the end of THIS thing

okay need to check out the field visitor center so i know what i'm talking about when i ask them for a job.

i'm thinking though what better way to attract people to a fossil display then with a dinosaur... even if they don't technically find us around here normally.

well for some reason there's a cowboy statue in front of the center. trilobite wrangler?

heading inside there was a bunch of fossil displays, and i figured best thing to do was check them out, and demonstrate my superior knowledge of the burgess shale

yeah no big surprises. they had a whole cabinet full of trilobites from mount stephen

a cool selection on other critters from fossil ridge. like the iconic marrella...

one of my favs though is the tentacled football leanchoilia...

they had a pretty small, but good selection of burgess shale fossils. all ones i knew about. so it would be easy to sell myself as both a palaeo attraction, but also expert.

there was only one problem when i went around the corner and bumped into their alberta and BC tourism displays...

there was a dinosaur in the center. not just that she was there from the tyrrell to promote the museum! now considering the circumstances we were both pretty civil. however this struthiomimus was very set on this job staying HERS!

well so much for that idea...

i guess i'm meant to goto drumheller. what awaits me there i'm not sure. hopefully a second chance.

all these attempts at first chances haven't been suiting me so well...

beginning of ALL things...

okay people of the innerweb i'm back into familiar territory. hopefully no more of that crazy BC type stuff can happen to me here. even though technically i'm still in the province, field is pretty much on the border with alberta, and even more important i know ALL about this area.

the reason. this is one of the most important palaeontologic places in the world!

the tyrrell has a huge display on this place called the burgess shale. they are among the OLDEST complex creatures known. these fossils are so good that we don't just get hard parts, we also get the soft ones!

once i get back to drum i'll have to check out the display again. though i'm getting an idea related to my future after i've found my past at drumheller. maybe i could come back here and get a job. i'm qualified. i know a LOT about the burgess shale cause i spent a lot of time in the display when i lived in the tyrrell. that and one of the six big books i've ever read was one called wonderful life by stephen gould... don't let the fact that he is a scary monster stop you from reading the book. it's very good and ALL about the burgess shale.

actually being here in field and seeing all the famous places is really cool!

over on one side of field is mount stephen famous for it's trilobites. i've heard from people at the museum who've been up there that there are so many fossils up on the top of that hill that every second rock has a trilobite in it!!!

on the other side opposite the highway is the burgess pass and it's famous fossil ridge. an exposure of really really early cambrian fossils of the cathedral escarpment. my buddy dan used to do a play at the museum about looking for fossils up there.

you'll also see in that photo the visitor center here in field. i was going to check in there about a possible job after i looked at all the signs they had outside.

man the signs were cool. it was like having a museum outside!

this was a really awesome sign all about the famous palaeontologists who explored this place for the first time. included in there was charles dolittle walcott, though don't let his middle name fool you. he in fact did alot!

the sign showing how the burgess shale looked when all the critters was alive was really cool. just like the vancouver aquarium only instead of fish it would be funky arthropods!

hey that gives me another idea! with my new work experience at the aquarium i could totally work IN the tyrrell's burgess shale display! combo that with my knowledge of the place, and i'd be a show in for educating the public about this place, and be able to take care of the critters in the display!

well okay it seemed like a good idea till i read this sign... now i like adventure, and all... but getting buried alive. when was that ever fun?

well scratch that working in the museum's burgess shale idea. time now instead to see if i can work at the real thing!

blockade

if it isn't one thing it's another in my attempt to get out of BC...

i'm nearly on the border of alberta, and with it a return to friendly soil!!!

of course it's not that simple... AGAIN!... because up ahead of me on the road is yet ANOTHER obstacle!



a herd of elk blocks my progress...

now i know how elk typically work. honk your horn and they'll get their horns out of the way.

not these ones...

turns out these ones aren't just casually wandering onto the road. no. their here to stop just ME...

seems these guys are buddies with mountain sheep, and their really mad at how i humiliated the king of the rams last month. hearing that i was coming back through this area (they read it on my blog... have to remember to keep things a little more secretive in the future) their here to stop me...

well it looked kinda bleak. i couldn't get past them, and they weren't going to let me through. they were letting other cars through. just not me.

