Stampeding again...

The Calgary Stampede is here again (July 6-15) and, as usual, a great time. The plan this year was to take it easy, only go to a couple of events, keep rested and work hard...funny how plans change.

Started last Friday watching the Stampede Parade downtown with Nevin. Had a great view from the back of his truck in the parkade. Have to remember that one for future years. Also watched Transformers that night, excellent movie. Saturday was a fun day of rafting down past Cardston with the Hornecker family reunion. 45 people floating down a river trying to soak each other as much as possible...great fun.

On Sunday another kind of fun started, the fun of entertaining. We were able to talk Marie into stopping by Calgary for 4 days to see Canada (well, a part of it). She'd been in San Francisco the week before at her cousin's wedding. Talk about a good time to show up in town. Gave her a quick tour of Nanton Sunday night and a chance to meet some family. Monday I had rodeo tickets so I took her to see her first rodeo. I think she was impressed...or stunned at how crazy some of us are. One bull rider got bucked off and managed to run about 30 feet before the bull spun around and tracked him down. The cowboy got launched at least 15 feet in the air. He was okay and able to walk off the field. Everyone around, even the veterans, were saying they'd never seen anyone get bucked that high.



Anyway, after the rodeo we had to check out Nashville North and meet more family...Terry. I always love going to NN for two-stepping. The music is good and everyone there is pumped about it. Not like going to Cowboys and trying to dance at some other time during the year. Stayed until Jack Ingram came on stage but instantly found out that I really don't like the guy...so we left.

Tuesday was spent in the mountains. I mean, if you come to Canada you HAVE to see the rockies. Stopped by Lake Louise, Peyto Lake, and then back into Banff. They were doing construction on the main road so we just bypassed downtown and went out to see the Banff Springs Hotel. I'd never actually gone inside before. Walked around the bottom few levels and, to sum it up, the place is nuts...in a lavish, make-you-feel-like-a-king way. Stopped by Boston Pizza in Canmore on the way home for another Canadian experience.

Wednesday I was back at work and Marie just stay at our condo to rest and collect herself. I had a lot of work to do...at least in the morning. Somehow got talked into going to Cowboys for lunch and didn't make it back until 2:30 or so with a few beers in me. I did get "some" more work done. Marie came downtown after so we could have one last supper with Nevin, Kyla, Luke, Ang, Jesse, Rocky, AND Rocky's new fiance Shelly...that's just a whole other story in itself. Had tickets to watch the chuckwagons and the grandstand show after. Amazing show. Always fun betting on the chucks. The Young Canadians were good but it was the rest of the show that made the night. Great ventriloquist comedian, dirtbike jumping, and the fireworks were the best I've ever seen. So much better when they follow the music. Jesse came with us and we decided to hit up a few rides after the show around midnight. Can't remember the names of them all but they have some good ones this year. The Zipper was of course a classic. Couldn't convince Marie to come on but Jesse and I managed to pull off one of the best Zipper runs ever.

Only problem with all of this is that we didn't get home until almost 2:00am...and Marie had to be at the airport by 4:30am. Yup, not going on a lot of sleep today. Drove her over, said good bye, and was back home and asleep right away. Wow...that was a packed four days. Almost wish I had a 13 hour flight today to rest. I'm definitely going to take it easy today to rest up for when Noel makes it down tomorrow. Not sure what the plans are going to be but it will definitely involve some Stampeding of our own. Can't wait. Still 4 days left...let's do this.