Okay...I've surfaced from an insane week of booze, boots, and...cowboy hats. The Calgary Stampede is now over and I'm so sad to see it go. I've done the midway in past years but that's about it. The stampede has so much more to offer. I visited Nashville North at the Stampede grounds 5 times, one pub crawl, one day watching the rodeo, one night IN the rodeo, one night watching the chucks, 14 hours straight at Cowboys...and one rest day in the middle. Crazy week.
I absolutely love Nashville North. Next time I'm in Calgary for a Stampede I'm definitely going to go there more often. Cowboys was fun but it just doesn't compare. They only play good country dancing music in the afternoon and start with the thumping crap in the evening when it starts to get packed. At NN they have great music all night, 3 or 4 live performances, and you can (usually) find room on the dance floor to spin around a cowgirl or two. I had a lot of fun with my roommates, friends, and just new people I've met trying to pick up as many girls as possible. Some of the girls I'd like to see again but I wasn't really after the phone numbers this year. Next year I'll refine my skills. Brendan was an excellent wingman this year. He'd find two girls who looked like they'd want to dance, tell me how hot the tall one in white is, then go dance with the other girl. Or, if Nevin was with us too, he'd find two girls and tell us to have at'er. Never really saw the advantages of girl hunting with a guy who's bascially married but there definitely are some.
So yeah, the bars were great. I consumed so much beer that I'm giving up alcohol until August (although I did have a beer after hockey last night). We even had Bailey's in our coffee at some of the free breakfasts. So what else was there? The grandstand show this year was amazing. We went Monday night. If anyone hasn't seen one yet they really have to. The chucks are intense, the dancing is amazing, the band sounds great, and the fireworks are unlike anything I've seen in Canada before. It's a long show but really worth it. I also caught the real rodeo on Tuesday with my boss and some people from DMK Fluids. Since most of these guys had to drive home it became a popular idea to give the lone student the extra drink tickets. I could barely walk to Nashville North after but I still danced up a storm with Yvonne, Janine, and other girls from the office. We had great seats for the rodeo so I could see everything. I think these cowboys are bigger idiots than before. What kind of moron would ever get on a live animal that's not really supposed to be ridden? Don't answer that just yet...
Can Pete pull off the cowboy look?Talisman had it's own little rodeo at Symon Valley Ranch outside of Calgary on Thursday. It wasn't a real rodeo since the contestants spend most of their time behind a computer in the office with me. There were events like riding a horse while holding water balloons, milking goats, 3-on-1 calf wrestling (the calves won most of them), and they were going to have a mechanical bull too (it was broken). The one even that didn't seem to fit was cow riding...especially since 3 of the cows were actually steers.
I was a last minute addition to Luke's team but didn't have an event of my own. Russ rode the cow for our team and did a fine job lasting 4.2 seconds (one of the longest). My boss was on a team with some other ladies and people from the drilling floor. Carole was their cow rider but after seeing a few of the first people go she said "No way". Yvonne stepped in for her but a combination of tequila, sandles, and a half visor on her helmet caused the guys running the rodeo to say "um...no". So here I am, minding my own business on the fence with my camera when I hear my name being called over the PA. "Um...would some guy named Tenove come to the back of the chutes?" "CRAP!" So I handed off my camera, grabbed a helmet, and stumbled over to the cows. I wouldn't be allowed to drive a car but apparently it's okay if I still go jump on a wild cow.
Yvonne's Team: Udo is the cheerleader in the middle.
(Yvonne is second from the right, Carole is on the very right)So I get to the last chute, I'm the last ride of the day. My "cow" is mooing, kicking, and making me sober up quicker than coffee or a cold shower EVER will. I get on this thing, my hand is strapped down, my knee is slammed into the door a couple times, and I'M OFF!....and I'm done. 2.1 seconds flat! One of the shortest times of the day. I felt like a bit of a fool. I really wanted another shot at it. I wasn't prepared for the kind of acceleration those things can dish out. It wasn't until the next day at the office that I found it it was actually a steer I was on. It makes a difference. For some of the longer rides the cow would walk out of the chute calmly before starting to buck and throw the guys off. Mine bolted right out and I was lucky to stay on for two bucks. Augh! Thinking back about it now makes me so mad...I could have done that way better. A lot of people were still impressed though. My boss loves me for doing that. She would have been hurt. Other high up managers were happy I stepped in too. Sadly, no pictures or video. My friends are nice but they're not too smart.
I did have some support from Andrew, Kendra, and Pam; my officemates.After the rodeo we still had plenty of drink tickets to use up so we went back to the barbecue area to play some drinking games, sit around, and celebrate still being alive.
Jared and Rich earlier during the barbecue.
Luke and Leanne show how real cowboys wear a hat!After the rodeo the bus took us to the Ship & Anchor on 17th Ave for some more partying. This was actually one of the less eventful days....what does that tell you?
Luke missed out riding the steer so he tried to wreck his back in a much less manly way.I had to play it cool on Saturday. We only stayed at Nashville North until 12:30 in the morning. I had to be at a rig in Turner Valley the next morning at 9:00. They were doing some coring and part of my new project is to determine if a new coring technology is as good as the conventional method.
Coring bit.A cylinder of solid rock comes up the middle of the bit and gets pulled up to surface where they cut the 30 meters of rock into 5 foot lengths and take it away to the Core Research Center in Calgary for testing. They were having some troubles the night before, hopefully the one they started while I was there worked out well for them.
Field north of my parents' place in Nanton.I carried on to Nanton after that to help my dad with some things around the house and make a dent in the pile of laudry I had from the Stampede week. Such a nice day to be outside. Too bad my roommates stayed at home recovering.
I definitely hurt my body this week. Even though I drank more beer this week than I've ever had in 2 months I actually lost weight. Maybe because I was spending 4 or 5 hours a night on the dance floor or maybe because eating didn't seem so important. I averaged less than 6 hours of sleep a night and still was at work (almost) on time during the week. The Stampede is amazing but 10 days is definitely enough. Sorry for the length of this entry but a lot has happened. This is the very condensed version of what actually happened. So many good stories! Like Luke and Nevin being escorted out of Nashville North, Peter slapping some guy on the C-train platform, meeting Mindy and her friends, meeting all those people from Ontario. Yeah, I had fun.
