After having breakfast and letting the kids play for a little longer, we hit the road. It was sad to say goodbye, but our friends say they will probably be in BC in the fall, so we are hopeful they will take us up on our offer and stay with us.
It didn't take long for the little ones to fall asleep. They usually nap at home, and on this trip they are getting no naps, unless they are in the car. Plus they are up late every night. But I have to tell you, Briton and Cooper are amazing travellers!! We have travelled over 3000 km so far and they have been wonderful and cooperative and uncomplaining!
They have little to no entertainment in the car, other than the Adventures in Odyssey story tapes, a few movies they have watched and the Bible audio. This trip I just found it easier to not have 'stuff' in the car and you know what? I didn't need it. They have been content to travel light.
We headed directly to Moose Jaw to see the Underground Tunnels. When we were waiting for our tour to start the tour guide asked us questions about our family. We told them we have eight children (how nice is that to be able to say!). Later on she was asking all the people to say where they were from and I said our town. She then interrupted to say, "And she has eight children! How nice is that these days!"And I have to toot my children's horn *smile*. After the 50 minute tour was over she thanked us all for coming and said as we passed by, "I just marvel at how well behaved these children were!" So I am patting my boys on the back. It was a long walking tour with the tour guide doing all the talking, and the boys were as good as gold. It was hard for Briton to be silent the whole time, but he did a fine job of it.
The tunnel tours were great. It was amazing to hear the real history of the Chinese immigrants and how Canada exploited them. I am proud to see that Saskatchewan takes ownership for what our Canadian government did wrong and tells the Chinese story.
When I hear stories of World War II and how Canada turned away Jews it stuns me. And that is a story that I have never heard that we have taken ownership and responsibility for. So it was refreshing to see the Tunnels and hear our 'fault' in this piece of history.
The boys really enjoyed the Al Capone story. It was interesting because when the gangster that was taking us through the tunnels held up a gun and asked us if we knew what it was, Dane quickly answered, "Chicago Typewriter." I was impressed! The guy then told Dane he was right (didn't show much surprise that Dane knew) and then proceeded to tell the group it was a 'Tommy Gun'.
Dane was not impressed that the guy used a modern name for the gun, when it wasn't call that back in the 20s!
So many times on this trip I wished Colt were with me. He studied Canadian history last year and this would have been the ultimate field trip for him, after he had read about the NWM Police, and the Railroad and the Chinese Immigrants, and Prohibition etc.
Flossie and the Boys (Al Capone tour)
Gus and the Boys (Al Capone tour)On our drive through town back to the freeway we saw the Saskatchewan Armoury. That was cool for Dane. We drove through the driveway and snapped a number of pictures.
After we left Moose Jaw we headed to Drumheller. I wasn't sure how far we would get because of the little ones. We initially left our friends at 10:30 in the morning, got to Moose Jaw to the tunnels at 12:00 and then left Moose Jaw at 2:30 pm. So we had driven 170 km in the morning.
I knew it was another 640 km to Drumheller and we weren't starting out until into the afternoon, so I wasn't sure about it. We started out and about an hour later the little ones fell asleep again. I was thankful to see them sleep for about two hours. They were so exhausted from all our travels, so this was great!
During our drive to Drumheller, after Moose Jaw, we saw the strangest sights. I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for it, but to us it appeared that there was lime or snow all over the place. There was even a mountain of it. It filled the air, the horizon, floated on the grass, everything. Shortly after this area the ground and air became normal again. Strange.
Dane joked, after I had sat on the side of the road taking pictures of this stuff, that it was radioactive.
It turned out to be a great trip and we were able to make it right to Drumheller. I was hoping to do this so I could get two nights in one hotel and be able to run some laundry!
These are some of the beautiful land formations that we found as we drove into the town of Drumheller. I am not sure how they are all formed. We were speculating if a flood could have caused all this, but who knows? Perhaps we will find out while we are here.
We arrived in town having done our hotel research while on the road. We had found the two hotels that had waterslides and breakfast. I was already booked into a hotel for $139 with no waterslide or breakfast. I popped into the Super 8 to ask about their prices and was pleasantly surprised when she told me the room was $175, but she would give it to me for $149!
I didn't tell her how good her deal was; I just took the room! It came with three double beds, so we didn't have to double up the little ones in a cot. Not that it made them wiggle and bug each other any less! (So I called and cancelled our other hotel.)
We immediately dumped our bags, grabbed our bathing suites and headed for the waterslides (them) and hot tub (me).
I will tell you about those adventures in tomorrows blog, along with photos.
We threw in some laundry and then headed up to our room to order some pizza. Luckily for the boys Remember the Titans was on tv, so they had a movie and pizza before falling asleep at nearly midnight - again!
Relaxing With His Pizza. 
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