The Badlands Science Camp at the Royal Tyrrell Museum is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for youngsters to live out their palaeontological dreams.
For one family it also turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime.
Jason Howe and his husband Adrien Perez Boluda registered their twin daughters Olivia and Clara for last week’s Science Camp and were set to board a plane from Los Angeles to Alberta to make that happen. The labour dispute at WestJet however certainly made that a little tougher.
“It wasn’t just for them exactly, we had also planned a trip already, and we had hotel rooms booked,” said Jason.
The family was through Drumheller last year and that’s what sold them on the Science Camp.
“When we got the message our flight was cancelled, it was around 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. We were due in Drumheller at the museum at 6 the following evening, so we just had barely enough time to drive,” said Howe. “One of my twins flopped down on the bed and said, “This was going to be the worst summer ever.’”
There wasn’t much WestJet could do.
“They (WestJet) were caught with their pants down. It seems like they hadn’t done anything to deal with the possibility,” he said.
The only option WestJet gave them was to cancel the flight. With bags already packed, they opted for the family truckster.
“‘I said, “throw the bags in the car, we’re going”,” laughs Jason.
They hit the highway, and after 1,500 miles, a 3-hour nap in Salt Lake City, they arrived at camp, and on time.
He said his daughters were looking forward to the camp and one is a budding palaeontologist. When speaking to Jason they were halfway through camp and so far, enjoying it.
“They were in a fantastic mood on the way up, and we earned our brownie points as the best dads ever.”
And the dads also got a break and headed to the mountains while the twins were at camp.
As for the ride home, they are able to take it a little easier, however, it did open their eyes to possibly taking more road trips.
“My husband is from Spain and we talked about doing road trips in Europe but it’s not really a European thing,” he said, noting it seems like the distances are too far. “But now we realize we drove the distance from where my husband is from in Spain, to Poland.”
