Curling in Milwaukee

Last weekend, I went to Milwaukee with a group of colleagues to work with curling. For most of my friends and family reading this, I'm sure you have no idea what the sport of curling is about. That's because it's a winter sport and involves being in an ice rink!!! Check out this very thorough description of curling on wikipedia. This group picture is of USOC and Curling staff in the Petit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

In a nutshell, curling involves "throwing" a 40 pound stone down a 146 foot sheet of ice. Throwing styles have changed over the years so that it's less of a throw and more of a slide. The ice isn't like ice you skate on. Water dropplets are sprayed over the ice to produce pebbles once they are frozen. The pebbles cause the rock to "curl" in one direction or another as it approaches the "house". The direction and speed of the curl can be controlled by sweeping the ice in front of the stone as it travels toward the house. The house is comprised of 12 foot concentric rings similar to a bulls eye. The two black spots on the ice in the picture is called the hack. The hack provides traction for the curler to push off of in order to throw the stone. It doesn't take a really hard throw to get the stone down to the house, but it does take a hard throw to get the stone down to the house to knock one or two 40 pound stones out of play.

This picture is of an elite curler throwing a stone with excellent form. After pushing off from the hack, the curler slides down the ice for a ways with the stone before releasing the stone to continue its journey down to the house. To the uninitiated, this isn't the easiest position to get into, especially while trying to balance yourself as you slide while concentrating on giving the stone just the right amount of speed and ensuring it's heading in the right direction.

As you can see from my miserable form, I don't have a chance of making the National Curling Team!!! The "bunny slope" of curling is to get pulled across the ice while trying to maintain correct throwing form. Compare my form to that of the elite curler in the previous picture and it becomes painfully obvious that my balance and coordination are not exactly at the elite level!! I got a pretty good basic understanding of the game during the 3 days we were there, but to truly grasp the tactics, strategy and nuances of curling would take a year.

Usually on these business trips, I try to stay an extra day to check out the city in which I'm working, especially if I haven't been there before or if I have friends in the area. I had been traveling so much lately that I didn't think about staying an extra day until after the tickets were booked. As it turns out, Milwaukee isn't so far from Chicago where Jim & Karla are stationed. Now you know you've got good friends when they are willing to drive an hour to have dinner with you during a two hour break in work! I hadn't seen them since Dave's retirement in Oklahoma back in January, so it was great to get to spend a little time at dinner with them.

So, with my winter weekend behind me, I'm preparing for a mini vacation this weekend. Friday morning, me and 10 friends on bikes will meet at 5:00 a.m. to start our ride up to Custer, South Dakota. We have a cabin rented and will be riding around Custer National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower and the town of Sturgis. It's a little over 400 miles from here and will be the longest ride yet for me. I'm with a group of very experienced riders though (and a couple of bike mechanics), so I'm much more excited than nervous about the ride! I won't have access to a computer while on this trip, but I'll post some pics upon our return. Thanks for checking in!