Day-Tripping at Welland Curling Club

Last weekend the team went on the road so to speak for a one-day bon spiel at Welland, Ontario. Three of us went via Cleveland and one went the other way around (via Detroit). It took both cars about 3 1/2 hours to get to our destination.

Welland is a town not too far from Niagara Falls. The border crossing took only a few minutes. Any time you tell a Canadian border guard that the purpose of your visit is curling, they LOVE it!! Obviously, it's not a common occurence.

We had two 8-end games on Saturday. We played pretty well but lost our first game with the last rock. I missed a guard and the other skip was able to take out our shot rock for the win. The second game we faired better and won.

The ice was good practice for us. Very fast and it had quite a bit of curl to it. Our second game, however, had a bit of funky ice. One side of the sheet curled like crazy and the other side fell out. I guess that's part of the challenge!! We were the only US team at the event so that was pretty cool. The Canadians were happy to have an international flavor to the event and were great hosts. Definitely a bon spiel to return to.

The team is continuing to practice and gel. We're still meeting for Monday practices and have one more spiel to test ourselves in February. Only a little over a month until Nationals.