And Then Sunday/Monday

After the clinic I went home turned out Jess and unhooked my trailer.  It was dark so I quit.  I had plans to get up early in the morning and go to Calgary to pick up my sister.  I got up at 4 and out the door shortly afterwards.  Picked up Heidi and headed back to Drum.  Been half a day already and was only 8!  But we picked up our race packages for the Drum Half Marathon and then hung around to until it was our time to start.

Weirdly enough we wore matching blue shirts and both put our green race shirt on top, we were thinking it was cool we matched, might do it again next year.  Finally they did the warmups for our race and since we knew we were walking the whole thing we stayed at the back.  Was a good day for it, was raining earlier that morning but it quit by the time we got there.  Was a bit cool but nice temperature to walk in.

(too bad the pole was in front of Heidi's face the scenery is sure pretty)

(not us but thought it was cute with the giant dino 

in the background as on our shirt hes chasing us )

We walked not too fast but not too slow, Heidi's ankles hurt if she goes too fast and my broken toe wasn't so great if we walked at all but I tried to save it a bit and it wasn't too bad afterwards.  We finished in 1:56:02.  Not bad, I didn't think we would do under 2 hours so was happy with that.  Got our medal and a pic with the dinosaur and then they had mini donuts.....for free!!!!  MMM  who can argue with that???  We stuck around a bit and visited with a few people and then headed back to Calgary but we made a couple stops on the way.

First was at Beiseker to see the giant Skunk, I had seen him before but never took a pic so it was perfect.  Heidi didn't have any giant things off her list now she has a few :)

Then down the road a few miles to Irricana, where they have a giant horse.  Of course we also saw a Unicorn which I had no idea was there.  I had to save Heidi from him he was gonna stomp her!

Then we drove over to Airdrie where they have a cowboy with real clothes on, a rooster, a bull and Maters cousin.  That was fun.

Then off to Calgary to make crabapple jelly and butter.  We never finished that night had to finish up in the morning cause we were just too tired.

 Long weekend but it was a lot of fun.  I came home Monday afternoon and just rested I was tired!

Coal Mine Tour

Ach I'm so behind!  So much is going on that I feel like I need to blog about but had no time!  But Ill start back where I left off.  Hopefully can catch up soon!

***If you click on the pictures you can actually read the signs ***

Another walk I went on in Drumheller, just a couple days later.  I had walked on one of the many trails they have in Drum and had planned to go to the same one again cause it was pretty.  Well I parked at the same spot and then got lost haha.  Started walking on the railroad track cause I thought it was on the other side of it.  But couldn't find it, then I got across the highway and saw the Midland coal mine, well I had always wanted to tour that so went over there and did that instead.

(where I parked and the train bridge)

It was a cool place, there was a lot of coal mines in Drum, that's how the town started.  All are closed up now but there is a bunch that they have made into tourist sites cause its always interesting to see where a town came from.

(The tourist building, must have been used for something but it doesn't say)

(the main sign of the Mercury Mine)

(telling how it all ended)

(ponies :) )

(This shows the hill to the left where the water tower stood)

(they even put in a mini gazebo so you can rest)

(old rail lines still there)

(not sure what these were for, 

but there are pillars on both sides of the mowed area, 

must have been footing for a building)

There is a lot of signs showing what they did while mining.  Its interesting and really amazing how much is still there.  Hard to get pics cause the day was pretty cloudy and I only had a phone to take pics, gonna have to go back there on a sunny day and look again.

(Showing how the men and mine cars got down in

 and back out of the mine in the elevators)

(and how the mine was laid out)

(Another mine right close by, the area both these mines are in is called Midland)

(Explaining where the mines went)

(And an old coal cutter, pretty impressive machine really)

There was a lot of mines in Drumheller, but only a few did the historic stuff, I'm glad a few did, the only cooler one is just outside East Coulee, the Atlas Coal Mine, and they still have a tipple you can go in, I only been there once on Halloween, should go again in the daytime, hopefully less chainsaw killers around then.