A trip to New Mexico

 A trip to New Mexico

Day 1…   

It was Thursday - Feb 15th 2024. Since it was a long weekend for President’s Day, the school extended one more day of leave. With a 4 day weekend, we decided to go on a ski trip to Apache Ski with our family friends. Shriya, Shravan, Sowmya and Suresh did most the planning. 

 

We got all the stuff packed once I came back from school. We also cooked some dosa (Indian pan cake) and a few items for the dosa as chutneys. Suresh uncle (my friend Shriya’s dad) informed us that Shriya’s brother (Shravan) was not well and hence they may have to cancel the trip.

 

My mom spoke to Sowmya aunty and convinced her to take Shriya with us. We picked Shreya at 9:30 PM and started our journey. The backside of the minivan (Toyota Sienna) was made as a bed with a mattress so that we could lay down and watch movies.

 

We headed to Ruidoso, New Mexico. It was one staring road, on the 380 from our house to Ruidoso. On our way we watched Sahara and Sugar Rush episodes in the back of the car. We slept around midnight after few episodes. Dad had to stop for an hour to attend his call in the early morning. We reached Ruidoso at 8:30 in the morning. We went inside Hampton Inn and the people at the reception told us that we had to wait for the cleaners to clean the room and then we could get a room. So we waited. But, they did let us have our breakfast before we got the room. 

We ate, we drew, and planned for the rest of the three days, sitting in the reception. After a few hours we got keys to enter our room. After moving the luggage inside, we took a shower and headed out to Ruidoso Winter Park. The entry ticket was $40 and we were allowed to plan for 3 hours. We picked up tubes to slide on. Mommy and Pooh went tubing on doubles first. Me and Shriya went singles. To get to the top there was an escalator and you had to drag your tube to the top. We went on different tube slides every time there were about 4 different ones. After a few singles we went doubles. I went with Pooh and Shriya. My mom only went once. We started to get hungry so we went outside. There were a few places that had nachos, cheese sticks, French fries, and fried ice cream so we went and got a few snacks. Me, Aditya and Shriya got fried ice cream too. After filling our tummies with snacks we headed back to our hotel. 

We changed into nice, comfy clothes and then came down-stairs to play cards. After some time Dad also joined. He taught us to play Bluff. We played a few games when Mom came, and then we all played a Bluff game and we switched to a 5 cards game. After playing for a while, we went back to our room and ate dinner. We had noodles, dosa, chutney, and Mac and Cheese. After that Me, Aditya, and Shriya went and watched some Dhar Mann videos. We then went to sleep.

Day 2…  

Early Morning, Shriya’s family came. They came a day after us because Shravan was sick.They got themselves a room, Sowmya aunty came with us while Shravan & Suresh uncle stayed in the hotel. We all got ready and went and ate our breakfast in the hotel. You can get Waffles, Oats, eggs and some pasties.

We then went to the Ski Apache Ski place. We didn’t have the equipment so we rented them there. Since it was a long weekend, the rental was expensive. It was $60 per person. The ski lift day pass and a one hour class was costing around $150 per person.

The earliest possible class was only at 2pm. Instead of waiting for the class, Shriya, Aditya and I started exploring the ski  by ourselves. 

We then went on different trails. There were at least 4 other trails. There were steep ones, easy ones, and intermediate ones. In the Ski Apache map it highlighted the easy ones green and intermediate ones purple. We started with the easy ones. We started becoming faster. It was so fun. We became better after each trip up and down the hill that we practiced on. Sometimes we fell too but most of the time we did well.

There was also this lift type that we get on to get to the top. When it was time for the class - around 2pm - we were already good in skiing. Shriya and I asked dad to skip the class. Since we paid for the class, dad suggested to take it. The coach took us an different trail since we knew some bit of skiing, and it was very helpful. 

Soon after that class we again went back to skiing. Then we went and ate at Eagle Cafe. We ate crackers and there were sauces to dip them in. This time we couldn’t get chicken nuggets and fries so we ate a lot of the crackers. The line for the restaurant was very long.

While we were eating Shriya’s dad came in with Shravan. We all decided to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner. But we did not decide where at that time.

After filling our tummies with crackers we put on our ski gear.

We went back to skiing, but after a few rounds it was time to leave, since they were to close at 4:00 PM. We then returned the gear to the reception. We then made our way down the mountain. On the way we stopped and took a few pics. We also decided where to eat dinner. We couldn’t find an Indian restaurant so we decided to eat at Jorge’s Cafe. It is a Mexican restaurant very close the hotel we stayed. We ate fried ice cream there too!!

