Yahoo! Calgary Stampede 101

Day 23, Friday, July 5

Yahoo is the standard cheer for the Calgary Stampede.  We heard it a million times today (and cheered it in return!)  Ya – Hoo!!  It is the 101st year for the Stampede, which always starts out with a parade on Friday.  The whole downtown shuts down as people gather…similar to the 500 Festival Parade in Indy.  We had great seats, and were served coffee and donuts by our rally masters.  Our group was large and loud, and kept the area entertained, and even the parade participants seemed to love the response they’d get to the 1-2-3-YA—HOOO!!!

The parade was complete with bands, as well as horses, horses, horses…probably 1,000 throughout the entire parade!   We saw several sets of Clydesdales, along with units of Percherons, Appaloosas, Morsky Roselea Belgians, Arabians, (I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of beautiful horses).  We saw mounted police and champion rodeo riders, princesses, and indians, all riding horses. 

The parade marshall (Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield) and parade directors also rode horses--not quite like pace cars, but pretty cool.  There was even a funeral home pulling a 150-year old horse-drawn funeral hearse…very similar to the one my relatives have at their funeral home in Texas! 

Because there are so many horses in the parade, there are street sweepers placed strategically as a unit in the parade—probably three different groups.  It was funny to see the cleaners decorated like horses, and they were cheered along just as the other units in the parade. 

Wild West Willie – a huge Bull—(6 ft tall at the shoulder) thrilled the crowd. 

The mounted police were there, along with military units, and a huge tank that rolled down the street.

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A humorous unit was “The Beat Goes On” marching band.  It is an all-adult band, which includes a dance team, color guard and twirlers.  The members are from 20-80—the average age was probably about 55…hilarious…they were struttin'’ their stuff!  My sister was a Sparkette at ISU…wonder if she realizes there’s a group she can still perform with!

There was a huge 8-trailer semi that wrapped up the 2 hour parade. 

Afterwards, we went to the street fair, had lunch and Jim had an intense conversation with a couple of guys on the street, before we came back and took a nap!

The Big Rodeo is tomorrow!

PS.  Here we are in action….with 4 devices getting synched up.  (The coffee at McDonalds is great!)