Notes from the Crush

It's Saturday, Day 2, and I'm catching up from Yesterday....

Flights were on-time, hooked up at the airport with my rink-mates, grabbed lunch and made it on time for our first match.

We had a good game (including a 5-ender) and the other guys played just a little better.

That said, we had a great time -- they were a "put-together for the event" team, two from the San Francisco club, and two from Vancouver.

Near the end, one of their players let our Skip try a knee slider and while they were doing that, his teammate started his delivery, so I pitched in and swept in his place.  He swept my next rock.  We had fun.

A few hours break and time to mingle with my fellow curlers.

Curling people are all incredibly nice, every single one of them.  They all come from different places, do different things, play at different skill levels, and all share a love for a well delivered stone, and a well played game.

Our second game was only a tiny bit different.  They have about the same experience and skill level as our team, and we were fairly well matched.  It was close, but the Curling Gods smiled on them just a tiny bit more than they did for us.

Breakfast at the hotel this morning had one very funny moment.  The hotel is right across the parking lot from the venue, so as you'd expect, most everyone is staying here.

Usual random-looking group of travellers in the Hotel Atrium, taking advantage of the free breakfast buffet and ignoring the news on the TV. 

Until the story on the Bonspiel came on, then it got really quiet, everyone paid close attention, and most got up to be closer to the TV where you could hear.  Typical popular-news Curing story, but every single person was interested.

We play again in about two hours.  More this afternoon (probably).