At The Wilds With Mom

In the first week of October 2011 (Monday and Tuesday) we returned to The Wilds, this time with Ben's mother, Jean. We hoped this expedition would be a highlight of her visit, as it was back in early May, 2010 for our visitors Serge and Jeanne, even if the weather was cooler this time.

The Wilds is located near Cambridge, Ohio. It is one of the largest conservation centers in the world, nearly 10,000 acres, situated on land strip mined in the 1960s and 1970s and reclaimed in the early 1980s.

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We stayed overnight in the yurts of Nomad Ridge, on-site lodging offered by The Wilds.

The view from Nomad Ridge had some changes since our last visit: there is a zipline down the ridge and across the lake. You might be able to discern a pair of towers alongside the road on the far side of the lake.

Here's a zoom-in on those towers. (There was mist in the air that evening.)

After a restful night at the yurts, then breakfast, we met our guide and climbed into the back of the Wildside Tour pickup truck, which has padded benches. My 87-year-old mother was welcome to sit inside the cab with the guide, but she chose to dress warmly and sit in the open with Joan and me. The lesson is that if you can climb up a few steps -- there is a deployable "gangway" for the pickup -- and hold onto a handrail, then sitting in the back, where the view is better, is an option to consider.

Our first stop was to visit the persian onagers and, nearby, the camels, who enjoy the grasslands but prefer the roads to travel from point A to point B. The onagers had youngsters to guard.

The camels (Bactrian) knew we had treats, and they weren't bashful. Our guide sat on top of the cab to dispense the goodies.

This fellow smiled knowingly at us.

One of his lady friends was also curious, approaching the other side of the truck.

Both of them enjoyed using their mouths to explore the truck, which turned out to be inedible.

The next area, separated by a gate, hosted a herd of Przewalski's horses. They are known to be irritable, and we carefully kept our hands inside the truck.

From there it wasn't far to the Mid-Sized Carnivore Center, where we disembarked from the pickup and explored the elevated boardwalks. The cheetahs were very relaxed.

We also stopped at the cheetah housing, but this time I have no pictures to share. For more on the cheetahs, see this earlier post.

The dholes, or Asiatic Wild Dogs, were less skittish than we had seen them before, possibly because we were the only people in sight, possibly because they have now been at the Wilds for a while, possibly both. Their countenance reminded us of red foxes.

Sadly, I have no pictures of the extremely intelligent African wild dogs.

Upon leaving the carnivore center we came across a Grevy's zebra. This animal occupies a middle ground between asses and zebras; some consider it a striped ass. It inhabits a small area: northern Kenya and southern and eastern Ethiopia. This one had something protruding from his flank (click to enlarge).

He had been darted. Contrary to what you might see in the movies, it takes a while for the drug to take effect. This Grevy's looks doleful; perhaps he realizes he must soon suffer through an exam.

We drove slowly by these fringe-eared oryx.

Before driving to the giraffe barn (many warm-climate animals cannot overwinter outdoors in Ohio), we saw this mother southern white rhinoceros and her nursing baby.

Then there was this older child and adult.

Our final stop on the tour was the giraffe barn; it was cool enough in October for several species to have come indoors for the winter. We were each offered the chance to feed one of the giraffes, and in this picture the giraffe has just used its long, prehensile tongue to pull the lettuce out of Mom's grasp.

Despite the chilly weather Mom enjoyed her visit, and we were pleased.

This entry has been posted on March 23, 2012, in honor of what would have been Jean's 88th birthday.

Demise of a Time Capsule

For the last 3½ years we've been using an Apple Time Capsule (TC). It has served as our router, our WiFi base station, and a backup hard drive for Time Machine on Joan's iMac. Then it began to fail.

The first failure coincided with two events, so we weren't positive what to judge as the cause. Time Machine announced that the backup drive was full, and it would have to begin removing the oldest versions to make room for further backups. Then the Internet connection failed, and Joan noticed that the TC status lamp was not on. Not green, not yellow, just not on. She unplugged the power cord and plugged it back, and the Time Capsule resumed its duties, for a while.

Then one afternoon the TC spontaneously turned itself off. We unplugged and replugged it several times, to no avail. Then, coming back a few hours later, it was working again.

Clearly it was time to do something. An Internet search revealed that the early Time Capsules had an abnormally high failure rate, most of which were due to the power supply. Eventually Apple extended the warranty for these Time Capsules, under user pressure, but at 3½ years old, ours was out of warranty even so. We were lucky to get 3½ years; many seemed to fail at about 18 months.