after spending the afternoon on the BC side of their imposed line i was really worried i'd have to back track into BC to try and find an alternate route. however as the sun began setting and it got darker i noticed something.

i couldn't recognize individual elk anymore. they all looked the same. why with those conditions maybe they won't recognize my car anymore...

to make sure they lost track of me i pretended to goto bed in my car. though what i really did was hop in and roll the window down. this way i could crawl out my window without opening the door and turning on the cabin light. once outside my car i threw some towels over my headlights so they won't be visible once my car was on. i then waited for a different car to come by to start my engine so that it's noise didn't seem out of place.

when that car finally showed up i drove down the highway away from them as fast as i could. getting around a bend i then pulled a u-turn. i then turning on my high beams. with these on i then casually drove back toward the blockade... but was it casual enough?

reaching the line my heart nearly stopped as the elk didn't move forcing me to slow down... getting within mere feet of them time seemed to cease as they looked at my car. it wasn't till i realized they were squinting in my high beams, and unable to see me that i relaxed.

then they parted, and let me through! can you believe that people of the innerweb i outsmarted someone!!!

now sadly this whole episode cost me a day, and it's late. i'm going to push on a few more kilometers to field BC and sleep there over night. however there is a slight treat for me there. you field is home to one of the coolest palaeontologic sites in the world!!!

catch you there people of the innerweb!

why have i been stopping?

well people of the innerweb i'm still on my way out of BC. i guess it makes sense that after it taking 2 months to get into it that it's taking me a few days to get out.

i do really want out though. it hasn't been anywhere near as much fun (or safe...) here in BC now that i'm leaving. today i got to a place called goldy-on.

man i'm getting sick of mother nature mimicing my mood with the weather. it's all cloudy and depressing STILL! more to the point it has been snowing now and then as i drive. i may be warm blooded, but i don't have feathers like other coelurosaurs... sure hope it's warm in alberta when i get back...

oh course i needed to pull over again like a few days ago in the enchanted forest... i really didn't want to after that whole ordeal... but i'd get stranded if i didn't get gas... so i gave in to my stupid car... should have known better!


after filling up my car, and picking up a snack for the road i placed my twinkies down on a bench for just a sec. when i turned around it was like a nightmare... not one, not three, not zero, but TWO bears were suddenly there fighting for my twinkies!!!

to be honest i was terrorified! these guys are almost as scary as vampires or ghosts...


now if i were a big t-rex this probably won't scare me so much. my mom for example weighs as much as both these guys, and could easily take them (but don't let the fact she's a girl throw you off... with we dinos the females are the really scary ones!). i on the other hand, well weigh as much as one of their whiskers... uh if bears have whiskers?

anyways i did the only thing that seemed right for the situation... i ran as fast as i could jumped in my car, and hide underneath my sleeping blankets! call me a coward if you must, but you're not the one tending to dragon fire burns!

after an hour of hiding i popped my head up to see no signs of bears that alone my twinkies... with the coast clear i took off.

it's alberta of bust now!!! no more stopping in BC if i can help it...

i hate magic!!!

so far my retreat from the BCs has been uneventful. that is more due to my not feeling like stopping anywhere. i'm just kinda depressed to be frank... or uh what? why to people say that anyway. i'm traumador... not frank

the fact most of the places so far were those i'd already passed through to get to vancouver didn't help either. i even sped to get past hope and dinotown! however i'm now on a new northern highway that is a quicker route to drumheller so in theory there is new stuff around here...

it's like the universe likes to taunt me. it started raining the day i left. even mother natural wants to enhance my sadness...

after 2 days of straight driving i was kinda needing a break. well and gas. oh and sleep. hmmmm food. need food sometime too!




needing all these things i came to an area of inner BC called the enchanted forest. i figured anywhere that needed a sign on the highway must have a gas station or something... of course it was raining even worse here. i decided the key thing was to sleep first, and then solve all my other problems when i got up.

i mean whats the worst thing that could happen to me while sleeping in a forest?

when i woke up it was pouring hard as ever. fine i figured this way i'll just get my fuel and food and keep driving. still a long way to drumheller

heading deeper into this enchanting forest i was shocked to discover there was no gas station anywhere to be found... in fact there was almost nothing... except a really creepy looking castle...

pulling up to it i hoped that they'd at least have a horse or something i could ride to get gas... cause my car was running really low, and i didn't want to get stranded!

getting out of my car i headed towards the castle with the intent of seeing if i could bum some gas of the medieval occupants. if only things were as simple as they should be... getting closer to the fortress two really weird looking mammal sauropods popped out of the forest.

