Day 18 3 November
An early start on a mIsty morning with a hint of the sunshine to come saw us arrive at the Black Swamp Curling Centre in Bowling Green. We received a very warm welcome with a broom arch and pipers. Four teams competed against the USA whilst team Katrine had a very enjoyable rest watching the games and learning how to play Crokinole - a Canadian board game in which you flick tiles into zones and try to get one in the centre circle. A lot of curling terms e.g. hit and roll, run back can be used during the game which can also require some liquid refreshments! A nice lunch of jacket potatoes with various fillings was followed by the cutting of the cake.
We then travelled to Detroit Curling Club where we were escorted off the bus by a group of men smartly dressed in red shirts. They are known as the Sinners and belong to Royal Order of Sinners which was formed in 1951 to take advantage of the free ice on a Sunday morning. If they fail to wear their red shirt they face a fine - something we know all about!! Following welcome speeches by the Detroit CC President and the Ferndale City Manager four rinks took to the ice for some very hard fought games. We then headed to Detroit Historical Museum for our evening meal which was a nice buffet. We had a couple of songs from Pam Buchkowski before we performed our 2 tour songs and played a game of Heads and Tails.