Think back to last Friday, not this past Friday, last Friday...the one I headed out to Drumheller. Ok, great. Here's how that weekend went...

I was scheduled to leave work around 2:30 or 3pm on Friday afternoon. I didn't get to leave until almost 4pm. I was fuming. My 'boss' asked me to stay around a bit so that when he finished his 3pm he could give some additional comments/information/instructions before he left. When he finally got out of the meeting at 3:50pm I was very upset. He said "Go, get out of here. Have a great weekend." I snapped, "No, you had better have something very important to tell me. I waited around here." Nope...just go he says. Fuming I walked out the door. The day had been going so well. We took a lovely couple out for lunch along with all our staff and then I got to let everyone go home early. It was a gorgeous hot sunny afternoon and no one minded. Then...I didn't get to leave.

At 4pm on one of the final Fridays of summer the traffic is thick. I fought my way out of town and then fought my way for the first 45 minutes outside of Edmonton before it finally calmed down. As anyone who travels the road between Edmonton and Calgary...it is long, straight and boring. At some point I realized I had forgotten the post it note I had written the directions to the campsite. Oops. I tried to remember what it said. #9 #512 #10 or something like that. I finally pulled over somewhere outside of Red Deer and looked at a map. I planned a new route and a couple of numbers looked familiar so I figured I was on the right track.


My goal was to get to the campground before dark. I purchased the tent at Walmart not more than 6 days before and had yet to get it out of the bag. I didn't enjoy the thought of having to assemble a new tent for the first time in the dark. Luckily I didn't need to. I arrived just before dusk and did manage to get the tent up in light, but ended up setting up the rest of my 'camp' in the dark. I thank my sense of direction and knack for remembering directions for helping me arrive on time.

When I first drove into Drumheller I was in awe. It was beautiful. I immediatly had the thought that I needed to move there. Drumheller has the type of scenery that I could never get tired of looking at. The type of view that changes everyday with the light, the season, the mood. It was awe inspiring. So much so that the next day I found myself looking at all the businesses wondering who I might be able to get a job with and wondering what the cost of real estate would be.

Prior to leaving on this my frist camping trip of the year I decided that the wise thing to do would be freeze my food in water and then by the time it melted it would be time to eat. I bought these rather yummy Hot Italian sausages and froze them individually in snack bags. There was about an inch of ice all around the sausage. Perfect! The steak for day 2 I froze in the bottom of my little lunch cooler along with the butter and a few other goodies. I also froze a lot of bottles of water. I knew the water would come in handy as the expected temperatures for the weekend hovered around 22 degrees. And then the melted water would be contained and not all over my truck or tent. Sometimes I'm so smart.


My plan may have worked a little too well. I left everything in the freezer at work...no, I didn't forget it. I took it with me, but then the sausages only had the three hour drive to unthaw which wasn't really enough time. I ended up banging the ice on the picnic table and melting them on the fire I had started. But I maintain it was still a success. The sausages were fantastic. There's something about food being cooked over an open fire that adds to the flavour. The smores were pretty darn good too!