"beware stranger." they said in unison... man i hate it when that happens. it always means trouble! "this is not a friendly realm for visitors. even ancient ones such as yourself..."

okay so if that wasn't a scary prophecy or warning i don't know what was going to be. still if it is a uncool place for me to be i needed that gas then. so i kept on walking towards the castle!

well you're never going to guess what happened next people of the innerweb. or well maybe you have cause you looked at the picture... approaching the front gate of the castle suddenly a dragon appeared on top of the parapits...

okay this was just getting weird!

i wasn't about to let some stinking monster lizard stop me though! i might be scared of a lot of things, but giant reptiles with sharp teeth aren't one of them... this guy was nothing compared to my cousin Larry...

well okay he's not much compared to Larry unless you take into account his atomic fire breath!!!

needless to say i cheesed it out of there!!!

man i hated this place. all i was trying to do was get out of it, and it won't let me! just before i got really mad (and i mean REALLY mad!) i heard a voice from behind me.

"why so glum chum?" said a big... i'm not making this up... egg sitting on a rock wall... "have you had a candy can for your tum?"

no i replied. what was with this whole place i wondered. a talking egg... i didn't say a word of this out loud you have to understand, but yet suddenly as though the egg heard me.

"oh this place is a little bit like that you see." it started "like one two three. lots of magic about to fill you with you glee. now what is your greatest wish to be?"

after my misadventures in vancouver i just wasn't in the mood for this. "i just want gas!"

"such a request why consider it done." replied the egg. "now off you go for lots more fun"

i was so mad. now it was toying with me too. all i wanted to do was get out of here, and it was mocking me with its stupid rhyme!

now i looked down while angrily thinking this. when i looked up the crazy talking egg was gone... as was the castle, the sauropodmammals, and even the atomic dragon... it was like none of it happened.

yet when i got to my car and started it up (fearing i'd get stranded here in this crazy forest) my gas tank was full!!!

oh man! so that stupid egg offered me my one wish, and i wished for a tank of gas!

i could got that wii i really wanted!!!

the future?

67.2 million BC

i spent the majority of the day wandering through the rest of vancouver... can't say whether it was nice or not. my heart just wasn't into it.

so Larry was right. this isn't the land of prehistory. not the REAL BCs... rather just a human place with a convergent name (i'm so sad i'm not getting big words wrong... oh man). i've wasted 2 whole months pursuing a imaginary goal...

the moral being so far i haven't managed to fit in with other dinosaurs yet. we t-rexs are not popular based on our virtues it would seem. just our scariness, and you're not scary if your not big...

the first spot i hit that snapped me out of my gloom was a beach. the sun was setting over the ocean, and all the ships off in the distance... what a majestic sight to see!

watching the reflections of the sun in the water i pondered my life. compared to this i was nothing. i'm an insignificant speck in the universe. even just this ocean goes on for as far as i can see, and there is a lot more out there then just it...

you'd think in a world that big there'd be a place for me out there...

i mean there has to be a place somewhere that needs a t-rex. or even just a dinosaur... if only i knew where that was...

as i stand here gazing across the colossal sea i can't help, but feel that over the horizon lies an answer to my existence...

what i do know is this. i can't stay here in the BCs... the trip (espeically that fake dinotown i built) has left me broke. even with the salary i'm still getting from the eco centre won't be not enough to pay for my living here...

i also still haven't found my roots. i don't care if i can't find out what it is too be a true dinosaur anymore... so far they've all been jerks or worse. that and we dinosaurs are extinct everywhere on the planet with minor exceptions in museums and shows apparently...

i DO still want to find out who i am and where i came from...

there is only one place i can goto find that out...

looks like i'll have to go back to where it all started... drumheller... while i'm there though it can't hurt to see if the dinosaur boom has busted, and who knows? maybe there'll be an opening for me when i get there, and i can resume my old life!

