Denver Trip

On January 11 -15, Sam and I had the opportunity to represent Airdrie in Denver, Colorado during the Western and English Sales Association (WESA) Market and the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo! Our journey began on January 10^th as we travelled from Edmonton to Airdrie in order to catch our flight early Friday morning. We arrived in Airdrie at 2:00 am! With a quick 4 hour nap we were up and getting ready to catch our flight. Unfortunately Leanne, our coordinator, became ill that evening and could not make the trip with us. We arrived at the Airport and met up with the Sundre Rodeo Royalty who also had the opportunity to go to Denver. After a short time in customs, we boarded our flight and were off to Phoenix, Arizona where we had a layover before catching our final flight to Denver! Our seat neighbour was extremely friendly and we shared many stories during our flight.

Waiting for our flight in Phoenix, Arizona!

 

Sam and I arrived in Denver at 3:00 only to find it snowing when we arrived! Sam had the chance to become a good acquaintance with her neighbour on our flight from Phoenix to Denver. As soon as we landed he helped us find our luggage, our rental bus and even met us at the rental car facility as well as show us the way to our hotel! After a long day of flying and travelling we finally arrived at our hotel in downtown Denver. It was absolutely amazing! We quickly set up what we needed for the next couple days, and of course, it didn’t take much to turn our hotel room into the ultimate rodeo queen room. We had a quick break and headed downstairs in the hotel for some supper. Here we met up with Gillian Shields, Miss Rodeo Canada 2013 and the former Miss Rodeo Airdrie 2011. She gave us the low down on what to expect for the next two days. Before heading up to our rooms, we enjoyed the complementary cookies and milk the hotel provided.

Dinner after a long day of traveling

 

Saturday arrived and we headed to the WESA Market. Jim Nevada gave us a tour of the Roper/Stetson booth before Gillian took over as tour guide and showed us the prime spots to shop! First stop was Cindy Smith Jewellery and we were blown away by what we saw! A huge room filled with all types of jewelry, a rodeo queen’s dream! We spent a good hour and a half shopping and came out with over 3 huge bags of goodies between all of us! The rest of the day we walked throughout the western retailers and vendors’ exhibits, meeting up with other rodeo queens from throughout the United States during our tour of the market. Later that evening, we stopped for supper before heading to the Denver Coliseum to watch the “Colorado vs. The World” rodeo; a part of the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.

Miss Rodeo Sundre, Miss Rodeo Airdrie, Miss Rodeo Canada, Jim Nevada, Sundre Rodeo Princess and Airdrie Pro Rodeo Princess in front of the Roper booth at the WESA Market

 

 

Sunday morning arrived quickly and we were up early to make the trip to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After an hour of fighting with our GPS, and some rather complicated directions, we finally found our way out of Denver and were on our way to Colorado Springs. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame was amazing! It was a great experience to see how the sport of rodeo has evolved and all of those who have had an impact on the sport. We looked through all the displays and pointed out all the Canadian’s we could find. Our last stop of the weekend was a visit to the Roper/Stetson Warehouse. Here we got a tour of this massive facility and had the chance to pick out some new outfits for our upcoming events and rodeos.

At the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs

 

 

After our stop at the Roper/Stetson Warehouse, we headed back to drop off our rental car. Our trip had come to an end. At this point we were really pressing for time and we were sure we were going to miss our flight. We really gained an understanding for how large the Denver airport is when you are running to catch your flight! After nearly making our first flight we had a chance to relax and enjoy the time off our feet. Unfortunately we were slightly delayed leaving Denver making us arrive late in Phoenix. By the time we exited our flight, we had 15 minutes before our next flight to Calgary left! All of us queen’s ran as fast as we could across the airport and through all that running, it still took us the full 15 minutes to get to our next flight! We arrived at the gate, only to discover they had delayed our flight for 45 minutes. We were tired, but glad we had not missed our flight!

We arrived home in Calgary at 1:30 the next morning. All of us were extremely tired and happy to know we were not very far from getting some much needed rest. All in all, we had a great time in Denver although not with some setbacks. Unfortunately, Sam became ill Saturday afternoon and spent a large majority of the time in the hotel room over the weekend.

We would like give a huge thank-you to Jim Nevada and his team at Roper/Stetson for giving us this great opportunity to represent Airdrie in Denver! We appreciate everything they did for us to make us comfortable during our trip. We would also like to thank them for giving us a tour of the Roper/Stetson Warehouse. Lastly we would like to give a thank you to Jocelyne Lambert and Jo Lawes for helping us get around Denver and chaperoning us during the trip.

Happy Trails!

Nicole Briggs

Miss Rodeo Airdrie 2012