Last year we skipped Stampede as we just had our baby girl. I really missed it, because I had gone every year since I was a little girl – one of those traditions that doesn’t make sense but you keep doing it, well, because it’s a tradition.
So when we got the chance to go this year, sans baby, I leapt at the chance. I looked forward to walking around the midway, eating mini doughnuts, watching Super Dogs and seeing all the new gadget-y stuff at the Round-Up Centre. (I also wished that I could have seen Tokyo Police Club or Lights, but they were playing the two days after we went.)
So, as soon as we arrived, we grabbed a corn dog – one of my all-time perennial Stampede foods. And it was just okay. Kind of heavy, too much batter, not hot enough. It wasn’t much better than a frozen corn dog you could buy at a store (yes, we’ve bought these before, don’t judge).
We walked around some more, grabbed a frozen lemonade. My favourite is usually a basic one at Lemon Heaven, where they make it fresh with a lemon and some sugar, so good. But instead, we got a frozen Slurpee-like one that quenched the thirst, but didn’t have the same taste. I know most Stampede food is all the same no matter where you go, but I think that some kiosks are a bit better, even if only by memory.
We then went to watch Super Dogs. My husband wasn’t all too excited, but it’s a tradition, right? We lined up where it usually is held, and were surprised to get really good seats, right up at the front. I was as giddy as a little kid – I had never been this close to the stage before. But then my husband looked around, and asked, “Why isn’t the stage set up?” I looked, and instead of the usual dog tunnels and mazes, there was a set with instruments on it. We were at the wrong place.
This year, the Superdogs are sponsored by President’s Choice, and they moved it to the Big 4 Building. We went and found a huge line winding around the building. So we got in line, waited and waited until we got to the front… where we found out it was a free ticketed event. Tickets? This was new. We went to get tickets from one of the ushers and found out the tickets were all gone. All gone? I remember being able to sneak into the show partway through and still get a seat, even if it was high up and away from the stage. Yet another disappointment.
Dejected, we walked around and went to get a pizza. There were many pizza stands around, but I dragged my husband to the other side of the midway so I could get my pizza from the place my mom took us to when we were little. I don’t remember the name now, but it has a big blue top and is at the far end of the midway by the rides. There was a small line-up for this pizza, so I was hopeful. They had lots of different and new flavours, like Mac and Cheese and Feta, but I stuck with the tried-and-true pepperoni. We I finally got it, and it was really brown looking, with all the pepperonis hidden under the cheese, and it looked really greasy. I took a bite anyway, and it was salty and greasy, something that you would probably hit the spot very nicely after a night of drinking. However, this was not the pizza of my childhood.
We walked around the Round-Up Centre and saw the usual ring cleaners, massage chairs, blender demonstrations. We ended up getting a little fold-up play tent that looks like a school bus for our daughter – our girl is so spoiled! 
On our way out, we decided to get a small bag of mini doughnuts. By now, I was pretty stuffed and feeling quite bloated, but you can’t go to the Stampede and not have mini doughnuts! There are lots of places to get doughnuts on the midway, but I always go to Those Little Donuts near the Sky Ride. We got a little bag of cinnamon sugar ones and I popped one in my mouth. Heaven! So warm and sweet, and hot from the fryer. They were so good that they made up for all the bad food that we had already eaten.
And then I realized why I always gravitated back to the Stampede each year, despite the rising ticket prices and the fact that I’m not 15 anymore. Because of the food. But mostly, the memories. The entire time we walked, I kept telling my husband about the places we visited and the things we did when we were young. We’d play bingo with little red balls. My mom would give me and my brother money to spend on the midway, and my brother always pocketed the money for savings instead. How my teenage friends and I would go a few times a week, hoping to run into the cute boy we currently had a crush on.
And with those few bites of warm, yummy doughnuts, I was instantly transported back to another time and place – that wasn’t necessarily better, but that I will always have fond memories of.