On the Friday we were hoping to get away by lunchtime as we were heading to Beechy to pick Sheridan up for the Stampede. As it goes on farms we got caught up silaging and didn't manage to get away until 7:30. This meant we didn't make Beechy until after 2am, which kinda sucked because we were hoping to go to Stampede park Saturday afternoon. Anyway we eventually got on the road a little before lunch on Saturday and made it to Sheridan's aunt and uncles place in Calgary at about 6:30pm. Chris and Brian were in at the rodeo and her cousin Colton was at a mates place, so we quickly got ready and headed there for a few drinks.

We then caught the train into the grounds, which only took about 30min and had a bit of a look around. I must say we were quite disappointed with the whole situation as every single person we saw seemed to think it was ok to be wearing cowboy boots and hats, even if they weren't from the country. We found it a little strange that this was the case and were definitely glad we weren't wearing our cowboy stuff, as we would have looked like every other try hard there. Colton took us to a place called the Nashville North tent, which is meant to be pretty good. We had to wait in line for about 40min though and the drinks were really expensive so it didn't really seem worth it to us. They have live bands in there all the time so the music was quite good, but it seems to be the place where all the city people hang out.

The next day we had a bit of a sleep in after our big couple of days then had breakfast with Brian, Chris and some friends of theirs. We pretty much did nothing all day, then headed off to go paint balling in the afternoon. A random thing to be doing whilst in Calgary for the Stampede, but it was actually quite fun. The first time us girls had no idea what was going on and it was actually kind of scary. We were on a team with Colton and some of his friends and we were up against some pretty stiff competition. Our opposition were hard-core paint-ballers with all their own equipment and everything, We failed miserably and ended up having to surrender. The next time though was heaps more fun as we understood the rules a bit better and were able to get into it a bit more. We even managed to take out some of their guys, although they still managed to whoop our butts. After a few more rounds we were ready to head home and get ready for another night of partying.

This time we went to a bar called the Ranchmans and it was definitely more to our liking. It was kind of like going to the Stockmans bar at the Ekka and there were more country people around. We met some French-Canadians who were competing in the novice bareback, as well as some Kiwi guys who were working and travelling in Canada. It was a really fun night, however I ended up a little worse for wear (to say the least) and woke up feeling very sorry for myself. We were supposed to go to another town to check out a western store but had no chance of making it there. In the afternoon Candice decided to head into the Stampede to have a better look around and I dragged my sorry self there with her. We looked through the shops but didn't find anything too exciting, then went and watched some team penning and sheep dog trials. We then decided it was best to spend the night in and have a good sleep before our last day at the Stampede.

The next day we woke up feeling refreshed and made it to the western store at Claresholm where I bought some boots and a bridle. We then headed back to the Stampede and met up with Josh, who worked at home last year. It was nice to see him again and he is driving through Moosomin sometime in September so we might be able to catch up again then. Sheridan's uncle had managed to get us rodeo tickets for that afternoon and that started about 1:30. Some of the competitors were so amazing to watch and I probably enjoyed the roping ones the best as they did it so quick and made it look so easy.

That night we ended up back at Ranchmans and as we went through the doors the security guard said to us "You're back". I am assuming we must have made quite the impression Sunday night!! We managed to meet some more competitors and had fun talking and dancing with them. It was another late one and we didn't make it home until 5:00am. Considering we had to be up at 6:30 to go to the airport this probably wasn't the best idea and we both struggled to get out of bed. We made it to the airport on time though, although in our bedraggled state Candice managed to forget her passport. There was a slight moment of panic when we thought she would miss her connection to Australia. However, a nice lady at West Jet managed to sort her out with another flight to Vancouver which got her there on time. I then headed back to the house, packed up and hit the road again for the return trip to Beechy.