well people of the innerweb i'd say this concludes my quest into BC... now i return home!

lonely road

66.4 million BC

well naturally today was not such a fun day. i'm in fact very bummed out. no bummed isn't the right word...

everything just seems kinda of pointless...

peter said i needed to cheer up. he's taken me to "drown my sorrows". i told him i wasn't in the mood for swimming... he said that wasn't the plan. we were going drinking... these must be pretty big cups if we're going to drown... be easier to just go swimming, i'm a lousy swimmer

well it's a really nice place that he took me too. a restaurant on top of a tall skyscraper... you can see the whole city from up here.

i just wasn't in the mood for refreshments... they taste funny, and make me feel even dumber then normal...

peter said as my agent he won't let me go till i let some of my sadness out somehow...

that's when i noticed the piano in the middle of the joint...

i decided that would be the best way to let out some of my angst... i played the one song that seemed the most appropriate... boulevard of broken dreams... got a bit of a crowd watching me too!

peter said it was really good, and that managing talent this great he's job was easy... though if i'm that great how come none of the other dinosaurs want to hang out with me?

then peter dropped a big bomb...

due to the responsibilities of managing his clients, and their major distribution across the world peter was going to have to leave vancouver... more so he was leaving canada altogether!

right when i thought i had some backup in face of all the stuff going wrong in my life...

i'm right back where i started before my BC quest. homeless. alone. and confused

what now?!?!? (65 million BC part 5)

65 million BC

last night was so miserable! one of the worst nights i've ever had. making it worse i was hanging with my own kind...

after my fight with Larry things were pretty awkward. all these other dinosaurs are used to Larry being the undisputed boss, and a beloved public icon. my coming in and confronting him made these guys all uncomfortable around me...

that and i don't speak their language...

so at least here this morning peter showed up, and set out to try and salvage the situation...

well again peter's the bestest agent ever! however it seems there are limits even to his talents...

he tried to negotiate both with the owners of the dinosaur show and Larry to see if there could be a spot for me in the displays...

after an hour or so he pulled me aside and levelled with me

"look traumador baby, here's the thing. they have a position for you, and their even willing to pay you at a tyrannosaurs pay scale..." he started, but then he glanced around to make sure no one was listening in. peter started whispering "but frankly you don't want it... the key word in that sentence is scale. they'd pay you a salary 1/20 of Larry's. honestly traumador you couldn't afford to even survive in this area of vancouver on that much..."

peter said it was looking kinda bleak. i was naturally a little bummed. peter tried to remotivate me by reminding me of the venture pact. "seriously traumador... there are better places out there for you then here."

where?

he had no answer for me... peter said i'd have to figure that out for myself. he'd help me anyway he could, but in the end he said this was something i'd have to find for myself...

so that is the end of it people of the innerweb. my quest to find my kind in the BCs is officially over...

what did i get out of the trip... discovered that the BCs are not my homeland... i still don't have roots... i still don't fit in with other dinosaurs... i still haven't found what i'm looking for...

where do i go from here. i don't know. all i do know is that i must leave this 65th million street of BC. it just reminds me of my failure in my quest...

confrontation! (65 million BC part 4)

65 million BC

people of the inner web i'm not believing my luck these days!... well more months then days really... ever since the end of summer technically...

reaching the cradle of dinosaur kind what were the odds of my big shot Cousin Larry being the guy in charge of the place! seriously what are those odds, and why didn't i bet on them!

i wasn't about to let him steal another of my dreams again! there was no way he was going to prevent me from living here at 65 million BC, but i could see it in his eye that he was going to be a jerk about it (like he always is...).

well when i walked up to talk to him Larry started to laugh. "hi there cousin. how have things been going?" i tried to lie and say good... "really. that's not what your blogs been saying" oh man! that's not good... Larry wasn't supposed to have known about my blog...

since he's read the blog it made it easier to ask if i could stay here...

"are you REALLY that dumb traum? this isn't the cretaceous period. that was 65 million years ago... not 65 million blocks into british columbia!" he said snidely.

oh no! he was right... i remember that now... AHHHHHHH!

wait a minute i thought though... why are he and the dinosaurs here then. this was obviously a trick or something of his...

