1998 Grey Cup Trip 20 - 23 November 1998 Winnipeg, Manitoba "... Five golden toques..."

• See also: David Kenney's 1996 Grey Cup Trip

One odd thing was the fact that there was a guy that was dressed just like the late Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame in the MSP airport.  T.J. mentioned that the Colonel flew with him on his flight from Memphis.  He ended up flying on the same flight as we did to Winnipeg, and we went through customs when he did.  (If ever someone should travel without the need of a passport or other papers, it's Col. Sanders, but I digress.)

Anyway, on Friday, we rented a car at the Winnipeg airport, and drove to the hotel.  John made the hotel reservations.  He said that the first few places he called either said that they were full for the Grey Cup, or that he had to call back to talk a special Grey Cup package representative.  He had no such problems when he called the Balmoral Motor Lodge, which is at the intersection of Balmoral and Notre Dame.  (He found the hotel at ManitobaLodging.com.)  The "new" Balmoral (as the sign said) wasn't exactly a 5-star hotel.  Actually, according to the Manitoba accommodation guide that I picked up later, it was a 0-star hotel.  We were slightly concerned by the fact that our room was right over a strip club, but in the end, the Balmoral turned out to be quite adequate and economical.  (Plus, as the signs said, "No visitors after 11:00PM.")   Whenever we met someone from Winnipeg and told him or her where we were staying, the response was always "That's not a very good neighbourhood; be careful."  But, we had no problems.  My theory is that a bad neighbourhood in Canada and a bad neighborhood in the States are two completely different things.

After we settled into the hotel room, we walked downtown to what was one of my favourite hangouts during my 1996 Grey Cup Trip: The Saskatchewan Hospitality Suite.  In Winnipeg, it was held in the Winnipeg Convention Centre.  There were a lot of people there, and it was interesting meeting people from various parts of Canada, and a few from the States.  Actually, I found that I liked the 1996 set-up better.  This year's had room for more people, but there was less room to sit (my preferred posture!).  Also, it was probably more crowded in 1998 than 1996 because Winnipeg is closer to Saskatchewan than Hamilton is.

Soon, it was time for the "Festival of Lights" Grey Cup Parade.  In 1996, I found the parade to be boring, but it had a lot of bagpipes.  1998's was similar to 1996's, but without all the bagpipes.  There were some interesting things, but I find it odd that they can decorate the sides of semi-tractor trailers, and call it a parade.  Who am I to argue, though?  The route was packed with spectators, and it was difficult to for me to even see the parade.  One thing, though was that it was quite cold.  I think it was about -9C and windy.  There were supposed to be a fireworks show after the parade, but we had had enough of the cold, and went back to the Saskatchewan Hospitality Suite.

Saturday was the day of the annual Ohio State / Michigan game.  Had I had tickets to that game, I might have skipped the whole Grey Cup thing, but I didn't, and so I wanted to see as much of the area as I could.  John, on the other hand, was more of a true Buckeye fan, and wanted to stay in the hotel room and watch the OSU/Michigan game.  So, T.J. and I went for a little drive.  We headed north to Lake Winnipeg.

The first lake towns we got to were virtually deserted villages consisting mostly of summer homes.  There were a few signs of life in Winnipeg Beach. We were sure to check out the boardwalk and the beach, but we were the only ones there, of course.  We also stopped at the Ukrainian Homestead Museum, which is also only open in the summer.

Heading north from Winnipeg Beach, we next went to Gimli.  If I read the tour book correctly, Gimli, Manitoba is the largest Icelandic settlement outside of Iceland.  Indeed, I did see a few houses that were flying both Canadian and Icelandic flags.  Also in Gimli, there is a large statue of a Viking.  The plaque said that it was actually unveiled by the President of Iceland himself.  We decided to stop at what I thought was a souvenir shop in the centre of Gimli.  It turned out to be more of an art studio than a souvenir shop, which by itself was a surprise.  On the wall was a portrait of the President of Iceland and his wife, and there also was a photo of Bjarni Tryggvason.  I'm not exactly sure who Mr Tryggvason is, but from the photo, he seems to be a Canadian astronaut with an Icelandic name who flew on a US Space Shuttle mission.  We ended up talking to the people at the art shop for a while.  They were a little impressed that we were from the States, but the people that signed their guest book before us were from Australia!

What is it with Canadians and "50/50" raffles?  The little art studio was having a 50/50 raffle to raise money for a new piece of pottery equipment.  This was not the first nor the last 50/50 raffle that we were asked to enter (but it was the only one we participated in -- hopefully I'll win!).  There was also a 50/50 raffle at the Grey Cup game, and a few more at the Hospitality Suites.

