This year it so happened that the Manitoba Fibre Festival was scheduled for September 6th. My wife, aside from being an accomplished spinner, crocheter, and knitter, is also a wool judge and was invited back to judge the fleeces at the festival. It was a very successful show - there was tonnes of interest in her judging, and sales at her booth were amazing. So what does this have to do with football? Well, this year it so happened to be scheduled for the day before the Banjo Bowl. As soon as Susie got the invite, I booked a hotel and then eagerly awaited tickets to go on sale so we could go behind enemy lines and check out Investor's Group Field and watch the Riders thump the Bombers. I managed to snag a couple tickets to the later sold-out game in the CFL Season Ticket Holder pre-sale, so now I was as excited as Susie to spend the weekend in Winnipeg. Here's how the weekend unfolded. Wall of text to follow. Too long, don't wanna read? We pigged out on German food, sold a bunch of Susie's handiwork, and the Riders won. Good times. It started early. Damn early. We set the alarm for 4:00 am on Friday morning. Managed to only hit the snooze bar once. Now why were we silly enough to do that? Because we wanted - no, NEEDED - to be in Winnipeg for lunch at the Gasthaus Gutenberger. We love German food and have been there before.We arrived shortly after 11:00 Winnipeg time. On Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays they put on an incredible lunch buffet. Homemade schnitzel with a couple of different sauces, bratwurst, spatzle, bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes with bacon and onion) and an incredible dessert table that you have almost no chance of touching after all of the amazing food unless you have a bit of self control (which we don't). Everything is deliciously authentic, the service is friendly and attentive (they were impressed at our dedication), it is larger and nicer inside than it appears from the exterior. It's a must-go if you are in Winnipeg, and I recommend making it to the buffet as it is a more affordable way to try everything and have a full German meal than to order from the evening menu. Well we wolfed down an embarrassing amount of food then found ourselves homeless and directionless. We had to kill a few hours before we could check into our hotel. We decided to head over the the Assiniboine Park Zoo because we had been there before and had a great time. However we discovered upon arrival that it was under renovation and as a result the price had skyrocketed to $18.75 per adult. That was a bit much just to kill some time so we cheaped out and sat in the park - it's actually a very nice park, and it was a beautiful day- then headed to our hotel a bit early to see if they would let us check in. They did. Susie immediately succumbed to the food coma that the Gasthaus had inflicted on us. I took a power nap then got restless and headed to the hotel pool and hot tub. I turned on the hot tub and sat my weary bones in the not-as-hot-as-I-would-like water. Almost immediately the lights flickered and the power went out. I thought I had somehow broken the hotel. But I looked outside and noticed that a massive storm had suddenly blown in. The power remained off for a couple of hours. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) it came back on in time to watch that Rod Black Barnstormer of an Ottawa-BC game. 7-5??? Really? I really feel for Travis Lulay being knocked out for the season fighting in a stinker like that. As a fan of the CFL it's never good to see a star (or anyone for that matter) get taken out of the game and I wish him well. Glad there was that rain delay in the game or my poor heart couldn't have taken the excitement. Saturday was a good day. That was Susie's day and I'm sure she will blog about it. I worked at her table at the festival and sold a lot of her products. I earned my beer money for Sunday's game - and at $10 a beer there I would need it. It was a long, tiring, but successful day and I enjoy helping Susie out. I'm proud of what she does and how much people appreciate her work. Now on to the game. First off, couldn't have asked for, paid for, or somehow ordered up better weather than what we got on Banjo Bowl Sunday. Blue skies, not too hot, (though it did get a little warm as the sun was beaming down on us for the first half of the game) not too cold. Great late summer, early autumn day. That worked in our favour because all along we planned to walk to the stadium from our hotel based on what we heard about the traffic issues and parking at IGF. I suppose we could have taken the bus as well but in our experience from Taylor Field it's often faster to walk as even the buses have to struggle their way through post-game traffic. It was around a 35 minute walk, so we didn't mind it at all. A few people yelled at us from their cars as we made our way up Pembina Highway, the usual unintelligible things rival fans yell as they pass. It's to be expected. We arrived at the stadium just before 1:00 and immediately sought solace in the Riderville party that was set up in the plaza outside IGF. It felt almost