Yesterday upon checking the local weather forecast and seeing it coloured red with severe weather warnings, I decided it was a good day to get out of town. The only issue with that decision is that I left some members of my family in the severe weather storm including all members of the Whole Health Group. They are not amused. So while I toured the badlands of the wild wild west under a beautiful blue sky, Austin strapped on his ruby slippers left over from the Great Kirby Tornado of 2012 while Daisy offered to 'sit heavy' in the kennel to keep them grounded. I returned to find everyone safely in their place albeit a little ruffled. Upon being chastised for abandoning them in the eye of the tornado, I did point out that prior to them joining our family we had not experienced a single tornado. "Tornadoes and hounds seem to be the new common factor in my life", I tell them. And some days, I cannot tell the two of them apart.
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| I was so startled to come across these roman ruins on my way to the badlands...oh wait a minute...could it be a roundhouse for trains? |
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| No, I am pretty sure they are roman ruins. |
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| Friends playing in the roman ruins |
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| Who knew the romans had grain elevators?! |
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| Taking the cable ferry across the Red Deer River. The road ends at the river where there is a little doorbell on a post that you ring to summon the ferryman....seriously! Following Chris De Burgh's advice, we did not pay the ferryman...even when we got to the other side. |
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| The badlands! This is Horse Thief Canyon where rustlers used to steal horses. Now we are in the wild west! |
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| Wait a minute. What do you mean we are going down there? |
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| No, no, no, this is not a happy thing. I don't want to go down there. Them thar parts are snake heaven! |
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| Huff puff huff puff, smell the pretty flowers and it will all be OK. |
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| Huff puff huff puff....more pretty flowers.... |
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| Huff puff, pretty pretty flowers... |
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| It's a Truffula Tree, she cries in a state of extreme oxygen deprivation. |
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| Made it! |
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| Wait a minute....I have to go back up there. Where are those happy people who thought this was such a brilliant idea!?! |
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| I have decided I will live in the river valley bottom and subsist on wild sage brush and cactus while I attempt to make my fortune through the discovery of a rare fossil. |
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| See! In no time at all, we find the eyeball of a velociraptor (no pun intended) |
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| Or my youngest and I will open a spa and offer clay/loam baths to people seeking the fountain of youth....in exchange for a few morsels of food from the outside world. |
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| Oh yes, we shall wander and forage through this beautiful land. There is no need to return to the top. |
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| "What do you mean you are in a tornado lockdown?" I respond via text to the other members of the family. "What do you mean I might have to pick you up? Do they know I am in the pits of the badlands and it will take me days to summit to the top again....and then I will have to drive two hours to get there? Do they mind keeping you for a few days while I make my way back?" |
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| Ok Ok, enough lollying around on the rare fossil finds. Apparently we cannot keep them for profit and have to turn them over to the authorities anyway. We might as well go back up to the top as it turns out I don't much like cactus and your siblings are in the midst of a weather emergency. |
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| Upon summitting, we learn the siblings have safely made it home leaving us to further explore. For all of those much more versed in archeology than me, is this a teepee ring? |
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| Prairie dogs! Happy little dancing prairie dogs. |
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| Happy little girl doing moves that would hospitalize me if I tried them. |
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| More prairie dogs. |
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| More hospitalizing moves |
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| More prairie dogs... |
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| Enough! |
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