"traumador didn't you read the sign out front?" Larry said while laughing at me. "this is a travelling dinosaur display from china. it is not a permanent settlement or reserve for dinosaurs. we're extinct most places now."

okay i now i had him... "if it's a chinese dinosaur display why are you here then Larry? you're from alberta like me!"

he just cackled... which is a scary sound from a big t-rex. "traum... traum... traum. this is show biz, and nothing sells more then having a star in the show."

i couldn't think straight... everything wasn't making sense. this wasn't the true land of dinosaurs. Larry had taken everything away again... then Larry added

"your poor poor mother though traum. i don't look forward to telling aunt huxley how dumb you really are..."

well i'm not too proud of my response to that low blow, but Larry brought my mama into this. you leave the mothers out of these things. so i kinda attacked him...

okay i bite him in the neck... kinda a low blow in and of itself, but he's really really big... YOU TRY JUMPING FOR HIS EYE YOURSELF!!! THEN YOU'LL SEE!!!

anyways i sadly didn't do much damage... and well he's kinda a monster (as we t-rex are)... so he easily shoke me off, and he wasn't even mad or angry... he was kept on laughing

"ah that was cute. would you like me to bend over so you can do that like a real t-rex?" he mocked. "i'd bite you back, but i'd eat you in the process, and aunt huxley won't be too happy with me. for her sake i'll let you stay the night, but then you're out of here!"

i'm not going to lie people of the innerweb. i'm crying right now...

right now i'm wishing that Larry's work in king kong was real... then he'd have been killed by that big dumb ape!!!

so turns out i'm back where i started... i don't know what i'm going to do again...

though i have help now. i just called peter, and he said he'd get something in place for tomorrow... i'll have to hang out here at LARRY'S place, and wait till then...

not quite what i expected (65 million BC part 3)

65 million BC...

okay now i'm really weirded out by what i'm finding around here. not only is there no jungle rather badlands, but now there is a dinosaur museum too!!!

now i may have the brain the size of a peanut, but even i know that dinosaurs didn't live in museums! well except those outside of the BCs. oh and those in the BCs... wait a minute...

just look at this! is this what you pictured the mighty thunder lizards coming from?!?

it's just like the tyrrell 2: deja vu


i happened upon a hadrosaur which i thought was from my neck of the woods, edmonton. turns out this was no edmontosaurus though... he informed me he was from overseas, from china, and not to call him by that name. rather he is a shantungosaurus apparently (though as far as i can tell there is little difference between the two!)

i told him about my quest to get here, and he said that was "super"... i thought that was a little strong a word (cause hey i'm no superman!)... he told me i'd have to check with the star of the attraction to see if i could join with the dinosaurs...

what is with us dinosaurs? this is turning out to be just like dinotown! since when have we dinosaurs needed to ask permission and be officially accepted to be a dinosaur?!?

i'd used too much time getting here to fight about it though. i was going to do things as they do them here at 65 million BC... though it's not feeling all that different from the tyrrell...

well the problem was figuring out who the star dinosaur was... i checked with the alxasaurus figuring since he had big wolferine type claws he must be a real hit. cause i mean i've seen that movie X-People, wolferine is the closest superhero ever!

it wasn't him though. however that's about all i understood... my chinese isn't too flunent you see. the only reason i know it wasn't him was he used those claws to threaten me away after asking if he was the star... whoever it is even wolferinesaur is scared of them...

with that in mind my next choice had to be the pinacosaurus then... cause lets face it who won't be scared of a tank! this guy is packing heat in the form of the tail club, and covered with armour so he doesn't have to take gump in return! we theropods know better then to mess with one of these guys... grownup anyways (but man as smaller guys their tastey!)

again he wasn't the star! a little confused. though in his case he asked if this was a trick, and if the star had sent me... not sure what that means?

looking around i was starting to get more confused too. ALL these guys were chinese dinosaurs... now i'm not a racist mind you. i like dinosaurs no matter where their from. i was just finding it odd that all the dinosaurs in the BCs where from over there...

where were some north american types that i might know?

well turns out there was a north american dinosaur here. in fact i know him RATHER well... which makes this all the more unfortunte...

