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West: Day 13 – Calgary

Breakfast at the hotel and morning class at 9:30am. On the road shortly after, bound for Calgary again but this time to curl. This means another drive through the Rockies. Could life be any sweeter?

Fun fact time: It takes 927 litres of fuel to fill the bus. That’s a little over $2000 per fill and we get around 4km per litre at the most economical speed of 105kph. A well maintained Volvo engine coach should be good for around 2 million kilometres. Doron, our driver was actually a Doctor from 1975 until 2015 before retiring. He decided to become a coach driver because he became bored at home and likes driving. He has now travelled across almost all of North America and Canada.

Conjunctivitis strikes again!! We will be back to gloved hands and fist bumps on the ice again for a few days I think.

We arrived at Calgary Curling Club around 12:15pm and were welcomed by General Manager, Bob Genoway, who gave us an interesting history of the club and introduced Jerry Rasmussen who has now participated in 5 incoming Strathcona Tours and also toured Scotland in 2009.

We had a very tough days’s curling with some really strong opposition and were unlucky to end the day one shot down overall. The iceman had given the stones a half-turn rub last night after the midnight league had finished. Hard to understand why anyone would do that. It didn’t give the home team any advantage whatsoever.

The post match socialising at CCC was very informal and most enjoyable. There was a lot of laughs and strong bonds made. It will be nice to meet up with some of these guys again tomorrow night when we have our Burns Supper at Calgary Curling Club

However, for now it is off to the hotel to check in, shower and prepare for a night at a TexMex country and Western bar. Yeehaaww.

Stephen McClymont