Edmonton to Medicine Hat

   I started the day in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta. It's a city with lots of interest in Canada's tar sands oil fields which are only 300 miles to the north.

   I drove in the opposite direction down Rt 2 towards Calgary; turning off the highway before the city and heading to Drumheller, home of a famous museum. 

  When I first got off the highway I was amazed at how much farmland there was. Hundreds of square miles of cultivation made me wonder how there could ever be a shortage of food in the world. The terrain changed suddenly when I reached Drumheller, it was the edge of The Badlands.

   Just outside town is the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology which houses one of the worlds largest collections of dinosaur fossils. The exhibits all come from the nearby badlands where loose sandy soil is eroded, leaving many of the skeletons on the surface to be discovered; some even by kids out fishing. The modern building is built among the hills and valleys where the bones are discovered.

   After a couple of hours it was time to hit the roads again and I drove a few more hours to Medicine Hat, near the border with Saskatchewan. I wanted to press a bit further but there wasn't much ahead on the map for another 4 or 5 hours.

   Wishing everyone at home a happy 4th of July weekend; my plan for the day is reeling in the miles eastward.