That’s right. We are attempting to sleep in a ghost town tonight. And we are the only ones here!

But first, the Rundle Chalet last night was fine. I slept great. Cathy slept eventually. I remember waking up once a bit confused by being on a spring bed. It felt like an old cottage bed. It is a dated place but it worked just fine.

We took our time this morning, and by 9am we were on our way to Drumheller.

The last couple of days of driving have been a bit draining (lots of traffic) so we opted for the “Avoid Highways” option in Apple Maps. Highly recommended!

We started out on a back road with no shoulders going north out of Canmore. It was more of a 5th gear road instead of 6th gear.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned I’m doing this whole drive in a standard!?

Some sights:

We saw horses loose in the ditch, cattle, a field of bison, and lots of grain fields.

We went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum to learn about all the dinosaurs found in Alberta.

It is a very busy place. Lots to see and read. Certainly fascinating for kids that like dinosaurs but also interesting to learn about the different periods of time on the planet and what types of species survived each extinction period.

There was even a mammoth!

Afterwards we went east to check out some hoodoos but they were pretty underwhelming. This part of the province is oddly in an old riverbed with just the little Red Deer River flowing through it.

We skipped Dinosaur Provincial Park for me to explore with Jeff some day because he loves this stuff.

Two days ago, when I was looking ahead to see where we may camp tonight, I randomly clicked on a tent symbol in the iOverlander app that led me to Rowley, Alberta. A ghost town with camping by donation.

So here we are. In a field. Beside an abandoned ball diamond. All alone. And due to vagrants squatting in the town last summer, the bathrooms were locked at 5.

Cathy may never forgive me for this.

But the tent is dry again!!!

We set it up and then wandered around town.

Here are the bathrooms for the night.

Or. Maybe we’ll squat in the bushes?

There are grain elevators here!!

They give tours of the town during business hours, but we didn’t arrive until 4:45pm so we only had a brief overlap with the tour volunteer.

There are people living around this area, and the volunteer pointed out a couple of phone numbers on the brochure of locals who would come help is needed.

Once a month there are pizza parties here! With entertainment! But not tonight.

Perks of sleeping in an abandoned town:

• First night camping on grass! We could put tent pegs in the ground and not tie the fly to the truck! We can walk around inside the tent without saying ouch ouch ouch due to sharp gravel.
• We hear birds.
• Or silence.
• It’s getting cool and dewy. Probably not a perk but I needed to build out this list.
• No traffic sounds!
• Don’t have to hear other people talking, arguing, cooking, or snoring.
• It’s a great story?

Good night!