Grated Coconut

How interesting that after writing about this great horse a short time ago an article about him appeared in this morning's Calgary Herald.  Although I really shouldn't be surprised as The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth is set to kick off with the parade tomorrow morning.  The Calgary Stampede is the second largest one in the world (second to the Rose Bowl Parade, if I recall correctly) and has been running for 100+ years.  Every year a new parade marshall is announced and this year there was a great hue and cry over the selection of Jett and Cord McCoy out of Oklahoma of The Amazing Race fame over some of our local Olympic Gold Medallists.  The reasoning given by the Stampede board was that Jett and Cord embodied the spirit of the old west and "Cowboy ethics never go out of style".  I have a tendency to agree.  I love cowboys, always have.  They're inherently polite, doffing hats at ladies and 'yes ma'am's just seem to do something to me.
I was given a commemorative book on the Stampede yesterday and some of the old pictures in it are amazing.  Did you know that there was no time limit on the rough stock events at first?  Some bronc rides were reported as lasting up to 10 minutes!  EEK!  No wonder they shortened it, the crowd was getting bored!


I love this time of year in Calgary.  It seems that everybody has their 'hospitality face' on and everybody in this great city tries their damndest to make visitors feel welcome.  You can go to any number of places for a free pancake breakfast complete with sausages and orange juice.  There are so many of them that there are many websites that list them  And those are just the ones for the general public.  There are also breakfasts that industries like electrical, oil and gas, etc. put on by invitation that are only open to people related to that industry.  The public one at Chinook Center is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year.  I'm not even sure how many pancakes they serve every year but can imagine that by the 10 days are up whoever does all that cooking wouldn't care if they ever saw another pancake or smelled another sausage on the grill!

People that have never before worn a hat or boots get duded up and at least make an attempt to embody 'the cowboy way'.  We're kinder, more polite and smile a whole lot more.  Cindy wrote about how the American population comes together on the fourth of July, well think of that on steroids.  That's Calgary during Stampede week and instead of one day, we get 10!

here are the links to the articles that were in this morning's paper
http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Legendary+bronc+Grated+Coconut+leaves+horseshoes+fill/3249949/story.html
http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Broncs+home+Hanna+ranch/3249959/story.html