Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Brooks

Saturday morning we packed up and hit the wide open road. Our next destination was Brooks. NAC has a job there and we have a bunch of friends who were transferred there. We were looking forward to seeing familiar faces! :-)

First a tiny little detour to see the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Doesn't the name alone make you curious enough to want to see what it's all about? It's in the middle of nowhere. A new modern Interpretive centre is built right into the hills of the buffalo jump. There were tons of artifacts and displays and a great movie. It was recently produced within the last couple of years and they did a fantastic job with it. If you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth a stop.

After we were finished watching the movie, we wandered outside. This photo shows Keith and Max walking along the top of the buffalo jump. The cliffs are on the right hand side of the photo.

A beautiful view overlooking the cliffs of the jump. A view that just went on and on forever...

Those teepees in the middle of the photo are part of the interpretive centre. I believe you can rent them and camp in them overnight. Again...if we would have had our act together ahead of time, I think that would have made a really cool spot to spend the night.

And this would be a side view of the buffalo jump. There was a hike you could do below the jump. We didn't have enough time though. We had places to go and people to see!

After we left the buffalo jump, our tummies were all growling for lunch. We decided to stop at the next rest area and have a picnic. A little distance away we found a rest area just off the highway. As we were turning into the rest area, we saw this on the side of the road...

That would be a cougar...or a mountain lion...whatever they are called. And it was dead (we think it had been shot?) and lying right beside the highway and very close to the rest area. That is my first ever closeup encounter with one and I would hate to meet up with a live one - just a glance shows how powerful, sleek and strong they are. Needless to say, I didn't overly enjoy our picnic. Kinda kept an eye over my shoulder all the time and whispered a little prayer that no uninvited guests would join us.

After lunch was over, we hit the road and settled in for a few hours of uninterrupted driving. It didn't take long for our windshield to look like this...yuck!

The Maxter is all hooked up with a new little movie to entertain him. Clearly, there was not much else to do or see (you can tell that from the photo above...buggy as it is....it's just flat and grass and that's about it!)

Later that afternoon we arrived at Gerry's place. Yay! :-)

We found a laundromat just around the corner from his place and got all our laundry done. We could have used Gerry's washing machine and dryer at his house, but we would have been at it forever and ever. This way we got it all done in an hour and we didn't have to worry about it.

"The Man's Garage"...funny how guys get all excited about making the garage into a "man's garage". Max thought it was pretty awesome that he could watch TV in the garage. And stretched out on a area rug at that!This gave Keith big ideas for how he wants to set our garage up now...

Saturday night, Gerry invited over Pat & Michelle and Champ & Kelly and their kids for dinner. It was so much fun to see our friends again. The kids had a blast together..

Gerry cooked up a huge pot of spaghetti sauce and it was DELISH. Even better then my spaghetti recipe, I gotta say. Michelle and Kelly brought salad and dessert and we were all well fed! I never did get photo of all the guys. They were too busy hanging out in the "Man's Garage" all night! The kids played outside all evening until the mosquitos just about ate them alive. Max was having so much fun he didn't want to put on bug spray...but he payed for it later. Those Alberta mosquito bites are HUMONGOUS! What a fun night! It's been a long time since we were all living in North Van...so good to get all caught up with everyone again! :-)

Saturday night we just parked our tent trailer in Gerry's driveway and slept there. Thanks Gerry! I'd like to say that was the plan all along. The real plan was to stay at a Provincial Park nearby. But leaving things until the last minute...we couldn't get in the Saturday night. Sunday and Monday night we did stay at the campground.