Not Quite A Stroll on the Beach
Welcome to “Throw Back Monday”. These are the posts where I’ve gone back and delved into my blog and pulled some posts from quite a few years ago. Yep, I’ve been blogging for a long time… Despite the time warp, it's a trip of sorts, a trip through time.
Too much work, and no vacation,
Deserves at least a small libation.
So hail! my friends,
and raise your glasses,
Work's the curse of the drinking classes.
~Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde did have an interesting spin on things.
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Just outside the village of Patricia
A few years back I was on the road exploring another bit of the country. While I’m calling it a vacation, I'm still thinking about what I’m writing - this story or that. But the guilt at having fled from my computer for days at a stretch is like sand in my shoes or flip flops, easily brushed aside. Anyway, while choosing one road over another that took us on a quaint drive through ranch land with patches of scrub brush giving subtle indicators of what's to come. The villages along this route reference women in one way or another; Princess, Patricia, Duchess, Rosemary, Countess and Millicent. I want to know why but don’t find the answer.
But I digress. It was a zig instead of a zag that led to the road to Alberta’s badlands and Dinosaur Provincial Park. There were dinosaurs with absolutely no hint of Jurassic - I hoped. Okay, it was a road sign that sent us down a road to the past. It was a twisted road and took a few turns to get there. And no, there were no sign of dinosaurs, not yet.
Slow Down for Snakes?
My rule on wildlife – slow down for anything! Okay, back to snakes – fortunately, there were none. Of course, it was a hot day, and any self-respecting snake would have long ago hunted down shade.
The rough, prairie scrub grass opens into a vast, timeworn valley. It's beautiful and yet eerie, especially if you think of it in the context of what it is - a giant reptilian cemetery. Okay, maybe that was slightly macabre, but the truth is that the valley is littered with dinosaur bones. In the summer months, paleontologists come here from around the world to participate in digs.
Then there’s the warnings!
There are numerous signs, warning of preserved, off-limits sites with notices to leave all bones and fossils where they lay. And then there’s the warnings that are a little more disturbing. Again, watch out for living critters who aren’t as friendly as the dead - black widows, scorpions and, of course, rattle snakes.
No worries there – I didn’t venture off the path. Who knows what slithery thing is out there!
Creepy crawlies aside, it's not often in my day-to-day life that I'm reminded of the ice age or the extinction of the dinosaurs. But when you stand on the precipice of this valley it's like you've been rushed back in time to a place you can barely imagine. The valley is a testament is a reminder of
the power of nature and that once, the earth looked nothing like it does now.
Way back when, when dinosaurs walked the earth.
All in all, it was the perfect detour that only created a small zig instead of a zag across a secondary highway and into another world. It was a detour that could kick anyone's imagination into overdrive.
Did I find a fossil or even a bone - nope. But I did locate a piece of wood that looked amazingly like a leg bone. That is, if you used your imagination
Ryshia
…the adventure begins today!
Ryshia
…the adventure begins today!
Cemetery Hill - is that its real name? I don't know. What I do know is that a cemetery sits on the peak of this hill that overlooks the town of Fort Qu'Appelle. As the hill drops into the valley - you find the oldest graves. There are plots of people who died as far back as the 1800's. As the cemetery pulls away from the valley, the graves ease into years rather than centuries ago. 
