Day 12 Calgary

Our drive today from Medicine Hat was the visual of more of what I expected is Saskatchewan! It rained most of the way but you could see the storms coming long before rain ever hit the windshield. It was much flatter than anything we had seen before and the prairie lightning was remarkable. I tried to get pictures, including shots of Sheffield, the little prairie spot our friend John called home, but my truck images today were wet windshield pictures – I won’t bother to post!

We caught the first sights of Calgary about an hour outside the city, as I said, flat land! Our first peek at the Rockies was breathtaking! While Saskatchewan may have “humped-up” in the last 30 years, the Rockies are no less majestic and awe-inspiring than they were when we left them 20 years ago!! We found our campground, quite literally on the side of the Calgary Olympic ski hill (!!) and quickly headed to Nana’s, since that’s where Cecilia was!!

After a lovely visit with Nana (Nancy’s grandmother) and a quick transformation as they “dressed me up” for the Stampede, we headed out with Cecilia, Wendy and Steve to meet up with Nancy and Jeffrey at the Stampede grounds.

The grounds, a surprise to me, are in the heart of downtown Calgary. Much like the Exhibition is right in Toronto as David pointed out, nevertheless, I was surprised! Billed as the greatest outdoor show in the world, after just half a day – I get it! What fun! We arrived after Jeffrey and Nancy finished at the rodeo (we’re going Thursday) at about 4:00. I wondered why we would bother since the rodeo was over and we were going on Thursday anyway? Little did I realize! You could spend all 10 days at the Stampede and never see everything.

My costume, which seemed a little silly back at Nana’s, helped me fit right in on the Stampede grounds. Of course I don’t look at authentic as Jeffrey! It was funny that you could easily tell the real cowboys from the posers! There is just something about a real cowboy … Jeffrey is the exception! After a while you begin to notice the “posers” staring at the real thing. It was funny to watch as people stared and pointed at Jeffrey, clearly believing him to be the real McCoy! Perhaps it’s because when he’s in Calgary, he dreams that he really will be a cowboy when he grows up – adds an air of authenticity I suppose!

But even the city police don a Stetson during Stampede Week.

 

And they certainly come in handy to shade a cowgirl from the hot sun of the open range when she feels a nap coming on! 

But this little cowpoke was amazing! She had two short, no-fuss naps as we wandered. For the most part though she was awake, smiling and loving all there was to see! She lasted until 10:30, when her second nap and the approaching rain saw an end to our day.

We watched cowboys on horseback compete to isolate calves from the herd for branding. We watched demonstrations galore, wandered endlessly, snacked on fiddlesticks – delicious ice cream on a skewer, and simply could not run out of fantastic things to see and do! We looked on as our very own stallion and mare competed in the Incredi-Pull. They unseated the previous champs to pull a combined harness weight of 656.8 lbs. – we were so proud!

 

At the end of the day we watched the bands that come from all over North America to complete for $10,000 in prizes. They were incredible and clearly Cecilia’s favorite Stampede event thus far.

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My favourite, from a sheer “delightful entertainment” point of view, were the Second Time Arounders. The largest adult marching band in the world, they range in age from 18 to 85! Most were clearly in the 50s-60s-70s range and they were just out to have fun! I tried to include a video that I got of them performing Thrilled - it was thrilling - but the download time was so slow, clearly it wasn't going to happen!! If you like, they have a website at www.secondtimearounders.org They were the only group not competing for the prize money and also the only group that got a standing ovation. You just had to admire the chutzpah!

Off to Lammles tomorrow to buy my own, new, Stampede outfit for Thursday – just ‘cause when you’re here, you oughta!