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Published: March 22nd 2010
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With our time winding down in Canada we made sure to fit in some of our favourite things before leaving. The first of which was a return to Drumheller. Rick made the trip to Calgary from Banff and before we left for Drumheller he did something completely retarded. Whilst playing darts he decided to throw one from about a metre away, it clanked into the board side on, bounced back and flew right into Rick's thumb. As he stood there bleeding, I wondered if I should help or just laugh. I really think they should give the guy a TV show. That night we called NZ to talk to some of our mates, a few of our other mates were in Japan for my friend Kenji's wedding. Check out the video I made for him here:
Video for Kenji Anyway Scott had left early to play some golf on what is supposed to be a ridiculously hard, and hence expensive course, so us others drove up a bit later in the day and went to check out Horseshoe Canyon. If you want to read about it I've got a prior blog on it titled "Dinosaurs on the Moon". This time after checking
out the sites we decided to play Man Tracker (For those non-North American's it's a popular TV show). The aim was for Rick and I to get back to the car unspotted by the girls before they did. They had a head start. I'm not really sure what we were thinking with these rules, they were always going to beat us back. We were adamant to not get seen though, so somewhat stupidly started shimmying on our bellys up the side of a ravine. It was pretty steep, and we were getting shredded up by plants and trees. What exacerbated the situation was Rick commenting "If we were to see a rattlesnake, this is where it'd be". We briskly made it to the top of the ravine after that and started hooning around the top of the hillside. I think by the time we got back the girls had had a hot drink and were thinking about sending out a search party.
On the way in towards the city we stopped to see the World's Largest Dinosaur, it is a model of a T-Rex that is 25 metres high. It's supposed to cost to climb up the internal stairs,
but we just waited until the teller was busy with a customer and made a run for it. The view is pretty cool from the T-Rex's mouth, it's a shame really that more aren't alive today so people could experience the view from out of a T-Rex's mouth. Although undoubtedly it would be the last thing they ever saw. Speaking of seeing things, Rick and I had a conversation about never having seen a dinosaurs umm ... cough cough ... doodle. Wonder what they looked like?
Whilst making our way to one of many authentic local pubs, we passed what I would say is the worlds smallest church. It was truely bizzare. We could just cram the four of us in, but one had to be the preacher, two could sit and the other had to stand up the back. You'll have to see the photos to understand what I'm talking about. Once we made it to the pub, we drank local beers until Scott and his cousins, who he'd been golfing with, had finished. The thing I found weird about the place was the urinals had ice in them. I still to this day wonder why they'd put
ice in a urinal? In fact it almost caused me an injury - a ruptured kidney from peeing too hard trying to melt it all. Just to be safe, I would defenitely adhere to the adage "don't eat yellow snow" around this place.
Scott's cousins invited us back to their place after a few bevies. We graciously accepted and were amazed by their fantastic setup. Their house was right on the river bank, and had amazing views. What impressed me more was the basement. It was every mans dream - a snooker table, poker table, humongous TV with cable, arcade golf game, bar area, shower and toilet, comfy couches, hot dog machine, pop corn machine, bar fridges, the list goes on. I wanted to stay forever. We somehow dragged ourselves out of the awesome basement and played a game called Bolivian bowls on the back lawn. It entails, bowling a huge round disc, kind of a cross between a discuss and a lawn bowl, towards a pole. Then the other team bowl towards the pole at your end. You get extra points if you can get your bowl to rest against the pole. My team dominated Rick's team in
a brutal display. We finished in style when I got my final bowl to touch the pole. The crowd erupted ... well they would have had they not gone back to the basement for an absolute feast of Chinese. We ate until it hurt. Well I know I did.
After bidding farewell to the basement, oh and Scott's cousins, we headed to the Last Chance Saloon. We'd visited the bar before during the day, but wanted to experience it at night and stay in the adjoining Rosedeer Hotel which is apparently haunted. We checked in and were shown to our rooms which had decor from the early 1900's. We made our way straight down to the bar, it was chocker, a guy was having his 60th so everyone was in fine form. Whilst a local band played, Rick and I played some pool whilst drinking out of mason jars (like jam jars), Nic and Tina watched ice hockey on a 10" tv screen (the only one in the bar), and Sam and Scott made friends with a strange local named Alfie who took them out to his truck for a smoke then proceeded to lock the doors and make
a joke that that's what he does with the prostitutes. Needless to say Sam and Scott made their way back into the bar pretty damn quickly. Alfie came inside after that, played a quick game of pool, bought a case of beers and then took off, I think he may very well be a criminal on the run. Talking of running, Rick gave serious thought to running up the hill out the back of the bar, there is a record of 7 minutes to get to the top and back. By the look of the hill, it would take about a week I reckon. The only way to do it in 7 minutes would be to sprint all the way up and then roll all the way down. With the way Rick was drinking Jack Daniels maybe that was realistic.
During the height of summer there is a stage out the back of the bar where local bands play, I bust out a bit of air guitar, shame no one was watching, it was epic. We managed to cajole the bar owner to play the band box, for just $2 we witnessed the little fullas doing their thing (check
out the vid). From there Rick bust out the elbow dance, Nic and I played some shuffleboard - a great game that should be in all bars, and Scott tucked into the putrid looking and smelling pickled eggs and sausages. Eeewwww.
Before going to bed the girls tried to get onto the third story of the hotel, but it is locked, apparently because of people seeing ghostly apparitions. Through some spy work though, they thought they'd found a secret door and were trying to peer under it. This is when the door creaked opened and the girls screamed, a poor old lady emerged, saw weirdo's looking under her hotel room door and screamed herself. There was a whole lot of screaming. I'm pretty sure if I was there I wouldn't have, because I'm a man ... Plus I find that when you are staring at ladies from under the door it's best to keep silent.
That night I had trouble sleeping, strange noises and smells were wafting in from the hallway. I'm pretty sure it was the ghost. Although, looking back now a more educated guess would be that it was Scott being violently ill throwing up pickled
eggs. Nah, I still reckon it was a ghost.
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