While my dad and Shriya’s dad went to look at a good store to borrow skis from, the rest of us grouped up to play Bluff. Both of the dads came and joined us too. They also told us tomorrow we need to wake up early so we can rent the skis at Alto and still be early. We played a few games. Since we were tired, we went to sleep early.

Day 3…  

We woke up and got ready for another Ski day. We went and ate a few waffles, oats and other stuff. This time after eating, Suresh uncle joined us at the ski place leaving Sowmya aunty and Shravan back at their room. 

But before we went to the ski place we borrowed the ski gear from Alto Ski shop. It is only $20 per day rent here. This time we even got ski goggles and a helmet. We headed to the ski place and we got the tickets. It was $120 per day, we rushed for the skiing. We also went on a different long trail. It was also more fun. First me and Shriya tried the long trail. We went on the lift with a different set of people and we gained more confidence.

After some time my brother joined too!

We then got tired and went for a break. We went to the Eagle restaurant. Suresh uncle stood for an hour in the line to get food for us. We had Chicken Nuggets, Pizza, Fries and cookies.

After that me and Shriya went on the long trail once again. On a steep turn Shriya wiped out(fell down). But I was too far to go back up again. It took a long time to figure out that she had a lot of snow on her boots, hence the reason why she wasn’t able to put on her ski. It took more than 30 minutes. My dad kept calling me, why we could not come fast. Luckly, my watch phone was working. After fixing Shriya’s ski gear, we both went back down the trail and when we came to where our parents were. Shriya had to leave so that she could accompany Shravan to go tubing with him.

Me and Pooh on the other hand still had time so we went a few rounds. At the end I felt tired but my brother still went few more. Me and mom packed up and got everything ready. Then dad and Pooh said that they already went close to the car. So we followed but we missed bring my ski, because we had so many other things in our hands. We asked dad to bring it. But when we went to return the skis at the Alto Ski shop at the bottom of the mountain, the people there told us that the ski we brought was the wrong one. They asked us to pay a fine of $200. It was very late, we immediately rushed back to the mountain - about 15 miles away. Luckily we got the ski kit at the top of the mountain. They were almost closed. While going, we contacted Wild West Ski Rental, the place where the ski mistakenly brought actually goes. We came to know that the place closes at 6:30 so we hurriedly got my ski and then went to Wild West ski rental to return the ski that is not ours. Then we went to Alto and returned my actual one. 

After a long confusion, we went back to our room. We changed and we headed to Rio pizza for dinner with the Suresh Uncle family. We had to wait for a while to get our table to eat. We then finally got called and seated. We ordered a Calzone, sandwich and 2 big pizzas. After eating we packed the leftovers and went back to our room. The pizza was delicious. We then went to Shriya’s room to play Bluff again. 

After a long day we went and slept!

Day 4!! Final Day…🥳😞

Today is Adi’s B-day!!

For the last time in that room we got ready. We went down and locked the room and gave the key to the reception. We ate our breakfast at the hotel. Me and Shriya made waffles there and finished eating, while waiting for the others we took some nice hot tea. We were going to White Sands to celebrate and enjoy Aditya’s B-day!! 

Shriya joined us in our car and we drove to White Sands. We answered a Q&A on the trip. It was about what we like in reach other. It was good game we did in the car, when did did the 2 hours trip from Ruidoso to White sands. 

Once we reached White Sands, we waited for Suresh uncle to come. We watched few documentary movies about White Sands in the welcome center. Once Suresh uncle came, got tickets to enter. We all went in the same car so that it would be easier. We borrowed sleds from a person next to us. We then played and took pics with the white sands. 

After some time we cut the cake. Shriya’s family gave him a present. It was beautiful place.

My dad had a call so mom and dad came in a car, rest of us joined with Shriya in her car. We played verbal games on our way home. We stopped so we could all have food. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant, Ever Spring Artesia, to eat. We ordered Chicken noodle soup. We started eating the soup when mom and dad came. They ordered some food too. I ate 2 types of noodles, one with chicken & one with shrimp.

After eating we started, this time in our own cars to our own homes. Then we traveled for like 8 more hours. At like 2:30 at night we reached HOME!!😔

The trip is over, back to school!!🫣