The Time Capsule suffers a lot of heat stress, which is what was killing the power supplies. The device has an internal power supply (turning the AC current from the wall into proper DC voltages), an internal hard drive, the wireless circuits, the Ethernet circuits, all generating heat -- and there is no ventilation. It doesn't even have feet to allow air flow under the unit; here's a picture of the bottom:

I went to our local Apple Store to get a replacement Time Capsule. However, the 2 terabyte (TB) model, $299, was not in stock in either central Ohio location. The 3 TB model could be had -- for $499. Given that we'd been happy with a ½ TB (500 gigabyte) model, I wasn't keen to pay an extra $200 for the larger unit. I went home to order online, but, lo and behold, the 2 TB units had a 1 to 2 week shipping estimate on apple.com. Our old Time Capsule was working today, but buying a replacement with an uncertain shipping date and praying that the old unit wouldn't die completely first did not sound like a sound strategy.

I went back to the Apple Store, now much more crowded than during my first visit, and priced my options. I could get an Airport Extreme for $179, which would take care of the wireless and routing functionality, and there was a 1 terabyte external hard drive available for $129.95, which we could use as the backup device for Time Machine. That adds up to $308.95, or $10 more than the 2 TB Time Capsule -- but much less than the 3 TB model. And having "just" 1 terabyte for backup wasn't an issue; we were, after all, replacing a ½ terabyte model! I brought them home.

The Airport Extreme has an external power supply, and no hard drive, so the heat build up should be tolerable, even though it also has zero ventilation:

I also put feet on the bottom of the Airport Extreme. It may not make a lot of difference, but it was an easy remedy to apply.

 Here is a photo of the old Time Capsule below the new, and more compact, Airport Extreme.

The external hard drive (black) is tucked behind the iMac, beside the (white) cable modem. It connects to the iMac through a USB port.

These replacement devices were easy to install and configure. Although the Airport Extreme is warm to the touch, with the separation of hard drive, power supply, and wifi/routing into three different enclosures, overheating should not cause problems. It was an adventurous time, but appears to have turned out well.

CR2011: Drumheller and Delia

After leaving the Royal Tyrrell, we stopped at the visitor center in Drumheller to check for any information we hadn't seen before, and to climb inside the world's largest dinosaur.

That fake tree isn't a fig leaf, it's a support, as shown in the side view.

 Here Joan stands in the jaws of doom.

In this view from the dinosaur's mouth you can see a smaller dinosaur next to the fountain.

After dinner, again at the Athens Restaurant, we returned to take more photos in the evening light.

 Depending on the angle of the shot, the photographer can create a wide range of dino scenarios, such as the chase,

and stalking.

The next day was our final day sampling the sights of Alberta. We started with a cool morning walk on the River Park trail system.

The portions close to the center of town are well paved.

As we continued to the east, we had a choice of following the sidewalk or taking the popular but unpaved trail, which stayed much closer to the river. We stuck with the river.

Sometimes the fluff from cottonwood trees would float through the air, until it eventually would settle into the waters.

The best of the trees needed protection from beavers, by wrapping the trunks in wire mesh.

This fine caterpillar caught our eye.

Drumheller also has streetside or shopfront dinosaurs, in the style of Chicago's Cows on Parade or Cincinnati's Big Pig Gig. The construction was rougher than in Chicago or Cincinnati, but the thought was the same. We passed this one on our walk; there was also one in front of our motel.

After returning to the town center, we perused a shop or two, and then drove east from Drumheller, to the Hand Hills, the second highest point between the Rockies and Labrador, reaching an elevation of about 1070 m (3536ft) above sea level. Driving northerly through the hills, we reached the small town of Delia and the Mother Mountain Tea House. 

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This restaurant, country store, and guest cottage is a welcome oasis in the open plains; it even was the host restaurant for the 1999 Western Premiers' Conference (prime ministers of the western provinces). Joan and I had a relaxing luncheon and a personable chat with one of the owners.

We returned to Drumheller to investigate the Homestead Pioneer Museum, one of the classic type where the contents have been donated by the residents of the area. (You can use Google to seek either the "Homestead Pioneer Museum" or the "Homestead Antique Museum," and you'll end up at the same web site. Perhaps the name changed some years ago?)

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As you can see in the above view, there is a circular building holding the smaller memorabilia, while a long hall houses larger artifacts, such as antique vehicles and tractors. The items on display run the gamut from the settling of the Red Deer River valley to modern times.

This next photograph is a panorama of three images showing the interior of the circular portion. (Interior panoramas are difficult to overlap properly, because objects are so close the camera; I apologize for the visible seams!) The black rectangles in the center aren't overlap artifacts, but rather the backs of display boards or cases. The entrance to the long hall is on the right.

This informal museum was well worth visiting. 

