Canada, Eh?: November 2018

We were exiting the plane at midnight and boy was I tired. We had just finished our amazing Iceland adventure and we were starting a new one in Drumheller, Alberta. We got in the driver Brian’s car, and in five minutes I was fast asleep. I don’t know how much time had passed from the airport to the hotel, but when I woke up, it looked like we were driving through the gates at Jurassic park. We exited Brian’s car and I quickly realized we were at the Ramada Inn, Drumheller. Drumheller is a small town outside of Calgary. It’s farm country. Some people call it boring. Some people call it a dump. But not me, I call it a land of prehistoric wonders, a land of canyons, a land of giant beasts and kind cowboys, I call it a hidden gem.

Production chose Drumheller as a location because we needed an alien planet. Drumheller is about as alien as you can get. Though initially it looks like any old farm town, once you drive deeper into the countryside, you discover geological wonders you can’t find anywhere else in the world. The foothills and canyons of Drumheller bring out brilliant reds and yellows in the ancient earth. The desert fields blow elegantly in the crisp air, but once you begin your drive, you are quickly met with a canyon that looks like the surface of the moon. The topography also has unique hoodoo rock formations that look like they could have only been created by an alien design. Hoodoos are rock formations that are found in badlands or desert areas. They consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. Hoodoos in Drumheller look like alien totem poles. They are very fragile and yet they have been there for thousands of years.

Our first day in Drumheller was a day off for production. We had no clue what to do in this tiny, western town. The sky was dark and you could feel a storm brewing so we couldn’t enjoy hiking in the hoodoo park outside. Taylor, who plays my space sister, along with Erik and Shane who are camera men came down to the lobby and we started talking about what to do on a day off with no filming. A few minutes later, we all decided to go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Drumheller is home to some of the most dinosaur fossils found in the world. The museum is filled with every kind of dinosaur and prehistoric life fossil you can find. It is amazing. So we set off on the quest to see the dinosaurs with Taylor, Erik, Shane, my mom and Toby, who plays my space dad. All along the drive we noticed statues of dinosaurs commemorating the fact that this place has more intact dinosaurs found than just about anywhere else. We arrived at the museum and as soon as we stepped in the modern building, a giant dinosaur skeleton was looming over our heads. We spent hours walking through the museum. We could have spent days there but we were all tired so we went back to the hotel. I thought to myself. This place might not be that bad afterall.

The next day, I woke up to the sound of heavy raindrops cracking against the window. We had to film in this weather. Everyone on the production team was tense because this was not the weather they wanted for the script. But the weather did not affect me because I knew I would be riding horses today! I was so eager to ride. I couldn’t wait to meet my horse. When I arrived on set I was taken to a field where the horses were grazing lazily. I was taken aback by the amount of horses on set. As I was trying not to let my jaw drop, a cowboy walked up to me and said, “Hey there, my name is Jordan, would you like to meet your horse?” He walked me over to the biggest horse in the field. He was a beautiful horse. Very tall with a reddish brown coat that seemed to shine even on a cloudy day. Jordan explained to me that the horse’s name was Tanto and that Robin Williams rode him in A Night At The Museum. It was really tricky to mount up on Tanto because he was so tall, but once I did and got him into a canter and I felt like we were going to get along just fine. It felt really awesome to be riding again. I had been craving to ride since Iceland!

We shot in Drumheller for almost 2 weeks. Perhaps the most fun part of filming was a scene where I had to keep a horse lying down. It is really difficult because horses don’t naturally lie down. A funny aspect of this is that the horse that would lie down was not Tanto. In Fact I had three horses playing my one horse. Tanto was the riding one, Turkey was the one who gets scared, and Gus (my favorite) was the one who had to lay down (he also had to eat a lot of apples.) As I said, horses do not normally like lying down. To add to the difficulty of getting Gus to stay lying down, we had people running towards the horse, and a ginormous camera crane that goes over the horse. Me and Gus got pretty close during that scene as I had to keep calming him with firm pets on the neck and soft whispers of, “ It’s ok Gus, I am here Gus, Don't worry about the Crane.” There were times when he would stand and his sheer strength would lift me off the ground but we would get him back down and towards the end he wouldn't even try to get up, He would look at me when he was scared and I would reply with, ”It’s ok Gus”. Ever since that scene me and Gus were inseparable.

While there were many surprises in Drumheller, perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was the kindness of the horse wranglers. They were all real life cowboys. In movies we see cowboys as hardcore, gruff, and … well… Cowboys. But they could not have been more the opposite of their movie counterparts. They taught me so much about working with animals. But they taught me more than that too. They taught me patience. They never once complained about the harsh weather and conditions. They taught me about being selfless as all of them put the comfort and well being of their horses before themselves. They also taught me about humility and generosity. They were the most humble, hard-working people I had ever met and I am proud to call them my friends now. Towards the end of my time there, they all called me Cowboy Jesus, because I told them that was my band’s name. I am proud to call myself a cowboy now because of them.

When filming in the canyons we needed a desert planet. But of course, we got rain. Tons, and tons of rain. Due to the geography of the land and there not being a lot of trees or plants to soak up water, the ground turned to what was essentially a thick, sticky clay. You couldn't walk three steps without getting a foot stuck. The water became very dangerous, especially where we were shooting because the ground turned to slippery clay. When I say slippery I meant the ground moved from underneath you so fast it was like watching a cartoon where they pull the carpet out from under the bad guy and the bad guy just spins in mid air and then face plants. One night we had to film in pitch black. It was so dark that you couldn’t tell where you were stepping so I ended up on the slick clay and went down hard. We had to stop shooting for the day because so many people were slipping and falling. I think the badlands of Alberta were some of the most difficult and unforgiving conditions I have ever shot in. It seemed as if the land itself wanted to remind us that we were not in as much control as we hoped we were.

Even though the land was unforgiving, it had many hidden surprises too. In the location that we were filming, people were finding tiny pieces of petrified wood and small dinosaur bones. It was fascinating to see something up close that had lived millions of years ago. In between filming scenes, it was hard not to imagine giant beasts walking the places where I was now standing. I had never really let myself imagine that until I found it. Up on a ledge, amidst layers of clay and sediment I saw it. A giant white rock. I knew it had to be a dinosaur. My mom told me I was letting my imagination get away from me. I knew it had to be a dinosaur. A special effects person decided the best way to see if it was a dinosaur, was to climb up to the ridge and bring it down to me. As he approached me with the rock, his face was glowing with excitement. He handed it to me with pride. It was the biggest fossil anyone there had seen. It looks like a hip bone. The front of it was a strange, smooth, white substance with lines of earth running through. On the side you can see the fossilized bone marrow. There were orange spots of lycan covering the front. It must have weighed like thirty pounds. Suddenly it was a lot easier to imagine dinosaurs running past me in the canyon. I realized that although Drumheller is a tiny town, it truly is the land of giants.

The trip to Drumheller was an incredible experience. I wasn’t looking forward to going there after such a magical time in Iceland. But I was wrong. I got to see Dinosaur bones outside of a museum, I rode horses through canyons, I met real life cowboys. I did things not many kids my age can say they did, and for that I am grateful. I discovered that there are lots of hidden gems to find in the most unlikely of places. Leaving that prehistoric place was really hard but I know that I will be back. I have to be because I left a little piece of my heart there. Until next time Drumheller!