Even though today’s destination of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta is only two hours away from Calgary, we wanted to get a somewhat early start. The rodeo is in town and to start the day, there is a Canada 150 parade at 11:00am. We enjoyed Hampton Inn‘s famous breakfast and we were on the road by 8:30am. Just on the outskirts of Calgary, the rain started and stayed with us almost all of the way to Rocky Mountain House.
Because the weather was not great, we were able to find a parking spot at the start of the parade. There was one marching band and on each of the floats, people were throwing candy to the kids. And I mean lots of candy. Some even threw Frisbees which was weird because of the weather. It was truly a small town parade. Afterwards, we walked a bit of the downtown to check out a few of the shops.
We headed over to the Rocky Inn Express ($99 CAD) to see if we could check in early. Lucky for us, our room was ready so we dropped our bags and headed to the rodeo grounds. Rocky Rodeo has been hosting the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association for forty-five years at Rocky Mountain House. We grabbed some lunch and found ourselves a couple of spots in the grandstands which were pretty empty because of the weather. The entire afternoon was spent watching every event that the CPRA sanctions from bareback riding to steer wresting to team roping. You sure have to be tough to be a cowboy. What made some of the events more difficult, was the mud. There is going to be lots of laundry being done tonight. The rodeo ended around 4:00pm and we headed back to the hotel to figure out where to have dinner. We settled on Nick & Leslie’s Family Restaurant. It was nothing special but it was quick.
Since we had no plans for the evening, we went back to the rodeo to watch the Mutton Bustin’ and chariot and chuck wagon racing. Mutton Bustin’ was so cute. Children under the age of six attempt to ride a sheep. None of the kids we saw rode the sheep very far but the crowd still enjoyed it. After that, it was chariot and chuck wagon racing. Chariot racing is two horses and a chariot. Chuck wagon racing is four horses and a wagon. Both races start with four riders lined up in a stagger position at a barrel. When the horn blows, they race around two barrels, leave the infield and then run one lap around the track. It is very fast and dangerous. We were lucky that there were no accidents during today’s races. I honestly think you have to be nuts to do either type of racing. We ended our night with a stop at Sobeys to pick up supplies for tomorrow’s drive.
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