I just returned from a great weekend down in the badlands. My cousin Roswitha, visiting from Germany with her husband Gunnar and their two daughters, met me down there. I was really tired last Friday after work and didn't attempt to make the three hour drive. I was still catching up from the lack of sleep due to the late hockey game the night before. Instead I headed down first thing on Saturday morning. I left home at about 8:30AM and was down at the shop in East Coulee around noon.
Roswitha and family were visiting my brother Wes and his family in Calgary on Thursday. I guess they had a chance to check out the Calgary Stampede before traveling to the town of Rosebud on Friday. They stayed there at a B&B on Friday night, and then met me in East Coulee on Saturday afternoon. I traveled down by myself as Hailey had to work all three days over the weekend, and Margarit stayed home... again... to play chauffeur... My two younger girls decided to stay home as well.
For most of the trip Roswitha and family were tenting, but they took a hotel or B&B from time to time during their travels. For this weekend we were all staying at my shop in East Coulee. Our trailer is still there, and the shop served as a home base for all of us for the weekend. We wandered over to the old timber bridge in East Coulee on Saturday afternoon and then took a walk around town. In the early evening we headed back over to the shop and put together a big pasta dinner. We planned to go for a hike up into the hills after dinner and actually started out to do that. Just as we started to climb the hills behind town a big prairie thunderstorm rolled in. It was pretty cool as we watched the lightning start to flash all around us. But with the rain coming we decided against climbing up into the hills and made our way back to the shop. Just as we got back the clouds opened up with a heavy downpour that lasted for an hour or two. We did get out for an evening walk around town after the rain quit, but it was too late and too wet to consider hiking up into the hills.
Sunday dawned clear and sunny and after breakfast we headed over to the Atlas Coal Mine. We paid the admission and wandered around the historic site for a while. I took my big view camera along and set up for a couple of shots. After that we headed back to town and went to the East Coulee School Museum. Just as we were finishing up there another prairie thunderstorm rolled in. We packed up and decided to head into Drumheller for something to eat. Just as we were leaving East Coulee the brunt of the storm hit us and it was a very heavy downpour with dime size hail. It was coming down so hard that I could barely see to drive the truck. I had the windshield wipers on high, the headlights on, the hazard lights flashing and we were slowed right down to just about a crawl. Despite all that I could barely see beyond the hood of the truck. By the time we got up the valley to the Hoodoos it had let up a bit and once we got closer to Drumheller it had quit altogether. But water was running everywhere and it was extremely wet. Just before that storm hit it had been a very hot and humid afternoon with the temperature peaking at +28C. After the storm had rolled through the thermometer on my truck indicated a temperature of +15C. A drop of 13 degrees over a period of about 20 minutes.
We went to Boston Pizza in town and had an early dinner together. After that we went back out to the shop in East Coulee. I had to pack up and head back to Edmonton that evening but Roswitha and family stayed behind and spent one more night at the shop. They were planning to head to Banff on Monday, and then on to the Okanagan valley in British Columbia by the middle of the week. They have to return their rental car in Vancouver at the end of the week and catch a flight back home to Germany on Saturday.
It was great to see them all again and I really enjoyed the time that I spent with them. Its too bad that Margarit and the other girls were not able to join us, but at least they all managed to get together up in Nordegg on the previous weekend.
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