Thursday 11 July 2013

Stampede

Stampede is a culture shock vs. west coast midsummer mountain bike racing.  Corporate parties, booze, cowboy boots and jeans, beef on a bun replace chilling with people, coffee, Lulu wear and flip flops, and seafood and couscous type dishes.  It's actually kind of a tough mental adjustment.

I eased in with our corporate party, but have also had meetings, work stuff going on this week to curtail going to wild.  Tuesday I visited a private museum + bbq of a business associate that blew my mind, more fully descriptive article here and additional photos here.

This is a subtle picture of his Jaguar XK150 on display.  That car was ahead of its time.
Here's an XK 150 picture that doesn't suck as much as the one from my phone did to convey the beauty.


What was once the fastest motorcycle in the world, complete with a memoir of its achievements (and a very sketchy way to ride a motorcycle on speed runs).


Now the links above have way better photos and context of the museum, but let's just say this.  It's amazing, it's underground, and it houses machining/metalurgy/industrial development of mankind artifacts that are supremely restored.  It shows a glimpse into the passionate mind of a lifelong engineer who sees beauty in the utility of machines, and apprecates the interaction between form and function.  The tunnels and cave are completely amazing.  And there's so much more unpictured!  This is the main focus piece, a 60 ton steam engine salvaged from the UK and restored here.  Very impressive!


















From there, Stampede took a different tone, patio rooftop party, Ft. Calgary party where Sloan/Cheap Trick/Def Leppard were featuring.  That was a super fun afternoon of mingling with our friends and clientele. 


















I was pretty tired the next morning; how people do days on end of drinking in the heat, subsisting on pancakes and beef on a bun, while standing in cowboy boots and western shirts that are hot and don't breathe is mind boggling.  I'd say it's more stamina draining than a 50k mountain bike stage!  Regardless, I  managed to make our building's Stampede breakfast in our courtyard... and lucky I did.  I get this call to come down to building security desk in the front lobby, which is odd so I ask why - I won an iPad in the draw!  15 minutes later my co-worker won ~$400 in the 50/50 draw.  Great!

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