Tuesday, July 27, 2010

She's Country...

"from her cowboy boots to her down home roots. She's country, from the song she plays to the prayer she prays.  That's the way she was born and raised, she ain't afraid to stay country... brother she's country!"


So I'm pretty sure the girls in Jason Aldean's video for that song didn't have dragonflies painted on their faces, but what the heck, I'm sure they aren't moms either!  The weekend of Saturday, July 17th was a busy one for me personally.  A little event called The Calgary Stampede was taking place locally.  If you have never gone you should definitely make a trip of it!!  It's not called the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth for nothing! Chuck wagon races, rodeo, fireworks, mini donuts, and the midway and vendors, it's all very exciting. I was blessed to go this year because Grandma won some free concert tickets and invited me to go with her!  I was very excited (to say the least) to see Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean both perform!

Before I could enjoy the afternoon at the fair and concert I had some work duties to attend to first.  I was up bright and early at 4:00 am so that I could leave for south Calgary by 5:00 am to serve coffee at a Stampede Pankcake Breakfast for one of the Coffee Traders wholesale clients.  I arrived in Calgary at 5:25 in time to start brewing 600 cups of coffee at a time!!  The event was held at Community Natural Foods, and I must say it was one of the best pancake breakfasts I've ever been too.  The crowd was a little overly organic even for me, but I still had a great time!  We served over 1200 people breakfast ranging from the homeless, to seniors and lots of families.  Even the cutlery was compostable!  By the time my duties were done it was 12:30 and I was on my way home to meet Grandma in Cochrane so we could carpool back into Calgary for the Stampede festivities.  As you can see above, I didn't leave before I could get my face painted though.

Grandma and I headed into Calgary to ride the C-train down to the Stampede grounds because parking is expensive and it is also a  bit of a nightmare.  Taking the train is so much easier.  The only glitch is that I get very motion sick, even in the car, so I had to make sure not to gawk around too much.  I love people watching and the train and Stampede are both excellent venues to see a lot of interesting people.  Our train ride was uneventful [thankfully] and we proceeded onto the fairground so we could look around before the concert, as well as grab a bite to eat.  We headed to the Indian Village where the winners of the Pow Wow competition were being crowned.  We toured some tipis too.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside the tipi, but I took a few outside to share with you.


This is the winner of the male 70+ category, I missed his name though.


Here's Grandma outside a tipi from the Siksika Nation.

After being outside for a couple hours we decided to try to catch the Superdogs show, since they are inside.  We made a beeline for the pavilion so that we could be early enough to get seats.  We did just that and were enjoying the coolness of the building as the place started to fill up for the 5:00 pm show.  We talked back and forth and commented on how the pavilion floor looked a little wet, and joked about having to clean up after the dogs with a Zamboni.  The lights started to dim and we realized that we were in the ice skating show instead!! We were treated to an hour long ice show with Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics [above the ice] with athletes Elvis Stojko, and Olympic Gold Medal skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and others.  It was a wonderful surprise and it was hard to be disappointed that we missed out on the Superdogs!

Next we were off to the concert! It's been so long since I've been to a concert, I was really, REALLY, excited to see both these artists.  They are both similar in style, although Miranda Lambert has an old country twang with a twist of new to more of her songs and Jason Aldean is very new country with down home values.  It was a great time!  I sang my little heart out with all the songs I knew, so much that I nearly lost my voice.  That's a good time! I also love it when the artists sound just a good [or better] live as they do on the radio!

Grandma and I enjoying the concert

My pictures didn't really turn out because we were pretty far away, but here's a few shots & a video of the "live" experience! I had a great time and can't wait to see who is coming to town next year for Stampede!


Miranda Lambert on the big screen with her pink guitar


Jason Aldean!



Jason Aldean performing Big Green Tractor

"...And I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor.  We can go slow or make it go faster. Down through the woods and out to the pasture, 'Long as I'm with you it really don't matter. 

Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to. Girl, you know you got me to hold on to. We can go to town, but baby if you'd rather, I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor..."

1 comment:

  1. Is that you I hear singing in the background?!?! :o) You go girl!!! I love that you posted a video of the ONE song you told me about!!! Yay! So happy that you got to go!!!! And as IF you saw the ice show! I wanted to go & ended up at Stampeded twice & didn't make it there ONCE!!!! Glad you had an amazing time!!! What a great Mom you have! xxxx

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