i should have realized that the star had to be the king of the dinosaurs. which of course would make it one of my fellow tyrannosaurs. i was hoping to meet some new tyrannosaurs... i got half my wish as it turned out... just not the half i wanted... you see the star dinosaur turns out to be my COUSIN LARRY!!!

now for those of you who have never heard of my cousin larry (which i think is a pretty hard!) he is the famous member of the tyrannosaur family... he had a luck break into hollywood some years ago, and has been making quite the killing (both literally and metaphorically) doing movies and shows as well a t-rex.

he's most famous role was of course as the tyrannosaur in jurassic park.

which brings us to my connection to larry... you see he wasn't the only one who tried out for that part! i was in the running for it too! they choose him over me in the end though due to "his immense size, and authentic terror" compared to my "tinyness"... it's like they say. hollywood only goes for the most perfect of us...

not my fault i'm only two feet tall while larry if 40 feet long! jerk!

anyways ever since then me and him haven't been on such good terms, and well he was the LAST dinosaur i was ready or wanting to meet here at 65 million BC...

i'm not letting him bully me out of my dreams again!

right at home (65 million part 2)

65 million BC...

alright so after that yummy lunch it was time to explore!

surprised at the relative lack of dinosaurs wandering around. seems to be a lot of humans for some reason? i guess we dinos are more accomodating of humans in our world then vice versa...

well my first discovery since the tri-steak was a patch of badlands! just like drumheller's. again not what i pictured in my mind being at 65 million BC, but hey my mind's not the biggest after all!

i guess that explains why we dinosaurs outside BC all tend to gather in drumheller. it's the closest thing to our native environment?

then why are dinosaurs always in jungles and forests in books, TV, and movies?

have to admit people of the innerweb i'm getting a little confused by what i'm finding here at 65 million BC!

a REAL meal!!! (65 million part 1)

65 million BC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh boy! oh boy! i can't believe i'm here at last! as you of course know people of ciderspace i've been looking for this place for over 2 months!

so here we are the 65th million block of BC. not quite the decor i was expecting for dinosaurs. i'm no where near a forest or jungle. the aquarium was a more prehistoricy a looking place. i had no idea we dinosaurs come from such an urban background...

it's off to a great start though. coming around lunch time, and right here on the street is a fleshy, fat, plump, and lazy triceratops! sure can tell i've left the human world (well minus the skyscrapers, sidewalks, roads, and pedestrians). here in the dinosaurian BC it's hunt or be hunted, live or die, regular or diet...

no matter their philosophy around here i got a free lunch! for a dinosaur in our native habitat this steak put up little resistence. not that i'm complaining. i was just expecting a bit more of a primal struggle like in the movies!

well as i sit here blogging and digesting i'm getting very excited. lunch has truely shown i'm where i should be! time to go explore, and be a natural dinosaur!

extinct another day (aquarium/undercover conclusion)

64.95 million BC...

okay just when i thought today couldn't get crazier it did... now i don't really feel like going into to much detail here people of the innerweb. don't get me wrong. it's not that i don't want to talk to you or tell you about it... just at the end of my tour as a spy there has been a big twist ending i just didn't see coming...

before i reveal that though heres the quick version of what went down this afternoon...

so the truck with lobey showed up, and we got her loaded into my boat. however before i could set out you'll never guess who showed up...

yeah darth caught back up with me. man i'm sick of this guy's death grasp...

"you couldn't hide forever." he boomed. "now i want that fish. not excuses."

i was hooped simply put. he held me out this time so my tail wouldn't reach him...

he must have noticed the tank in my boat because he hauled me over to it.

seeing lobey in the tank he stopped. i lost the ability to breath... or wait i guess i'd lost that already... all i know is it felt terrible. i'd failed as a superspy, and worse i'd failed lobey... this monster of the dark side had her completely at his mercy, and there was nothing either me or her could do to stop him.

"this will be a day long remembered." he started. suddenly he lifted his other hand. in it was a big metal tube... oh no a light sword!!! he threw me to the side, and raised the cylinder. with a hiss of electricity a great red glow filled the air. he went to swing with that hand, and with his other hand he raised something in front of him...