Ultimately it was time to turn our rental car towards Calgary. We stayed at the airport Delta Hotel, a strategy which allowed us to drop off our rental car earlier than otherwise, and to walk across to the terminal the next morning for our extremely early check-in. Our dinner at the hotel restaurant was good, despite the fact that an airport hotel often has a "captive audience." 

Our 2011 trip to the Canadian Rockies was over.

CR2011: The Dinosaur Trail and Royal Tyrrell Museum

We set out the next morning to drive the Dinosaur Trail, a long and skinny oval that traverses both banks of the Red Deer River between Drumheller and the Bleriot ferry. We chose to follow it clockwise, rather than counterclockwise as described in the literature, because we wanted to finish up at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology where we would then spend most of the day.

Our first stop on the drive was the Orkney Viewpoint, on top of the bluff overlooking the Red Deer River valley.

The view downstream shows it all: the river, lush farmlands, the bluffs, and the road winding up and down the valley.

 Also drinking in the fine morning were two mountain bluebirds. They didn't seem to mind our presence as long as we made no sudden movements.

Here's my best attempt to zoom in on one of the blues, cropping a photo to the limit.

From the Orkney viewpoint it was just a few kilometers to the Bleriot Ferry. The name may sound familiar; the ferry was named after André Bleriot, the brother of the first man to fly across the English Channel, Louis Bleriot.

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The historical sign was instructive (click to enlarge).

When we arrived the ferry was on the far bank.

Several fellows from the adjacent campground strolled over, and we all waited for the ferry to return.

There was plenty of time to admire the river and chat with the ferry operator during our free crossing.

The next stop on the Dinosaur Trail was at Horse Thief Canyon.

This was certainly a badlands, and easy to hide in.

A beggar emerged as we admired the view.

I also took a picture of one of the most common denizens of the Albertan plains.

Our next stop was at the Little Church, built in 1968 both as a roadside attraction and as a place of worship. It was extensively repaired in 1991 by inmates of the Drumheller Institution, a medium-security federal jail that is one of the region's major employers.

The interior is all to scale.

Finally we arrived at the Royal Tyrrell. Given that it was already 10:30, we decided to take the Badlands Interpretive Trail first, before it became even hotter outside. This is the museum's appearance from the rise across the street. It is very modern, having opened in 1985, and was named after Joseph Tyrrell, who discovered the first dinosaur fossil in the Red Deer River Valley in 1884.

This is a montage of the first few signs on the badlands trail (click to enlarge).

The trail was an interesting walk, but we had seen plenty of badlands in the last few days, and it was getting hot. Here is a look back to the museum from the trail.

Joan enters the museum. Note that the panels above the entrance are sunlight filters, not solar panels, which they can be mistaken for from a distance.

As soon as you enter the first exhibition hall, you know you are in a world-class museum. The Queen of England thinks so too, hence the designation Royal Tyrrell Museum, bestowed in 1990. I should note that non-commercial photography was allowed, but without using a flash. Some of my pictures will be grainy.

You can get very close, but do not touch!

Black Beauty is an stunning vertically mounted Tyrannosaurus Rex, whose bones were darkened by minerals. It was discovered in 1980 in a riverbank near Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, and excavation began in 1982. Black Beauty has been around the world, but this is the original, and this is its home.

Then there is the Gorgosaurus:

... and his story (clock to enlarge).

It is natural for the Royal Tyrrell to focus on dinosaurs, but there are many other exhibits, including interactive kiosks, wideo presentations, windows on the laboratories where technicians are preparing specimens, and a reconstruction of a Devonian reef. My favorite of these was a Burgess Shale exhibit, where you walk on a glass floor with 500 million year old "creatures" on the "seabed" underneath.

One striking exhibit was a large, dimly lit room with dinosaurs illuminated by spotlights, and related artifacts in niches along two walls. As Joan and I walked through a Bach Brandenberg Concerto was playing, and these ornithomimus specimens were poised on the floor.

Looming overhead were the deinonychus, with the terrible sickle claws.

Even worse in closeup. Look at those feet!

The botanical side was not forgotten, and we strolled through the Cretaceous Garden, populated by plants that existed in the time of the dinosaurs.

Nor were the sea creatures ignored.

We had already been at the museum for several hours when we wandered into the final exhibit hall. It was a wonder, and any dinosaur fan could spend ages in it. I will simply present a collection of photos that should impart some of the feelings it evoked. The first one shows how the exhibit was organized in rings, rather than aisles.

You can see why most recommendations are to spend several hours at the Tyrrell -- we spent about five, including a lunch break at the useful but uninspired cafeteria.

And with that, I will declare our visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology complete. Our final day in Alberta will be described in the next post.