A Beer and a Bison Burger

Although last week's assignment to the Grey Cup was work, our crew did manage to have a bit of fun. Like most road assignments a crew, and ours was no different, will get together for drinks or dinner after the work is done. With the backdrop of Grey Cup festival there were certainly no shortage of potential venues for entertainment.

There are a couple of true-isms about the Grey Cup. There's people from all over Canada, there's plenty of hops, and when the party goers need to eat, they eat meat. Now keeping this in mind, people watching at any of the watering venues is of course entertaining. After my first day and we coiled up the cables after our live hits, we thought we would go and grab a mug and check out the Grand Hall at the Convention Center.
The place was packed and there was a line waiting to get in, but our media accreditation's enable us to all jump the que. We were lucky to find a table and sat down to enjoy a hard earned beer and listen to the thump, thump of the live band playing. You could barely hear yourself think.

Jazz and Kink just after "raising the glass"

We hoisted our glasses in a toast to having made air. That first sip is always the most satisfying. Now all I need is something to eat. We decided as a group to move on to a sports bar near by as we could get some supper. Just as the lads were about to leave, I run into an old colleague from my days back in the Maritimes with ATV. It's Janet Stuart. I haven't seen her in 10 years. I stay behind and tell the gang I will meet up with them in a few minutes.

Janet and I posing for a photo. It was a nice surprise to bump into her.

Janet and I catch up with the each other. We speak of our time back at ATV and exchange what each of us is up to in the here and now. It was great to see her and learn of how much she loves living in Winnipeg.

I was able to catch up with the lads at the restaurant. But that too had a long line of people waiting to get in. Kink had called me, to find out where the hell I was. I was stopped by the door by the doorman.
"Hi, I got my crew inside they have a table and a seat and are waiting for me"
He looks at me and says, "You'll have to go to the end of the line, we're at our limit"
Now I may have paraphrased his answer, and I didn't add the rude tone to his voice. "Friendly Manitoba", my ass, I thought.

A quick call to Kink on the inside and the blockade was breached. I was in , Camera and all.
It was there that I tasted for the first time a thing called a bison burger. It was dry, but very filling and very tasty. Before the trip was over I would return for two more.

From there we returned to the Convention center for a nightcap. Along the way we are laughing about a story that Kink was telling about his exit from the convention center earlier in the evening.
He was of course hungry as he left and instead of going out the crowded exit he decided to go out some emergency doors. There were supposed to be alarmed, but with the noise of the band, the alarm went unnoticed. As he exited the others seeing him leave follow. Kink is about 10 seconds a head of them. He rounds the corner and heads down the stairs and to his surprise, shock or perhaps amazement, he happens upon a young party goer in a squatting position, undies around her ankles, relieving herself.
"Are you alright?" He asks not knowing what is happening.
She apparently is too embarrassed to answer, realizing that this is maybe her most awkward moment of her life.
Nope, that was about tens seconds later when, suddenly the rest of the posse comes around the corner. Now it's the worst moment in this young lady's life.

Of course Kink tells the story much better than I but you get the idea.

Dave and the boys from 54-40 entertaining the masses during night 3 at the Convention Center

As we are walking out of the Convention Center for the final time of the evening, we are relaying war stories and the like when we notice a police wagon and some guys speaking to police officers. Nothing unusual. Then one of the officers says "OK, hurry up and get in back , we'll take ya"
Suddenly several fellows get into the back of the paddy wagon, voluntarily. As it turns out, the police drove these guys, there was about 10 of them to another party. They went from Police to cab, free. Not bad. Maybe this was Friendly Manitoba after all.

Of course we noticed the dropping temperatures as we walked back to our vehicles. We are from the West Coast, cold temps are something that we have heard of but we have to got to the mountains to find them. We're such wusses when it comes to weather and the cold.

Jazz learns the hard way about the freezing point of his tongue after a double dog dare