It was Sunday July 5th - Family day at the Stampede, which means free entry to eveyone who arrives before 9am. A friend at work and I took advantage of this and we got up earlier than normal sundays for some cowboy fun! We arrived at the C-train station with a lot of families, mums with pams, dads with their handful controlling their kids, grandparents sweetly holding onto their grandchildren. We didn't have to wait long for a C-train to come but it was jam packed with people already. It was jam packed but still manage to fit a few more people in. I was one of them, unfortunately my friend wasn't. She had to wait for the next one which was only 10 minutes away fortunately. To get to the Stampede ground, there were around 7 more stops. Each stop, the platform was filled with eagerly awaiting travellers ready to set foot onto the C-train. I was already at the door of the train and a pam was in front of me so you can imagine there wasn't a whole lot of room for me to move around. Remember that was the Family day of the Stampede and everyone was rushing to get in before 9am, there were pams, small little kids out of sight from most ignorant adults who only have eyes and hearts for themselves. Each time the C-train had trouble leaving the platform as the doors would not close with people's appendages or backpacks hanging out of the door. When we finally approached the third last stop till the Stampede, there were lots of Asian elderlies waiting at the platform. Trust me, they didn't act like elderlies, they were fierce, inappropriately competitive and just plain rude. There was no way they can get on our carriage and a lot of people within the C-train yelled out to them to stop pushing as they threw their bodies onto my back and a young father carrying his 2 year old girl! I yelled for them to stop in English. They ignored conveniently, maybe playing the "I don't speak English" card. I heard the elderlies speaking in Cantonese so I spoke to them (rather angrily) in their own tongue to stop pushing and please be careful as there were little kids in the middle of the carriage being squashed by their actions. They finally stopped! The door of the carriage closed succesfully. There was an eerie silence and I met some eyes within the carriage. Hehe, I felt like patting myself on the back after that performance!
Anyway, after finally making it to the Stampede station, it was 8:47am, my friend hasn't arrived yet with the following C-train. It was 8:57am when we crossed the gates together and got into the ground for free - phew!! Our first task was to find the free breakfast pancakes. I read it on the Stampede guide before that breakfast was only served to the first 20,000 visitors of the Family Day Stampede and these people would get a ticket at the gate as they enter. Hmm... we rushed through the gates and didn't receive anything. When we finally found out where to line up for pancakes, it took us another 5-10 minutes to find the end of the queue. We asked people if that was the right queue, we were happy to hear them say yes, but they also said this wasn't the end. I looked behind me, there were at least another 50 metres of people heads! We reached the end only to find a worker holding up a sign saying "Pancakes cut-off here"!!! Sigh....
We ventured around the Stampede ground and our first stop were the Animal barns and Agriculture displays. I have never seen miniature horses before, apparently, they are a different strain of horses. Of course there were full size horses too, as well as cows where Angus beef comes from, donkeys, longhorn bulls, etc. In an another arena, there were little chickies, piglets on display, very informative farmers teaching kids where everything come from. After that, we also walked through the rides and food areas. I had my first American corn-dog. I had a regular one, there were "jumbo" ones! Wow!! I also bought a cowboy hat for the event. It was weird not having one when everyone in the Stampede was wearing one - I can't miss out! There were indoor arenas for Canadian culture and art display. The art and scupltures were amazing!! Very lively and energetic! Would love to stay longer to study more about their culture. A part of the ground was dedicated to the Indians - the native Canadians. They are living in their tipis for the duration of the Stampede and at specific time they would be open for people to see. But the time at which we went, most of the tipis were closed for visitors. Some people tried to peek-in for a look see but someone else commented how would you feel about people peeking into your home every so minute for 10 days! Good point!! I found the Indians very close within their group and they treasure their arts and culture deeply! After my friend left, I remained for a bit longer. On my travels, I saw a musical dancing band, a gun-trick champion and my favourite Stampede Showband. What a day!!
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