WW's Big Adventure in the Big Smoke -- Day 1

SOME 21 HOURS AFTER I WOKE UP IN WINNIPEG FOR A 6 A.M. FLIGHT TO TORONTO, I AM READY TO GO TO BED.

I'm here, doncha know, in Toronto, which the rest of us Canadians like to call The Big Smoke or Hogtown or Tarrana, for Sunday's 95th Grey Cup game.

It features our Winnipeg Blue Bombers playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a Battle of the Stubble-Jumpers, which for all you mountain-dwelling bloggers or residents of hilly country is another word for Flatlanders, which is another word for people who live on the Prairies.

This is going to be very quick and down and dirty (well, maybe not dirty). I have no energy to load any pictures. But if I did have that energy, those pictures would be of the CN Tower, until recently the world's tallest free-standing structure, which is right outside my hotel room on Front Street.

Or those pictures would be of Toronto's Skydome, now called Rogers Centre, a domed stadium where Sunday's game will be played. My hotel is attached to the stadium. But my main view is of a series of railroad tracks seven floors below. Harumph.

It's been a crazy day. After being unable to get to sleep in Winnipeg last night, I had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Toronto, which is Canada's largest city. I arrived here around 9 a.m., made it to the hotel, checked in and immediately started writing.

I tried to sleep in the afternoon but couldn't. I caught a cab with a buddy at around 5:30 to go out and greet our team at the airport, did several interviews, came back to the hotel, wrote the rest of my stuff and went out for supper, just returning now.

I will lay my head down to sleep with plenty of steak and two beers to digest. Tomorrow (Wednesday), everything starts in earnest with the teams here and the practices slated to begin.

I'll be back to blog whenever I can.

As they say in Toronto: EH?