Weather here at Chicago has been fine and dry – till late Sunday.
On Sunday we played against members of the last two US teams who visited Scotland. To all the Scots who met them then, they send a BIG HI!
The Chicago CC rink houses the American Museum of curling which has a big number of badges, many of them of Scottish Clubs and competition tours.
We were taken on a tour of the city, along with several of the 2001 and 2012 US tourists. Our guide Sylvia, a lady curler herself, was a fount of information on just about everything about Chicago – its administration, geography, major international companies including those in the grain trade, universities and colleges. We lunched on double cheeseburger – well it seemed to be the time and place to do that – in Billy Goat Tavern which was a ‘real Chicago’ experience. Along the shore of lake Michigan we saw the Queen’s Landing where HM Queen Elizabeth arrived on HMS Brittania on her visit to the Great Lakes. We had a team photograph taken on the shores on the same spot as the last tour.
After a very short snooze and re-boot we played again, and began to find our ice feet. The Club has four sheets, and much of the social side, including the catering is done by volunteers – including the full steak dinner when all plates were well cleared by us Scots and the hosts alike. Purely in the interest of research, beers to suit most palates are readily available and very popular. They had the Herries Maxwell Trophy on display which was something of a challenge to us! After dinner Callum Harvey did a Vote of Thanks to our hosts which we responded to enthusiastically.
Tomorrow the Tour starts in earnest with a game against Chicago then on to Exmoor, just a short car ride away. More of on that next time.
Scottish Men's 2017 Curling Tour to USA 