Be sure to see one before you die

It's been 12 years since I attended the Calgary Stampede Parade, so I thought it was time. I bought a hat, charged up my camcorder batteries, filled my travel mug with coffee and headed out. I was waffling over whether to take the bus downtown or try my luck at the C-Train. I gambled on the train. I got to Dalhousie at the end of the NW line around 7:30am and it was beyond full. Undaunted, I drove to the next station, Brentwood, where there was still parking left. It's a trade-off though - you get parking, but the trains are already full when they arrive from the first stop. Once I got downtown, I had to figure out a good place to stand, because the streets were already lined with thousands of spectators. I managed to luck in at 6th St and 6th Ave., not too far from the beginning of the parade route.

My spot wasn't a bad one, but this person next to me brought a big balloon along because she was meeting other people. The balloon must have been filled with fake helium, because it kept floating down and either hitting everyone in the head and face or getting in our way. Since I was trying to record the parade, this got irritating very fast. I knew people were giving her the look of death, because I could hear her apologizing over and over. Other than that, it was great. The sun went behind a building by 9:00am, so we didn't bake.

The parade was decent, the crowd was loud enough and now all I have to do is edit the footage and put a DVD together to send home to my family to taunt them for not coming down....... [waving] "Hi family.....!" [waving stops]