" was one-half of a rock band.
We also saw an odd truck which a farmer had seen fit to mount on a giant pole on his land. Why? Because he could.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumheller,_Alberta
http://www.virtuallydrumheller.com/tour/hoodoos.htm
On the way to Drumheller, Laura, who really has an internal detector for "Big things" and weird monuments, found the Big Skunk, outside a small town in a snow- filled park. We dutifully trudged through knee-deep to get our photos, noticing that though the snow was still knee-deep, the warmer weather had made it much wetter and slushier. But, it had to be done.
Seeing the Big Dinosaur evoked a similar sensation to when I first saw the World's Biggest Rocking Horse in Adelaide or the Big Merino in Goulburn as a child. I had to climb it. We checked out the tourist shop downstairs where I beat Laura to discovering the "perfect" pair of dinosaur-print socks (you never know when you might want to wear them...)and we bought various other souvenirs. The amused clerk stowed our purchases for us behind the counter while we took turns going up the dinosaur and taking photos from the bottom.
Ever heard a dinosaur say something bad? Well, Laura waited until I was waving at her from the jaws while she stood in the parking lot with my camera. I waved at her. She waved at me and took a photo.
Then she waved her keys at me and made off in the direction of the car.
I had known that there would be payback for various times I'd teased her or one-upped her over the previous month. What I didn't know is that I would be stuck up a 50ft fake dinosaur at the time.
So, to a passer-by at that moment it would have looked like the dinosaur had said something mildly offensive in an Aussie accent.
Fortunately human nature was on my side... the clerk had our purchases and Laura was not going to leave without her shopping, by which time I'd caught up with her. Laughs all round and it was off to the wholesaler to look at fossils and ammolite, the local gemstone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammolite
The palentologist who ran the wholesaler's shop indicated that within perhaps 7 years the export of fossils from the badlands would be banned. In the meantime, she was running a good trade in beautiful coffee-table pieces due to the abundance of the materials in the area. I was more interested in the ammolite, a rare type of fossil given gemstone status by the international authorities and only found in Alberta and one or two remote parts of Europe. Shimmering predominantly green with other colours and more dramatic than an opal, I bought several pendants, including one for my sister's birthday.
Laura bought some beautiful large display pieces for her home, fitting for a travelling geologist.
It was then off to see the real dinosaurs at one of the most surprising museums I have ever been to.
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