Apologies on the delay of my highly anticipated post-Stampede blog entry. I am pretty much still sleeping since I got zero sleep for 10 days straight. K that was an exaggeration but seriously note to self-take at least 1 day off after stampede to recuperate and blog. Or just take off all 10 days if possible like a real cowgirl.
The first taste of Stampede for me was seeing Dean Brody on Canada Day at the Cowboys tent. I am not overly familiar with Dean’s music, but man that guy is a babe and he put on a great show, including him climbing up some ladder next to the stage. He also sang Canadian Girls in case any of you were wondering. Some guy was hitting on my friend and he worked for Pandora. I didn't believe him at first but then he listed off the specific Pandora name for each charm on my bracelet. This did not help his game with my friend but I think it may mean discounts for me, so #sup. (Except I don’t remember his name or what he looks and my friend rejected him when he asked for a “goodbye kiss” so maybe not). Oh well at least he didn't try and use the “but its stampede” excuse when she said no!
So that was Canada day, and then came the 3 long days in between it and Stampede. I was driving past the parade route the evening before the parade and I saw tons of chairs all set up and holstered onto anything they could be holstered onto and trucks all ready for tailgating for the big parade. I am almost embarrassed to say that I have never witnessed the parade, and after seeing how many people in this town go early and set up to watch I am kind of intimidated by it. However, I am strongly considering applying to be the Stampede Princess for 2015 just so I can be in the parade and well, be a princess like my idol, Kate. So unfortunately I was unable to go watch the parade this year and for the life of me I don’t remember if I did anything that evening, probably not since I knew the next day would be a long one since I was going on a little club crawl.
So Saturday was the pub crawl which I attended with a couple girlfriends.We put our cowboy boots on and started drinking our cowgirl drinks around 2pm. Once we got to Roadhouse, my group went straight to the bar and I looked at the bartender and could not for the life of me remember how I knew him. If you know me well you know I have an awful memory sometimes and so I was trying so hard to think of where I recognized this attractive man from. It took me maybe 3 minutes to realize it was Tom from Big Brother Canada Season 1. I’m a loser and I am well aware so don’t waste your time telling me. I told my friends that it was Tom and they didn't believe me so I had to go all 2014 creep lady and check his Twitter to confirm. Anyway he ended up hitting on one of the girls I was with (and happens to be one of my biggest fans), we’ll call her Mary. I don’t know how much detail I will go into on this because I know Tom will read this one day and I don’t want to embarrass anyone. I did tweet about seeing him and he favorited my tweets so we are basically friends. Ugh I hate Big Brother.
Cowgirl'd UP
I am now realizing that the majority of the entertainment I receive throughout stampede doesn't occur while on the grounds or even while at the bar. The best entertainment comes from walking around downtown, usually walking home from the bar. We had to go out and save a friend at Cowboys later that night and some guy asked me where National on 10th was, and I went on to tell him “it’s on 10th.” Later in the same walk a guy claimed “I bet I can play rock scissors paper with any of you and win” so obviously being me I responded “who said rock scissors paper?! Are you from the east or something?” I miserably lost the game (I think he cheated) against him and continued the walk of shame home.
I was most excited to go to the grounds. I love the grounds. The rides, the food, the lights, the games, the people, the cowboys, I cannot get enough. My one and only disappointment from the grounds was that I could not find the deep fried cheezies. The lady at customer service didn't know who I could write a nasty letter to about this issue. When I asked, she said they weren't there yet due to some sort of cheezy dispute, but my friend, we’ll call him Cameron, said that he did find them and they were not good. So this made me feel better. I still managed to try the deep fried cookie dough, deep fried Reese’s sticks, tequila fries, cheddar nuggets, and I think that was all. Not eating pork eliminates lots of the options but I was very happy with all of this food. As you can tell, I am on a strict diet right now which includes me gaining 20 pounds. The grounds were fun I did some rides, played some games, lots of people watching and managed getting caught in a hail storm somehow!
I made friends on the mousy ride!
Where was I again?
THIS POST IS GETTING TOO LONG BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO STOP MYSELF
Tuesday night I went back to Roadhouse for great Canadian rock band, Sloan. My roommate and I consider ourselves Sloan fans – well she knew pretty much all the songs and most of the words while I kind of danced around and knew the popular ones. They put on an awesome show – as per usual and I will definitely see them next time they come around town. I messed up and didn't print out the picture we have of us and Chris for him to sign. UGH sometimes I mess up real bad. He definitely recognized us sometimes you can just tell. That night I saw a guy I used to have a HUGE crush on back in my university days. He was one of the bartenders at MRU while I was studying there and again I messed up and didn't say hi or anything because I chickened out. I guess this means he is still the one that got away for me. And I like to think that I am for him but I will never know. Until I run into him again a year from now and maybe get the courage to ask. #SINGLEFOREVER.
Wednesday of Stampede was the day I was most looking forward to. Wednesday was SHANIA DAY! It’s hard to put into words how amazing Shania was. She started off the concert by coming out on a horse in a Mountie outfit. She did some other really cool things during her show, fireworks, flames, storytelling, an a Capella performance, she even brought 10 random audience members on stage and spoke with them and had them sit around a campfire while she sang a couple songs. Most of all I was impressed with her voice, girl can sing! And she had some wicked costumes. I am thoroughly impressed and highly recommend that if you are in Vegas you check out her show! FYI my pictures from the show kind of suck but here is one...
The next day (it is a miracle that they all aren't blurred together in to one long day at this point) after an exhausting day at work I got home and an old friend was going to Nashville North and I have this problem where I don’t know how to say no (please don’t take advantage) and so I got picked up like a queen in a car2go and went back down to the grounds for what felt like round 5 thousand. Got to see Nitty Gritty Dirt Band which was fantastic and FINALLY do some two-stepping! If you didn't already know, they sing that song “Fishin' In The Dark” and if you were there you definitely would know that because they sang it 3 times.
My handsome friends.
Friday rolled around and was so excited to see an artist I am a huge fan of, Dallas Smith (no he is not Dallas Green). I had seen him open up for Florida Georgia Line back in February and the guy has talent and some catchy songs. He played at the Coke stage on the Stampede Grounds which I have to admit is not my favorite way to see an artist. The sound is great and luckily we had good weather but I couldn't really see Dallas because it was just one big pit and it ends up being tricky to get a spot where no annoying tall people are in front of you, and unfortunately I am not pushy enough to get my way to the front. I like my personal space. Regardless I loved seeing/hearing him and I’m sure he will be back soon enough.
I was also so happy to get to see the fireworks that night coming from the grandstand show! Living downtown you would assume that I could watch them from my building but nooo my building is a tiny one surrounded by large ones so I definitely could hear the fireworks every night, (and obviously thought it was thunder at first probably 7/10 days) but I didn't actually see them till that Friday and they were incredible. Hopefully next year I will pull it together and make it to the grandstand show to witness the whole show along with the fireworks.
I was also so happy to get to see the fireworks that night coming from the grandstand show! Living downtown you would assume that I could watch them from my building but nooo my building is a tiny one surrounded by large ones so I definitely could hear the fireworks every night, (and obviously thought it was thunder at first probably 7/10 days) but I didn't actually see them till that Friday and they were incredible. Hopefully next year I will pull it together and make it to the grandstand show to witness the whole show along with the fireworks.
Well that concludes my Stampede 2014 experience. Unfortunately there was a lack of cowboys in my 10 days and I couldn’t find anyone to do Stampede speed dating with me. I did have some terribly awkward moments with strange guys from my past and if you want to hear the whole story then shoot me a message and I will indulge!
;)
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