Weekend in East Coulee

I booked two days off from work... Friday July 18th and Monday July 21st.  This gave us a four day Long Weekend to spend down in East Coulee.  It was Helena's 6th birthday on July 17th so we celebrated that at home, and then hit the road with the trailer on the morning of Friday the 18th.  We arrived in East Coulee just after lunch and set up the trailer on our private RV pad next to the building.  I realized that Friday is Steak Night at the Tavern in the East Coulee Hotel.  In typical red neck fashion, kids are allowed in the tavern until 9:00PM.  So we all headed over there for something to eat.  Julia is still with us, visiting from Austria.  The food was pretty good... a large rib eye steak, baked potato, ceasar salad, garlic bread and baked beans.  Not sure exactly what the price was, but something around 20 bucks.  Not too many Dad's can say that they have been to the bar with their daughters... aged 6, 8 and 11!!!  The girls had a blast playing songs on the jukebox, and hanging out with all the beer drinking locals.

The next morning, the girls took the truck and drove in to Drumheller, to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology.  I stayed behind in East Coulee and wandered over to the old Timber Bridge with my big view camera.  It was a beautiful summer afternoon and though there were a few scattered clouds it was mostly sunny and got quite warm... actually hot.  Here are a number of snapshots I took with my phone, while I was photographing at the bridge.

Later that evening, while I was relaxing at the trailer, the sky to the west was really darkening.  The girls had wandered off to the playground and to walk the dogs.  Frank sent me a text from Drumhller, 20km up the valley, warning me to batten down the hatches.  I snapped this photograph of the approaching storm and started packing things up.  The storm hit Drumheller with heavy rain and hail and strong winds and did a lot damage around town.  I managed to just get our awning rolled in in the nick of time, but it was hailing and raining heavily before I finished putting all the tables and chairs away.  I was soaked to the skin by the time I finished.  The girls got caught in the storm as well, but made it back into the trailer before I finished up.  Fortunately the hail in our area was shortlived and not really any bigger than pea-sized.  But winds were strong and we got a lot of rain and were basically forced to spend the evening inside the trailer.  For quite an extended period of time the rain was coming down in sheets and I estimate that there was a couple of inches of rain that fell through the evening.

By Sunday morning the storm had basically blown on through.  It was still overcast and a little showery, but nothing like the night before.  We headed out with the truck and had lunch at the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne, and then went over to the Homestead Antique Museum in Drumheller.  By evening it was cool but clearing up quite a bit.  We set up the BBQ and put together a big meal of steak, potatoes, salad, corn, etc.  Frank and Chris came out from Drumheller for the evening and joined us for supper.  

The next day was Monday, and the weekend was coming to a close.  I really wanted to try to photograph some old coal mine facilities in the town of Cambria, just up the road.  It had been too unsettled on Sunday, and now by Monday morning, it was not much better.  But I decided to head out anyway.  Margarit came with me and we went out together in the rain and photographed some of these cool old entrances.  There was also a funky looking sculpture that someone had constructed, up on the hill at the edge of town.

By the time we finished up in Cambria it was time to pack up for the trip back home.  We hooked up the trailer and put everything away.  After locking up the building and the yard, we hit the road.  Just as we were leaving, Frank and Chris' oldest daughter Tamara stopped by and said hello.  It was nice to see her again as it had been at least a couple of years....  

Before getting back onto the highway we headed over to the Palcoprep shop in Drumheller.  The company is in the process of vacating this shop, and moving all of our stuff over to the new building in East Coulee.  I would estimate that at least two-thirds of the stuff is already moved.  One of the things that remained, that we wanted to see, was a current project...

The Government of Saskatchewan had contracted Palcoprep to preserve a record of some Petroglyphs.  These are located in a small Provincial Park called the St. Victor Petroglyphs.  A large chunk of sandstone at this site is fractured and ready to break away from the outcrop and tumble down the hill.  We cleaned a section of this sandstone that contained a number of petroglyphs and took a mold off of it.  We were supposed to do this last fall, and attempted the project then.  But by the time the contract was awarded to us, it was too late in the year, and too cold to make the mold properly.  So, we returned this spring, and fortunately the rock had not yet broken away, so were were able to make the mold.  Since then we created a cast of this section of the rock that contained a number of the petroglyphs.  The mold and the cast are now in the shop, ready to be shipped to Saskatchewan.  I wanted to photograph both while they were still around.  After this was completed, we hit the road for home, and eventually made it back to the house in the city, by about 9:00PM.  A nice long weekend, but somewhat sad that it had to come to an end.  I was not particularly thrilled with the thought of returning to the office the next morning....