"it has seen the end of my fish watching list, and will soon see the end of my search." he said bringing the cylinder against a clip board in his other hand.

he then simply made a checkmark on a list... a list of fish... and that was no light sword. rather it was just a light up pen!?!?!

with that he just turned around and walked away... like for good. he just went to the street and hopped into his black car and drove off...

this guy's reputation is way overblown due to the movies... he is just a big evil fish watcher. the aquarium had taken lobey off display the day he was going through to finish off his BC list...

well i guess i'm a better superspy then i thought. one evil villian disposed of, and one fish released... wait i still hadn't released her!!!

getting my boat into the water i took it out into the middle of the habour. this should be good i thought. nice open water. access to the open sea. no evidence of mega predators.

with that i dumped her tank into the water, and she started to swim away into the depths. as per the aquariums instructions i grabbed the underwater telyscope and watched her as she went. she started to look a lot better right away!

after a bit of swimming she reached the bottom where she happily took up residence in a hole.

so with that i succeeded in my mission! i have to put this whole superspy incident on my resume!

getting back to shore though i had another crazy thing happen. i realized i was ON TOP of 65 million BC! as in it's right here in front of me where i type right now people of the innerweb!!!

i'm going to leave you now, and finally get to the goal of my 2 month quest!!!

darth. no (undercover part 2)

64.64 million BC

today has to rank as one of the craziest days of my life, and as you know people of the innerweb i've had some pretty crazy days recently!

the plan was to release lobey back into the wild of the BCs. i'd gotten my boat, and i'd made the arrangements with the aquarium to have lobey shipped to the peer so i could set out.

there was just one problem i was worried about lobey's enemies using this as a chance to attack her. who they were i wasn't sure. why they'd want to get her i didn't know. was i being paranoid? well i was going with my gut feeling, and the answer was no... (superspies always follow their gut feelings in the movie, and are right!)

so i had to get from the boat store to the peer myself. to do so i decided to take the long way to make sure i wasn't being tailed. along the way i got to pass a cool fountain. while standing around watching the water i noticed a black car that had stopped suspiciously in a no parking zone...

though i would have liked to chill out at the fountain a bit longer i had a bad feeling about that car. starting to walk through the plaza around the fountain suddenly the car took the corner so that it could head the same way i was!

okay i know how this sorta thing works... in movies i should get in a car, and we'd have a chase. problem is i left my car in north vancouver... i didn't feel like running, cause to run as fast as a car i'd be really tired by the time i got to releasing lobey.

instead i ducked into a mall to try and lose them. it was easy enough as i'd been heading the wrong direction... doubling back on the plaza i figured since i'd be tailed once that i should make sure it didn't happen again...

i plunked down to start a blog entry... when suddenly someone grabbed me from behind!!!

man oh man did they grab me too. they lifted me right into the air! suddenly in a all too formiliar booming voice i heard "what have you done with that fish!!!"... i knew that voice! and man was i in trouble... it was dark vadar!!!

"several transactions were sent to you by aquarium spies. i want to know what happened to the fish their sending you!" he said while increasing the pressure around my throat.

"i got no transactions. i'm an education staff member. out to do a program." i managed to say, but barely. man that guy has a strong grip!

"if your an educator then where is the venue?!?" he angrly replied... oh man he's a sharp cookie.

"what fish?" i was seriously confused... my brain doesn't work the best under normal conditions, but without oxygen that's just asking for trouble.

"the one they took away from the public viewing area last week! the only one i haven't seen! i want that fish!!!" he fumed...

the pressure on my neck was getting a bit much. if he kept up i didn't think i was going to survive... i needed to distract him. like in a spy movie. what would they say. something witty and smart no doubt...

"uh uh" i couldn't think of anything. then it hit me! "i am your son..."

"what?" he was astounded. "that's not true. that's impossible!"

it worked i could feel his grip lessen just a titch. now i just had to escape...

vadar went on though. "you can't be my son... i just met with him for lunch yesterday!"

was he going senile? it was this point i noticed that he was a lot older and fatter then in the movies... i guess that's the nice part about being famous, and having a movie made about your life. you get played by beautiful people!

that was when i made my move! i swung my tail and hit him as hard as i could... i hit him inbetween the legs... i was aiming for his head...

in any case he suddenly toppled over, and let go of me. boy did i take that chance i bolted!

he didn't follow me as best i can tell, and now i'm here hiding out at the peer with the boat waiting for lobey to get delivered so i can release her... it's like i said i knew her enemies would come out to try and get her.

