calgary stampede

July 13

Yee haw cowboys and cowgirls! Jon and i just came back from a long day at the stampede. Boy was it fun. It’s like the PNE but with a rodeo and cowboy hats...lots of them! It had carnival games, food stands, and home lottery. It has an agricultural area that describes the process of milking a cow, how eggs are processed, different cuts of beef, the use of canola oil as biodiesel, etc. It was quite informative. They also had different animals like horses, cows, and sheeps. Near where the sheeps were, there were ladies making sweaters with wool. Then we went into the show home and bought 20 tickets for $20. If we win, we’ll be living in calgary...or selling it.

We had a really delicious firestone oven. It had bacon, pineapples, sweet peppers, bbq sauce, and chicken. After we finished, we went to the grandstand to see the rodeo. It was very interesting. They had several competition during the 2.5 hours it was on. There was steer wrestling where the cowboy enters the stadium on a horse with a running calf. The cowboy then jumps off his horse and pins the calf down so that the calf is upside down. It’s was saddened when watching this because the cowboy leaps on the calf and grabs its horns, then twists the head around so that the body follows. There was novice saddle bronc where the cowboy tries to stay on the horse while it’s bucking (going crazy). The cowboy has to stay on for at least 8 seconds to get points. There was barrel racing where the cowgirls run around 3 equidistant barrels the fastest. There was steer riding is where the cowboy tries to stay on a crazy bull. So one thing i didn’t mention yet is that when the cowboy falls off or when the cowboy reaches 8 seconds, he usually gets off the bull. The bull sometimes continues to buck even after the ride. So there are 2 officials on horses that lead the bull out of the stadium. Well for one bull, it was being so frisky that it was chasing after the officials on horses. It was quite funny but only because no one got hurt. There was a really cute one called wild pony racing where 3 kids under 12 have to hold on to the pony wild 1 of the 3 kids jump on the pony and ride it. It was so cute!!!

All day the weather has been yucky. It was raining. There were no golf ball sized hail so we were lucky. After the rodeo, we walked to BMO centre where they had the stampede market. This is similar to the PNE markets. They also sell backpacks filled with goodies. I was thinking of getting one but the food was not that good so we decided not to get one.

We went to Big Four building which has a western-styled food floor called the range. We had a corndog here. At this building, we also went to the stampede slots. They didn’t have the betting wheel that the PNE has so we didn’t gamble.
We watched a rock n roll acrobatic ice show which had elvis stojko, tessa virtue and scott moir. It was quite good. The acrobats were fantastic. There was a guy who was holding himself perpendicular to a pole while pretending to walk. Before we left, we had a poutine.

We’re staying at deerfoot inn thanks to andrew and nina! It’s very nice. The nicest place we’ll probably stay in during this trip so thanks a lot. This place has a waterslide, free cookie and water. We’ll try to have a relaxing night because tomorrow, we’ll be off to drumheller and lethbridge.

Jon's Edit: We're getting hungry again, so instead of going to the casino or hotel restaurant like normal people, Lily and I have brought out our two element eletric stove and a can of chef boyardee and carrots and peas. Lily is just finishing cooking...time to eat.

Good night