people, smells, sounds... a sea of sensation, a sea of people creating and living in those sensations.... The Midway, where all the games are, the displays, the lights, colours and sounds... where else can you get your fortune read after snarfing back a bag of mini donuts, and washing it down with a cup of Ice Cold Root Bear (brewed the old fashioned way)... I love Midways... rides, music, people.... an overload to the senses.... The Stampede this years was covered by myself and others in the Medicine Hat Photography Club.... most of the others wanted to shoot either the rodeo events (lotsa action there) or the Stage Shows, high end entertainers, musical stars... yee-haa... I chose the parade and Midway.... it's about the people.... blondeblurr asked about the name of Medicine Hat and it's origin, asking if we just ran out of names...well here's the most popular mythology on where the name Medicine Hat came from... Years before the white man... the tribes in the area would live in peace and harmony... but humans being waht we are, sometimes slip a cog and get greedy... the area around here was mostly populated by what is now know as Blackfoot and Cree. One day, a raiding party of Cree stole some buffaloe skins from the local Blackfoot village. The Blackfoot made pursuit and caught up to the raiders at the river. A battle ensued and the Blackfoot Medicine Man (Saamis) lost his hat (an ornate piece consisting of buffalo hide and horns) and if flowed down the river. The Blackfoot saw this and read it as a bad omen, so they withdrew... and that is how Medicine Hat got it's name (or one of the stories on how it got it's name) A lot of towns and cities, provinces have their roots in native culture, ... names like Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Oshawa, Ottawa, Kapiskasing, Paskapoo, Canada itself is an Ojibwa word for "Village"... so we do have a lot of our heritage in the First Nations of Canada... and yeah... they did kinda run out of names after a while... Like Regina, named for Queen Victoria (originally called Pile 'o bones), Moose Jaw (bone), Khandahar (yes, there is a Khandahar in Saskatchewan)... and then there's Spuzzum (I kid you not), a small town that's beyond Hope (uh, the city of Hope B.C.)... and don't ask me where that name came from..... So, Ms B... I hope this satisfies your abundant curiosity. and unless you all have made other planes... have a great day!