July 5th, Friday

Stampede day !!! What a full day

We were on a shuttle from the campground to the parade at 7am and found our bleacher seats with one of the Calgary Rotary Clubs. They even served coffee, donuts and water. The parade was super with horses, horses and more horses and people of course. Politicians all riding horses, kids, bands, even a bull rider. The rain stayed away during the morning and afternoon.

Afternoon was spent wandering the grounds, listening to country band, livestock barns, meeting the Kubota rep, and having supper with Mark MacEachern and his girlfriend. Great to see them. And then the thunder and rain came ! We were dressed in rain pants and jacket so we were a lot happier and dryer then a lot of people and our seats in the grandstand were just undercover. Thanks Mark for the great advice :-) The chuck races were muddy, sloppy and fun to watch. What a sport ....

We met up with Jon Wilson and Jamie McManaman between the chucks and show. They helped Bernie buy a new cowboy hat.Then came the Grandstand Show - fantastic ! The Young Canadians (Bernie's first cousin's son, Noah, was one of the performers), ariels, dancers, singers, Chinese Acrobatic, Ballet, String Section, people performing on stages high in the air, fireworks, special effect. What a first class performance.

Caught the shuttle back at midnight. Long day but fun !