Calgary Stampede Round Up

Howdy Partners!

Cassie and Monica checking in (a little belatedly) after an incredible weekend at the Calgary Stampede. Yee Haw!

We knew going in that good times were bound to happen – our two day itinerary included a boozy breakfast, a Kid Rock concert, catching up with friends, checking out the rodeo, and spending time at the legendary Nashville North. But neither of us were prepared for the hilarity that was Stampede.

In the interest of space and time the rest of this update will be in highlight reel format:

• Hotel was decked out western styles, including a teepee, re-named bar/saloon, and all the staff were dressed as cowboys
• Woke up at 7am on Friday to head to our first event – the Buckn breakfast where eggs and bacon are accompanied by unlimited pitchers of beer, Caesars, vodka orange…
• Playing drinking games at 9am. FLIP CUP!
• Meeting a dude at our breakfast table who’s name is Hung Cock Deep. No joke.
• Getting temp-tattooed with my new friend Cathy… and Monica asking upon our return to the table if Cathy’s tattoo is a lobster (it was a raging bull)
• Cassie meeting her Calgary boyfriend… who we will refer to as Calgary Kid (or CK for short) going forward. Big ups to Monica for the assist here.
• Monica being scarred for life on her boob by a “I love hooters” sticker. You can still see the mark days later! Oh the irony.
• Drunk two stepping at 11am
• After the breakfast, accompanying Monica on a work errand. We were driven there in a big yellow school bus. That’s right….this likely would have been better done before breakfast.
• Joining our breakfast friends at the next bar… proceeded by dropping several beers, more drunk dancing and Cassie bailing for a little batting practice with Calgary Kid (yikes, it wasn’t even 4pm!)
• The group reconvened at the hotel bar to head out to the Kid Rock concert… and we were joined by CK. See? Calgary boyfriend.
• Discovering the Recycle Wagon outside the saddle dome. Photo shoot ensued, much to the confusion of our friends.
• After the show we headed out to find our next drinking hole… because we needed to drink more. Calgary Kid had a friend at the concert that we met up with and who was supposed to get us in to some bar. But after waiting around for ages, and then charging ahead (calling us drag asses in the process) we lost him and got in cabs to head back to the hotel/Calgary Kid’s house
• Cassie had a nice visit out to the Calgary suburbs before doing the taxi ride of shame back to the hotel room in the wee hours of the morning, only to find that Monica still hadn’t made it home from the night before! Dirty stop out. (Really she went with a local girlfriend to a house party… but I like calling people dirty stop outs)
• After a quick power nap, Cassie gets a call from Monica that her room key card isn’t working and can she let her in? Cassie goes to open the door and guess who’s not there? That’s right. Monica got confused when exiting the elevator…..8th floor, 9th floor….apparently it makes a difference.
• We rallied enough that morning to grab a greasy breakfast (sans booze), and headed to the Stampede midway. Just looking at the rides was enough to make a Becker queasy.
• Headed to the Rodeo to watch some ‘real men’ ride bucking broncos and tie up baby cows. Cassie had a nap.
• Of course the cure for how we were feeling was to drink copious amounts of beer. Which we did. For eight hours. God bless Nashville North.
• At Nashville North, we met up with Cassie’s friend Fiona (from Calgary) and her friends. Highlights (if you want to call them that) from that session include:

(text from Cassie to Bachelor Party friend who was en route) OMG you have to get here. Magnum PI is here and my friend is making out with Justin Burberry. Bieber. (damn auto-correct)

Fiona and friends finding a 3 foot stuffed Barack Obama and carrying him around the bar for the rest of the evening

Meeting up with the Bachelor Party (who despite including two firemen and an NHLer were a little lame at that point) and livening up the group by giving them the necklace shot glasses we acquired earlier in the day, and then filling them with any kind of booze we could find. The lame-o’s took them off not long after. We thought bachelor parties were meant to be wild…turns out a couple of Beckers in Calgary is much more of a party.

While Cassie talked to her ex who was part of the Bachelor party (bad news, but we won’t dwell on this), she looks over to see her friend Fiona chatting to a guy we’ll call Wheels… because he’s in a wheelchair. Cassie goes in for the ‘save’, only to have Fiona tell her to BACK OFF, he’s really cool apparently LOL

After some group dance floor action (Wheels can really move!), Cassie may have said some regrettable truths to the ex/Bachelor party dude (he’s not the bachelor, but is married) which prompted a sudden and deep urge to get the hell out of the bar

• So the visiting Calgary Trio (Monica, Cassie and Cathy) hop in a cab, headed home or to meet Fiona again at the next bar. Again, more drinking? Yes!
• Cassie bails on the group for Calgary Kid. Who proceeds to walk her all over town (or so it felt at this point). There may have been some park action before these two lovebirds headed back to the suburbs for one last hurrah.
• Monica and Cathy opt for food and bed. Monica is working on two bad hours of sleep after all the shenanigans from Friday.
• Sunday = OMG I’m sweating booze/departure day. Great lunch with Fiona and friend before heading out to the airport.

Lessons from the weekend

• Stampede is awesome and we are going again, and again, and again.
• Everybody looks sexy in a cowboy hat.
• Chimo is hello in Inuktitut. (pronounced chee-mo)
• Cowboy boots are a new addiction.
• Apparently stampede is the place for all food on a stick, ie Pizza on a stick.
• Trying to put together a recap/good blog entry from such an away game is basically impossible….everything is so foggy when you start drinking at 8am on day one!

Over and out.
Cassie and Monica x