Ya-hoo!

We woke up in Lake Louise to a wet morning.  Our scenic drive out of the Rockies was unfortunately covered in clouds and fog.  The rain followed us all the way to Calgary and our soggy campsite.  Unfortunately, we were expecting a poor place to stay based on the low availability and poor RV reviews.  We were even more disappointed when they said, ‘no, you didn’t book full hook-up, you booked electric only’.  Dejected, we packed up and headed for Pip’s house ASAP.  We just wouldn’t spend much time in the campsite for our two-night visit.

Pip is one of Tim’s favourite relatives that he hasn’t seen in more than 10 years.  She provided a safe haven for us to relax, visit, do our laundry, had some entertainment for Georgia, home-baked goodies and a home-cooked meal. 

It was nice to catch up with her one-on-one as we were headed for a more family evening the next day at her son, Chris’ house.

The next day, we went to ‘The Calgary Stampede’, the largest Rodeo in the world.  Calgary is well renowned for this event and many Calgarians wear cowboy hats, boots and jeans to work.  We were lucky our timing worked out and we were there during the Stampede.  You can think of it as a giant county fair with animals, expositions, rides, fair food and of course rodeo acts.  It’s a bit kitsch, but we’ve been staring at trees for a long time so it was a well-needed break.  By the way, it’s ‘yahoo’, not ‘yee-haw’.  So, we parked War and took the train to the fairgrounds.  

We joined the queue, bought tickets and went into the fun.  We had mini-donuts, watched trick horse riding, draft horses (Karen had an allergy attack every time she went into the horse tent L) and dogs herding ducks, had a turkey leg, brisket sandwich, then looked at baby chicks and pigs, had a lemonade and root beer and watched the rides from the shade to beat the heat.

Georgia took a nap in the carrier.  We decided to head out as we had plans for the evening, but not before getting a chip stick.  We were all in for a tummy ache later.

When we got off the train, we stayed at the mall and Tim got a much-needed haircut going from woolly mammoth to flock of seagulls.  He was thrilled with the weight off his shoulders!  Georgia and Karen raided the dollar store for hair accessories for Georgia…she’s finally starting to wear them!  Unfortunately later, Karen realised she’d lost her sunglasses in the mayhem.  I suppose it is OK, because I had badly scratched them on Smoky the Bear’s pedestal at the Grand Canyon, they were 7 years old and slightly stretched.  Now, I’m relegated to Georgia’s free blue sunglasses she won at the Stampede for playing horseshoes (see later photos).

We went to Pip’s for a much needed clean-up after Stampede and a rest, then headed with Pip to Chris, Tracy and Addison’s (6-month old) house for dinner.  Georgia enjoyed tearing up and down their stairs and retrieving the exercise ball from the top floor and bouncing it down two flights of stairs.  She also enjoyed showing Addison how her bouncer worked and watching TV!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner, Karen continued her allergy attack full tilt and Tim enjoyed catching up with Chris after not seeing him for 20 years.  There was a fantastic story about Tim carrying the younger Chris home after too many beers at a campfire on Salt Spring.