i made it down to the grounds this year. unfortunately, it rained. my day at the stampede wasn’t that awesome 😦
my first and favorite place to check out is the agriculture area. i checked out all sorts of livestock. there were some ginormous cattle and horses, and some miniature horses and donkeys! obviously, the best part was the miniatures. i liked listening to the miniature horses whinnying at each other. you can only handle the smell of said animals that you are not used to for a certain period of time, so i blew that pop stand.
next stop – blacksmithing competition! this was cool – i had never seen it before. the coolest part was the female competitor – her arms were ripped. wicked.
in amongst all of this, i had to find food. i discovered that you can get relatively cheap food in weadickville, which i also had never been to before. this is bizarre for a born & raised calgarian. i found coffee for $1 and mac’s frosters for $2. yay team!
i wandered the grounds for a few hours. ange met me at about 6:00. we found some “dinner”. dinner this time was fish and chips. but not just any fish and chips. the slimiest, greasiest, blechiest fish and chips ever. thankfully we had already decided to share it. yick!! then we headed to the chuckwagon races! in the rain! with no roof over our seats! we bought ponchos to make it a little more bearable. we had a few hours ahead of us, as the grandstand show was next. it was cold and miserable, but i bought tickets so we were staying dammit. i went on a coffee hunting adventure, and returned bearing 2 x 16oz cups of coffee. yes!
the grandstand show was less than grand. due to the rain, we missed out on the freestyle motox stunts, the globe of death, some kind of ballet in the air, and some other acrobatic thing on stage. hmph. the best part of the show, i thought, was the tribute to michael jackson… the lead dancer dude did a fantastic job. i guess the canadian idol chick, eva avila, was good too… of course i had no clue who she was… finally – the finale – the fireworks! they were beautiful and awesome! aaand i got to try out the fireworks setting on my camera! woohoo!
jenbacca 