Yeeeehaaaaaw!

On Wednesday, Murray and I popped down to Calgary for a few days to visit the fam and check out the Stampede. Truth be told, my intentions were not quite that pure - I wanted to check out Corb Lund who was playing a free show at the Stampede.
On Wednesday night we went to Ryan, Krystalle, Ben, and Mollie's place for a feed of BBQ ribs and a visit. Ben is getting bigger all the time - we just saw him a couple weeks ago and he has changed so much!

You know, there is nothing quite like the Calgary Stampede! The sights (some not so bad, some which shouldn't be in public), the smells (some delicious and tempting, some like the back end of a bull), the shopping...(what could be bad about shopping?!)
After a delicious stampede-style breakfast (at noon) of pancakes and bacon on Thursday, Murms and I headed to Anderson station to catch the C-Train to the grounds. I tell ya, public transit is the way to go.
First stop: the Indian Village. Pretty cool - nothing I haven't seen before, but I have always loved the amazing, detailed costumes - especially the bead work. Apparently, "Indian" is PC again. I'll never be able to keep up.
Then we headed up the midway to look for some freaky carnies. Unfortunately, we mostly saw clean-cut college age kids who were more than happy to take your money to play a game that is physically impossible to win. Stewie Griffin (the delightfully evil baby from "the Family Guy") seemed to be the prize of choice - every game kiosk was giving him away in various sizes.
We checked out the rides, and murms found one that suited his tastes perfectly:

(luuuuuv yuuuuu)
We decided to try out the "skyride" which is somewhat like a horizontal chair lift that allows you to go from one end of the grounds to the other in about 10 minutes. Nice view from up there - even the carnies look harmless:

Skee Ball is my favourite game. I'm quite deadly at it.

Drifting high above the crowds at the top of the skyride, we could see where the people were hanging out. Not surprisingly, the biggest lineup was for those 'lil donuts. We didn't partake because my arteries were hardening just thinking about them. We actually did go on one legitimate ride. I don't remember what it was called, but probably something along the lines of "spin-you-around-and-make-you-stick-to-the-wall-till-you-upchuck." It sure was fun. We checked out the action in the ag barns and discovered a tent full of Budweiser Beer Clydsdales. Man, those things are massive! I have pics, but for some reason Blogger is being difficult right now and I can't seem to get them in. I'll try again later - keep an eye out. After a little shopping, more walking around, gawking in awe of the number of people in line at the Nashville North tent who were lined up to see April Wine, chowing down on a burger, and walking around a little more, we decided to head over to the Coca Cola stage to stake out a spot for the big show. On our way over, we noticed a kiosk selling the coveted "dippin' dots" ice cream treats. (again, check back for pics). They are tiny pellets of flash-frozen ice cream. We both opted for the 'cowpoke' size (as opposed to the larger 'buckaroo' size) of the cookies and cream variety. Delicious, but very cold and hurt my teeth - not as creamy as real ice cream. I think I'll stick to Ben&Jerry, thanks.

The main event, the whole reason for all this, was fantastic! Corby and the boys ("the Hurtin' Albertans") did not disappoint. It was pretty cool too because most of their music is settling-the-west-riding-and-wrangling kinda stuff. Well done.

On Friday night we had a great visit and another feed of BBQ ribs with all the Stampede-style fixin's at Murray's mom and dad's.

The rest of the story is a little anti-climactic. We headed back home on Saturday and waxed the floors at the sem today. Wax on, but not wax off.