like being at home in the practice field before a Rider game. Gainer was there, hundreds of green-clad Rider fans, the Rider Drum Line, Luc Mullinder MC'ing it all. Very cool atmosphere. We needed to get out of the sun and wanted to check out the concourse so we headed into the stadium just after 2:00. I was very impressed by the facilities there. Makes me very excited for our own stadium if it's to be anything like that. Good variety of concessions, though very expensive. Plenty of non-nasty washrooms. Loved the individual seats and how the cupholder was attached to the seat in front (unlike at Commonwealth in Edmonton where it's on the side of your own chair and kind of restricts your seat). The view from our seats in the 5th row of section 103 was great, unobstructed and generous. There were a good number of Rider fans around as we were on the "visitors" side of the field. Of course we were mostly surrounded by Bomber fans. For the most part we did not have any trouble. The young couple in front of us were pretty obnoxious and in our face but we didn't stoop to their level and they lost interest. Especially while the Riders were up several scores. I pretty much shut the guy up when he asked if we were real Rider fans from Saskatchewan or if we were from St. Vittel or something. I told him, "I don't get it. We're from Regina. Where's that?" There was also a nice young Winnipeger that told his friend (in reference to my wife who was going up the stairs in front of him) that he wanted to punch a Rider fan and if my wife wasn't a woman she was going to get it. Classy. I know there are dinks in every crowd, even ours in Regina, so I refuse to paint all Bomber fans with the same brush. For the most part it was all in good fun, and the fellow behind me shook my hand at the end of the game and said "Good game, thanks for coming." The only other negative experience was when Durant went down and the group in front of us (and many others around us) were laughing and mocking him and us, saying that it was awesome that he's gone and we are screwed now and so on. On an earlier play, when Nic Grigsby was taken off the field, my wife and I had stood and clapped because as I said before, you never want to see anyone go down. I respect the players for all teams in this great league. Anyway. The game lived up to the hype. I was thrilled when the Riders opened up the big lead but knew the Bombers had fight enough in them to come back, and it was a nailbiter at the end. My heart sunk with everyone else when Darian was injured...you could see how much pain he was in as he walked off the field. It's another thing that's being talked to death now but I have faith in Tino Sunseri and by no means do I think the season is over now. I'm a huge Durant fan. But Sunseri wouldn't be here training and taking second-team reps if he had no potential and no talent. We're a run-heavy team this year, and yet Sunseri has the arm if he wants to sling it. I'm not naive to think there will be no drop off at all, and I anticipate Sunseri could take a bit to get fully up to game speed, and we might see some turnovers again, but it works well that he has a Hamilton and a Redblacks game ahead of him to do that before the ugly Calgary and Edmonton stretch. I'm sick of hearing that the season is done and the Riders have no chance of getting back to the Grey Cup now. Let's maybe watch Sunseri play - hell, practice this week - before we write the guy off. Maybe he bombs. Maybe he becomes a star. We don't know on freaking day 1 of practice before his first start. And for crying out loud I don't want to hear any more Burris talk. He can keep lighting it up in Ottawa like he has been. (key words..has-been). I love our defence. I love our three-headed-monster run game. Even special teams picked it up - coverage was good and returns were good (yes there was a hold on Dressler's return but don't forget there were like 4 of them on the run back Stoudemire had in the Labour Day game. Every team gets crap calls and missed calls; the officiating is another kettle of turd stew). Disappointed in Milo. He did punt well in Bartel's place but I am getting frustrated with him missing the 35 yard field goals. That kind of kicking could easily lose us a playoff game. I was so excited that we won, though of course the mood was dampened by concern for Darian. It was quite cool that they allow you onto the field at IGF after the game was over so we hung around and went down to check it out and of course sit on the Rider's bench. I really hope that Susie's fibre festival is scheduled for Banjo Bowl weekend again next year because we had a blast and would love to do it again. For all the trash talk, Winnipeg isn't a bad city...lots of decent restaurants and things to do. We always enjoy our time there. I have a few pics but of course my phone died shortly after I arrived at the stadium. Probably r
I live in Regina, Saskatchewan with my lovely and talented wife Susie (check her out at www.knitnatural.com), 4 cats and a basset hound. I'm a huge Saskatchewan Roughrider fan, owner, and season-ticket holder. I love good food, good beer, and traveling.