Lucas Camilo

After crossing the border into Montana and spending a beautiful night camping on the outskirts of Glacier National Park, we finally ran into our first spate of bad luck yesterday morning (more about that later, but just to say we are all safe and healthy now.) We ended up heading south and landed in the front range town of Choteau, which happens to be just 12 miles away from ANOTHER dinosaur museum. Lucas (of course!) wrote about it.

sizmo the seismosaurus .
she was 137 FEET LONG !
pretty big for a average sizmosaurus.
i went under her about 80 foot long tail
i sent pichers for all of u guys and gals .
the pepole in choteau told us about her

(note – this last picture shows Ida with a Tsintaosaurus fossil skull. We often call Ida “Tsintaosaurus” when she wears her hair in a single spike going straight up, just like this unique dinosaur.)

We’ve arrived to Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, the halfway point in our journey. Yesterday we spent 2 hours rumbling through the badlands on a special tour. Here’s what Lucas had to say:

dino fossil tour .
we
had
all
of
us
in
a
cool
bus ..
we where in dino provinchel park .
tom was the tour guide .
and also our bus driver .
we were in in the badlands .
we herd a story from tom .
and saw dino fosills
we saw a corithosaurus head .

The adventures continue on our Dino Family World Tour. Yesterday was one of the best days yet and Lucas managed to write three separate blog posts over 24 hours. They need a little context – for example, Bow-wow the T-rex is the name of Ida’s stuffed Tyrannosaurus Rex which we picked up at the store next to the frequently mentioned 26-meter tall T-Rex named Dino. The “favorite thing” refers to the 6 hours we spent in the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum. And the karaoke… well, Lucas and Burke did an a capella version of the Dinosaur Train A to Z song during family karaoke night at the RV park.

bow-WOW the t-rex .

a dinosaur store .HEY THAT RHYYMES !
of course we saw dino.
my favorote thing was the time tinnels paleozoic cenozoic and of
corse the
old mezizoic

names of dinosaurs from alberta .
well of corse the albertosaururs .
amargosaurus .centrosaurus . euoplocepholus. Its a tooter

karyokey.

we did our dinosaur a 2 z song.
we did it here in a place where they do karyokey
dad didnt know all the dinosaurs in the a to z song

my blog .

the baby of dino
well maybae
or the father ..
pretty cool idea huh
we were in drumheller like i say problobly named after drums .
we got a some cards at the museum about her.

We arrived in Drumheller yesterday afternoon, aka “the Dinosaur Capital of the World.” Lucas summed up our arrival well in yesterday’s post- we went straight to the town center where Dino the 26 METER T-rex (he accidentally wrote “26 foot tall” in his post) resides. At the RV park this morning he had this to say about the beasts who hang out closer to our camping spot, which Ida also enjoyed….

triceratops .

we saw some REALY CUTE BUNIES !and of course a triceratops 2.
probloby made out of some plastic .
i got to get up and pet it .
wich is prety cool if you ask me .
we are at the dinosaur RV park .

Below is Lucas’s latest blog post, written last night outside the RV in Dinosaur Trail RV Park, right as another big storm rolled in (the picture at right is the blogger hard at work.)

26 foot fiberglass t-rex.
THE WORLDS LARGEST DINOSAUR !
i was REALY suprized that we got to see it outside of a muzeum called
drumheller problobly named after drums
her name
was Dino

For the first time since leaving Vancouver in the RV on Tuesday morning we have wifi access. But its late at night after a long day so we won’t say much…  It’s been an amazing trip so far, with more to come soon.

Here’s Lucas’s blog post from last night, which we spent at a magnificent RV park in Banff National Park:

RV ing.

I am a grrrrrrrrreat RVer theese RV days .

a terrible storm came but evenchilly we got away JUST IN TIME!

We RAN AWAY ! to get back to our RV .

We drove reeeeeeeeeealy far.

the canadian rockeis is where we are .

my favorote thing so far is the mountins.

We are underway!  Yesterday, after months of hype and almost as much preparation, we spent all morning packing.  And by noon we were loading the Dinosaur Family World Tour 2016 crew into our van for the first leg of the trip.  Huge thanks to Nonna and Maya B. for hanging out with the kids while the two of us packed!

The drive to Vancouver took much longer than google maps told us it would, but our kids were incredibly patient.  When we stopped just across the border to get out of the van and rest, Lucas exclaimed “OMG! We’re in Canada!”  Ida only lost it when the clock struck four hours in the car, and even then, she’s a pretty easygoing stuck-in-a-car-seat-mad kid.

We spent the night in Vancouver so we’d have time to rest and gather our energies before packing up the RV and heading out.  We found a hotel near the water and Stanley Park in downtown, and Lucas has been excited to look for Zakes and Zanzouver Zubers (two of his many made up creatures).  At check-in we were told we had been upgraded to a room with a view and a balcony.  Somehow, despite the odds, Lucas and Ida fell asleep pretty easily in this new place, so the two of us got an hour of our own vacation – 32 stories high, taking in the stunning Vancouver scenery.

Of course, the views will only get better as today we pick up the RV and head west.  This step — making sure we all can load and lock down in the RV — is our next major leap of planning and faith.  Wish us luck and more adventures!

Team shirts with our dinosaur names on the back

We are a week away from heading out on our big summer adventure – an epic tour in a wheelchair accessible RV through the Canadian Rockies and western Montana to visit dinosaur fossil sites, museums and national parks. Here’s what Lucas just wrote this about it:

i am going to montana and canada alberta too
i am going to take my van to vancoover and then swap to this RV 26 ft.
swap means to swich and i just thout that that would make it very very
funny .
i am also going to glacher to find dinosaur fosils

We’ve never done anything like this before so we’re a little nervous and don’t really know how its going to go. But with airplane travel no longer a possibility for our family, traveling in a wheelchair accessible RV (which are exclusively rented from one place outside of Vancouver BC) is pretty much the only way to reach a town like Drumheller, Alberta, aka the Dinosaur Capital of the World. And needless to say, Lucas is excited! In fact, he’s agreed to write a daily travel blog so look out for that starting next week. He may also set up a Twitter account and live tweet our dinosaur discoveries.

If you’re curious what our rig looks like and what route we’re going to take (more than 2000 miles!) then check out the awesome youtube video below, as well as the Google map we created of our imminent journey. Oh yeah, and we’re getting team t-shirts with our respective ankylosaur nicknames on the back (Ida’s version is pictured here.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7uRHnmTyeg