After nearly two weeks in the curling bubble, Sherry Anderson and her rink are free. And freedom feels good.

Anderson told the Sports Cage that she always needs a couple of days to recover after a big event like the Scotties. But this time she’s tired in a different way.

“It was very mentally exhausting the first few days,” says Anderson. “Not being able to even walk across the hall and into your teammate’s room for the first two days, even though we were allowed to go on the ice together. It was a long day. Thursday and Friday were long days.

“Sunday we had no game again and they still didn’t want us eating together in our rooms. So the first three or four days were long and mentally taxing.”

Anderson says she wasn’t certain initially that she wanted to play her 10th Scotties under these bubble conditions. But with her three teammates all playing in their first national championship (lead Breanne Knapp had been an alternate in 2014), Anderson decided to go.

“It was worth it just to see the excitement and joy and the nerves and the enthusiasm and all the words to describe my teammates out there. Especially the first couple of games. And through the event it just grew, and they wanted to go curl and they didn’t want it to end. That part was well worth it.”

After finishing pool play at 6-2, Anderson’s rink moved on to the Championship Pool. First up was Team Canada, skipped by Kerri Einarson. Saskatchewan lost that match 10-6, as Einarson’s rink rolled to a second straight title.

“They’re well-schooled, all of them. And great throwers. We played them we actually had them on the ropes for the first few ends and we were playing very well. And then I think we just pissed them off. Because they came out very strong in the last half of the game.”

‘Don’t piss them off’ probably won’t make it into the Team Canada match previews for the World Championships. But even if they are in good humour, Einarson’s rink will be tough to beat.

“Kerri herself likes to throw the high, hard ones and the doubles and the runbacks. So she has a bit of everything in her arsenal. They will fare very well against the other countries if they do get to play the at the Worlds.”

With the season over, Anderson won’t curl again until fall. That will give her time to work on a back problem that flared up on Friday.

Her second, Chaelynn Kitz, and third, Nancy Martin, will both play at the Canadian Mixed Doubles later this month.