Calgary Stampede
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The Calgary Stampede has changed a lot since I
attended as an 18 year old. It is far larger in every aspect, more
midway, more food wagons, more shows and a more extravagant grandstand
show. We managed to see almost everything in four days. What made it
easier was having expert guides with us, Marg and Jack Dunphy, friends
with whom we biked the Danube last year, who also provided us with
excellent accommodation.
Oh, when is Ottawa’s promised subway going to be
finished? We donned our borrowed cowboy hats each morning and headed to
the Calgary CTrain which made it a breeze to get to the Stampede site.
We arrived in time to take in several of the smaller, good quality shows
and the Indian Village before heading to the Grandstand. Highlights for
us were certainly the finals of the Cowboy Up Challenge, featuring
riders timed as they manoeuvred around increasingly difficult obstacles,
the famous and heart-stopping chuckwagon races followed by a well
choreographed Canada booster show complete with dancers, singers, and
fireworks and the afternoon rodeo with all the bronco busting, bull
riding, tie-down roping, steer wrestling, and ladies barrel racing you
expect of a rodeo. How did we survive the four days? Well, our afternoon
break in the wine bar helped. Besides the wine, an excellent photography
show and displays of arts and crafts in the same building made it
enjoyable break.
Before we left the Richardsons on Pender Island,
we promised to see their son, Nigel, who lives in Calgary with his wife,
Megan, and their three children. We were glad we did. We enjoyed a good
lunch on Prince Island Park and caught up with all their news.
Calgary was also a time to reconnect with friends
from my school days. Marg and I discovered that Evie Monk Wallace, with
whom she bikes and hikes, was a classmate of mine in Montreal. We
arranged to meet and hike for a few hours in one of their favourite
parks in the Calgary hills.
An appropriate ending to our visit to Calgary
came with dinner the last night with Ann Collins Seymour, a classmate of
both Marg and me at Bishop’s University. It is amazing how easy it is to
reconnect, despite the intervening years.
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