Roaming Free In An RV

In March, Brad and I traveled to Utah due to him getting a new job that would allow him to work from home in the future. He is now settled with work and in October was able to start working from home! No more going to the office. No more commute. Just the short walk from the bedroom to the kitchen table.

We were in the planning phase with his boss and co-workers for leaving in October, making sure everyone was on board and getting everything in line. Why leave in October? Because it’s starting to get cold in Provo!! We want to be true snowbirds in warm weather all the time and travel south for the winter.

We knew that we were going to go back to Mesa, AZ for the fall months, but had to change our original travel plans due to the Senior Olympics happening where we were planning to stay in St. George, Utah. All the campgrounds in and around the area were booked and I, for once, came up with our new travel route – Moab and Monument Valley, Utah and then Arizona.

We had a great last hike at Lake Catherine, drove around so I could get a few last photos of the landscape, and then went on a final date night in Utah county. What did we do for a final date, you might wonder? We went curling at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake, where they held the 2002 Winter Olympics! Pretty cool, right?

When Brad first suggested this, he was excited, but I was thinking “a date night where I’m cold? I don’t know…” BUT, we got to bundle up in comfy clothes and suddenly I was all ready to go for a date night in my PJ’s. LOL–who doesn’t love wearing PJ’s?? 🙂

First off about curling, it’s a lot harder than it looks! It takes balance, coordination, and timing. Second, it’s not as cold on the ice as one thinks. Thanks to walking around on the ice and learning the game, we warmed up pretty quickly – except for our toes. They were a bit chilled towards the end. We were taught the rules of the game and got down to practicing. To start, we had to step on a gripper shoe, which is shaped like the outline of a regular shoe, but is very, very slippery on the bottom. This makes it earlier to glide off the hack (kind of like a starting block in track).

We first practiced gliding, and then we added on sliding with the stone, then sliding with the stone to make it curve the way you want, then sliding with the stone to the target, and FINALLY using the broom to sweep. Our instructor was awesome and made the six of us in our group feel very comfortable. We were able to practice each area till we felt comfortable to play a game against each other- 3 vs 3. Since there are three positions to be played for each team, it worked out perfectly!

Much to my surprise, I was actually pretty good at curling! Remember me saying that it takes balance, coordination, and timing to curl? Well, I do not have any of those skills, but I ended up scoring a point for our team! Our team actually won 2-0. Beginner’s luck, maybe?

What did I learn about curling? I do not like being a sweeper – they must sweep the stone to make it curl less and slow it down. It was hard to keep up with the stone on ice (caution: way slippery!) and it took quite a bit of arm strength. I did like being the thrower, the one to slide the stone, while Brad liked being the skip, the person at the end by the target who determines the tactics.

If you are ever in the Salt Lake area, go curling. It’s fun and different than anything you’ve done before. Plus, how many people can say that they learned how to curl where Olympic athletics once played? You’ll have a great story to tell, for sure.

Till next time!