While Gimli may be Icelandic, the rural areas must be Ukrainian.  There were several tiny churches out in the country with Eastern Orthodox-style "Onion" domes.

Also of note is that we when we went north on routes 8 & 9 (near Lake Winnipeg), the land around us looked like it was mostly used for farming (wheat?).  Travelling back to Winnipeg on route 7, a little further from the lake, there was a lot less farmland, and a lot more scrub forest.  On the way back, it rained: a weather phenomenon I was not expecting in late-November Winnipeg.

When we got back to the hotel, I was happy to hear that Ohio State had defeated Michigan, 31-16.  Unfortunately, John was not able to see the game.  ABC was broadcasting it, but the ABC affiliate that we got in Winnipeg pre-empted the national game for a football playoff game between the Universities of North Dakota and Northern Colorado.

Next, we went shopping, mainly for T.J. to buy a heavy winter coat (since he didn't own one), and also a toque, scarf, and gloves.

One thing that I was not aware of about Winnipeg was that it has a large minority population of what an American might call "Native Canadians", and what the Canadians call "Aboriginals".  I was also unaware that that term "aboriginal" was used.  When a person from the US hears "aboriginal", he thinks of Australian natives.  I heard that about 25% of Winnipeg's population was at least part Aboriginal, but I don't know whether it is true or not.  So..., for dinner that night, we ate at an Aboriginal restaurant named "Pi Wiisiinin", which apparently means "Come and Eat".  I had never been to a restaurant that had elk, venison, and buffalo on the menu.  I went with the roast elk.  It was served with wild rice (of a variety I've also never had before), and was kind of shredded and served with gravy and onions.  It was very good.  It was similar to beef, but chewier, and it was less "gamey" than the venison that I have eaten in the past.  As an appetiser, we ordered poutine, since having poutine is one personal requirement of a trip to Canada!

After dinner, we went 5-pin bowling.  The place that we went to only had time for us to bowl one game, which we did.  I had the lowest score of the three of us (but not by much).  I think that my score was about 97.  I think the last time I went, I had about a 175 game, but it takes a while to figure that game out!

Sometime, I would really like to go curling.  I mentioned it, but T.J. and John weren't exceptionally interested.  I know that there is at least one curling rink in Ohio, at the Bowling Green State University.

Next, we went to Tim Hortons (another personal favourite), and then to the "Spirit of Edmonton Room", before returning to the Saskatchewan one.  I guess that the Edmonton room was pretty much the same idea as the Saskatchewan one.  T.J. especially seemed to enjoy both the parties, and he said that they were both exactly what he had expected the Grey Cup parties to be like.

One thing that I think John noted was that there were a good number of fans present from 10 different CFL teams (not even counting T.J. in his Birmingham jersey and I in my Memphis one).  There were more than a few fans decked out from all 8 current teams, plus Ottawa and Baltimore.  None of us had ever been to a Super Bowl, but he didn't think that a lot of, say, Cincinnati Bengals fans make it a routine to go to every Super Bowl, and walk around the festivities in Bengals jackets.

On Sunday morning, we decided to drive west, since we had gone north the day before.  Our goal was to drive to Portage la Prairie, see what was there, and then turn around and come back.  One thing that we quickly realised when heading west out of Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada highway is that the prairie is _flat_.  It seemed flatter than the north of Winnipeg, and flatter than anything that any of us had ever seen.  Perhaps part of the reason for this impression is the fact that there were so few trees.  But it is amazing to look in any direction, and to see virtually nothing taller than you for as far as your eyes can see.

Well, we got to Portage, drove around for a little while, and took a few photos of Crescent Lake, and then drove back to Winnipeg.  Had I noticed that we were so close to Lake Manitoba, we probably would have driven up to it and taken a look, but I didn't notice, and we were concerned about getting back to Winnipeg in time for the game.

We wanted to go to the "Bay" store in downtown Winnipeg to buy a few souvenirs, but it wasn't open until noon, so we went to the Manitoba Provincial Capital Building.  That was both more interesting and more impressive than I was expecting.  It was a surprise to me for a province with a population of about one million to have such a nice capital.  If you're ever there, it's worth taking a look, if only for the 2 huge buffalo.

After the "Bay", we went back to the hotel and then drove to the game.  Traffic wasn't that bad, but we did arrive about 2 hours before game time.  When we got Winnipeg Stadium, there weren't any big signs telling us where to park.  Right across the street from the stadium is a Home Depot store.  Not knowing where else to go, I pulled into the Home Depot parking lot.  I was fully expecting someone to say, "It will be $10 to park here" and I was more than willing to pay to park, but nobody asked for money.