i hope she get here soon!

the man with the wooden boat (undercover part 1)

64.38 million BC

okay i have plan of action to save lobey. now all i need is the gear to accomplish my goal...

first things first i'm going to need a boat. now do happen to be the proud owner of an entire fleet of ships (like an superspy should). problem is their my game pieces for battleship, which by the was NOT sunk! Despite that I'm still going to need a bigger boat...

as of such i had to use my cover as an employee of the aquarium to acquire myself a vessel that is actually seaworth.

to do that i had to wander further into downtown vancouver! what a busy bustling place. which for me was a little daunting. i'm from smalltown alberta. the most foot traffic i've seen in drumheller was during the canada day parade! this was like ten of those all on one block!

it is good too though, in that i blended in, and would be hard to follow.

where to you might wonder. i did too. i just took a phonebook with me and aimed for the closest boat retailer. which in this case was a place called classic boatwares and sales...


getting there i was amazed to find they sold a wide range of old boats. not like used boats either. i mean they sold REALLY old boats. stuff they used in the stone age or uh i guess the wood age?

i was unconvinced this place had what i needed till the salesperson told me these were perfect for smooth boating, and be pretty low impact on the environment.

that was perfect. if i was going high impact i'd be easy to trace! that and such a weird boat would be SO weird no one would think a secret agent would dare use it. i took it!

now time to arrange for the transport of lobey to the boat at the peer, and get ready to release her later this afternoon.

though i'm still worried about lobey's enemies making their move. if they don't act soon they'll miss their chance...

you only evolve twice (aquarium part 8)

64.2 million BC

i'll take a water thawed not frozen...

the reason for my celebration i've found what i need to release lobey. the answer was so simple. i don't know why i didn't see it before...
it was the last tank i had to look at here in the whole aquarium. i was worried. what were the odds that this would hold the answer that i needed. out of all the tanks you'd think the i'd have run into this one already...

checking it out though i was amazed to see an archelon! it may have been a tiny one, but don't hold that against him. i myself know what it is like to be a small individual of a big species!

seconds later a myledaphus swam by... my hopes were realized! i'd found a tank that was the oceans of the BCs!!!

unfortunately ending my celebrations, swam by the last component of an authentic BC ocean... a shark!

now don't get me wrong... i'm liking the true too prehistory assemblage (though i don't want to stick around for a xiphactinus to come by... those guys are just bad scary news all round!), but lobey just won't stand a chance in this tank... the oceans of the BCs could be a scary eateny place... xiphactinuses, cretoxyrhinas, and mosasaurs oh my!

so you're wondering how is it i'm going to save lobey by throwing her in a tank of death...

simple i'm not.

i'm just going to release her into the ocean outside the aquarium... the reason it is the REAL sea of BC!!! she'll have a better chance in the open BC ocean then closed in a small tank with the killers of the prehistoric maritimes (or is the maritime a time period of it's own?)...

so my next task is to get the gear needed to facilitate this transfer...

though i'm still no closer to finding out whose behind the plot to kill lobey...

prehistory never dies... (aquarium part 7)

64.2 million BC

well after the whole beluga/ghost whale fiasco i was worried i was in over my head... cause superspies don't have things go that badly do they?

as i resumed the search though i realized that i must be at the midpoint of the crisis! the ghostbusters and peter being all mad was just like in a movie... i can't save the day if things don't get worse before they get better! and get better they are looking!

i have just made a key discovery here... though it may be more related to my quest in finding 65 million BC it holds out hope for lobey too!

searching the tropical displays i've found further ties here to me and lobey's part of BC...

just like lobey the aquarium has other living fossils!


in a tank area they have a couple crocodilians, distant cousins of mine. i think on my mom's side, but i'm not sure?


later on they had a bunch of birds. my descendents... making this part of the aquarium a dinosaur relative zone! which can only mean one thing...

this is a recreation of 65 million BC!!! meaning that i am almost home! more to the point where better to release lobey then where we both come from!!!

now i still have a slight problem. this is the perfect environment for a tyrannosaur to live and thrive, but not so much so for a coelacanth... i need to find out what the ocean looks like at 65 million BC