Actually, I was happy to find a such a store.  I had been looking for some Canadian-themed wallpaper, or wallpaper border.  If you're not from the States, this might seem odd to you, but here some people might put up wallpaper that, for example, might have little hearts with a "Stars and Stripes" design, or a farmhouse with a US flag flying out front.  I was looking for that sort of thing, but with a Canadian theme.  The wallpaper experts there had never heard of such a thing.  They asked me to leave my name and number, which I did, but they never called.  At least, if anyone cared, I could say that I wanted to buy something at Home Depot.

On Sunday afternoon, the weather was great.  I don't know the exact temperature, but it was probably at least 3C at game time.  I had a book that said that the "normal" November low in Winnipeg is -9C (16F), so it was possibly 10C above normal.  (Had it been 10C below normal, we'd have been in trouble!)

What can I say about the game?  When you're at a game, you remember it differently that if you watched it on TV, but this was one of the most exciting football games that I have ever been to.  There weren't a lot of huge plays, but it was a back-and-forth game.  Hamilton lead at the half (after trailing twice in the first half), but Calgary lead late in the 4th quarter, 23-18.  With less than 3 minutes to go, Hamilton scored a major to take a 24-23 lead.  (The 2-point convert attempt failed.)  After that, Calgary, lead by QB Jeff Garcia, pretty much marched down the field, hitting short pass after short pass.  On the last play of the game, Calgary kicked a field goal to win the game, and the Grey Cup, 26-24.  If you're familiar with CFL rules, you know that strange things can happen on missed field goals, especially when it's the last play of the game and the game is tied or the kicking team is down by one.  On that play, Hamilton had its regular kick returner (Archie Amerson?) in the end zone, along with punter Paul Osbaldiston and receiver Darren Flutie (who I know also has some punting ability).  I've never seen a play with more than one kick before, and seeing the potential chaos ensuing had Osbaldiston had a chance to punt a missed field goal back onto the field would have been worth the price of admission!

I mentioned Colonel Sanders earlier.  It turned out that Kentucky Fried Chicken was running some kind of promotion at the game, and one section of the stands got fried chicken delivered to them.  Who was there to deliver the chicken?  None other than the Colonel Sanders that we saw on the plane! "All the way from Anniston, Alabama" as the announcer said.

Also of note is that Lucent Technologies (whom I work for) is apparently a sponsor of the CFL, or at least a sponsor of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  The scoreboard had a Lucent logo on it.  Unfortunately, I haven't heard of any projects at work that involved travel to set up communications networks for the CFL.  If I had, I would have volunteered to be on that project!

After the game, we got to go out on the field, which is pretty cool of itself.  Unfortunately, we didn't bring a football to toss around or anything.  By the time we got done with that, the majority of the crowd was already gone.  We walked across the street into the Home Depot parking lot.  I was slightly concerned that the car might have been towed, but it was right there where we left it.  Traffic wasn't much of a problem leaving the area, either.

After we got back to the hotel, we went back downtown to the Convention Centre to see if anything was happening at the Saskatchewan Hospitality Suite or anywhere else.  The Saskatchewan Suite was closed.  There was one officially sanctioned "Final Whistle" party going on, but there was an admission charge of $11+ to go to that.  None of us really saw the point, so we went to a "regular" bar/restaurant in the area.  By the way, at that bar, there was a guy from Baltimore that had a big, home-made greeting card.  He said that a friend of his wasn't able to go to the Grey Cup, and he asked people to sign the card and give their hometowns.  I hope that they weren't disappointed to get signatures of people from Ohio and Alabama.

At the airport on the way back, I briefly talked to the wife and mother of Hamilton DB Frank West.  I got to thinking that it must be very difficult to be a family member of an "import" in the CFL.  They don't make a whole lot of money, and probably it gets old to hear people say, "You husband is a professional football player?  You must be rich!".  The Grey Cup program said that the winning team's players were guaranteed $10,000, and the losing team's players got $5,000.  So, maybe a small part of their unhappy looks were because of how close they came to a bigger payday.

Also, the good old Colonel was on our flight to Minneapolis.  I never did speak to him, but I did notice that he was flying first class.  Looking back on it, I wish that I had taken a photo.

Overall, it was definitely a lot of fun.  In some ways, perhaps it was better than my 1996 Grey Cup trip to Hamilton, but in other ways it wasn't.  It was great, but there's nothing like your first Grey Cup!  In 1999, the Grey Cup is going to be in Vancouver.  I'd love to go to it, but I don't think I'll be able to.  It will fall on US Thanksgiving weekend, so that makes it difficult.  (It might be possible, though, if I take my entire family...)