New Year 05-06 in Tahoe
I think I can write a whole book here when I talk about the weekend getaway to Lake Tahoe and Murphy's Law: When things can go wrong they will!!!
Our group consisted of 10 Poker buddies, who have been planning a getaway together for more than a year now. And somehow anything we planned never got to materialize. Finally someday someone suggested, why not spend the New Year's Weekend in Lake Tahoe, do some skiing, may be casino hopping. Somehow the idea clicked, and planning started I guess during late October.
As it turned out this was the busiest season of the year. After revising out budget numerous times and shopping desperately for deals, we finally got our accommodations and transport reserved. Countdown began... Well this time we were really gonna make it somewhere together! Then came the storm brewing up in the pacific, threatening to ruin everyone's new year, hovering just above California and Nevada. The severity of the storm hit us on Friday the 30th morning at 9:00 AM after we had rented the 4x4s, and were all set to leave in the next hour.
We replanned...Maybe a Vegas getaway in the last minute. Couldn't believe it...But we did not get one place in a 20 mile vicinity to Vegas for that weekend without revising our budget atleast 5 times. And our hotel in Tahoe would not cancel without a fee. So we decided, come what may, let's go to Tahoe. If the weather is bad, let's just lose our skiing money in the Casino, or spend the time in our motel rooms...All that matters is we are together. :)
But getting there to Tahoe seemed like a 'survivor' story. What we estimated to be 4 hrs turned out to be 7 hrs, and both the cars hydroplaned atleast once. Finally we got there, and the place was raining cats and dogs. We still were hoping to go skiing the next day. We woke up on new year's eve hoping to see a white and beautiful day, bu
t it was still raining crazy. All the TVs were turned to weather channels. All the channels were reporting river floods, road closures, new year disaster! We called our ski resort...They were closed. We called another one...They were closed too. Later we came to know that this was the first time all the ski resorts were closed on the same day on a major peak season weekend. Just our luck and the luck of many others who had traveled from Mexico and Texas, to hit the slopes!
Well, Here we are at the casino, hopeful to win some, desperate to salvage our long awaited vacation. While part of the gang was still at the casino the rest head to the landscapes. Guess this was the much awaited first touch of snow for some, though at the end they might have thought they had an overdose of it:) After a few snowfights, some Starbucks, and losing some money, we gottogether again at one of the rooms for some card games, no-money chip-poker, delivery pizza and the countdown to 2006.
The vacation till now seemed like a total wash-out but I would say most of us had salvaged atleast something from the trip. We did have some 'I told you so's from some 'wise guys', but we didn't mind! Came the new year, we hit the bed, ready to travel back the next morning.
Meanwhile, the storm peaked into a snow blizzard some time around the 31st afternoon and around 3:00 PM the sky was blue, the earth was white and it was suddenly the best day ever. When we woke up the next morning, temptation crept in when we saw the clear blue sky. Well, we came here to ski, we can still do it and manage to get home by the night.
We then hit the slopes at Incline Village, took the beginners class, fell, bruised ourselves, even cried, and froze to our heart's content...And yeah ofcourse skied too! Then began the journey of heading home. The weather got bad again. Had some zero-visibility-drive-through-the-blizzard adventure. Got stuck in traffic with the snow and wind howling at us, but finally made it home just a little after midnight.
After this doom-from-the-start yet memorable trip, it sure is going to be a long time before we plan something together. Or is it? We still have the snow-checks from Sunday's ski cut short by the bad weather.
Our group consisted of 10 Poker buddies, who have been planning a getaway together for more than a year now. And somehow anything we planned never got to materialize. Finally someday someone suggested, why not spend the New Year's Weekend in Lake Tahoe, do some skiing, may be casino hopping. Somehow the idea clicked, and planning started I guess during late October.
As it turned out this was the busiest season of the year. After revising out budget numerous times and shopping desperately for deals, we finally got our accommodations and transport reserved. Countdown began... Well this time we were really gonna make it somewhere together! Then came the storm brewing up in the pacific, threatening to ruin everyone's new year, hovering just above California and Nevada. The severity of the storm hit us on Friday the 30th morning at 9:00 AM after we had rented the 4x4s, and were all set to leave in the next hour.
We replanned...Maybe a Vegas getaway in the last minute. Couldn't believe it...But we did not get one place in a 20 mile vicinity to Vegas for that weekend without revising our budget atleast 5 times. And our hotel in Tahoe would not cancel without a fee. So we decided, come what may, let's go to Tahoe. If the weather is bad, let's just lose our skiing money in the Casino, or spend the time in our motel rooms...All that matters is we are together. :)But getting there to Tahoe seemed like a 'survivor' story. What we estimated to be 4 hrs turned out to be 7 hrs, and both the cars hydroplaned atleast once. Finally we got there, and the place was raining cats and dogs. We still were hoping to go skiing the next day. We woke up on new year's eve hoping to see a white and beautiful day, bu
t it was still raining crazy. All the TVs were turned to weather channels. All the channels were reporting river floods, road closures, new year disaster! We called our ski resort...They were closed. We called another one...They were closed too. Later we came to know that this was the first time all the ski resorts were closed on the same day on a major peak season weekend. Just our luck and the luck of many others who had traveled from Mexico and Texas, to hit the slopes!
Well, Here we are at the casino, hopeful to win some, desperate to salvage our long awaited vacation. While part of the gang was still at the casino the rest head to the landscapes. Guess this was the much awaited first touch of snow for some, though at the end they might have thought they had an overdose of it:) After a few snowfights, some Starbucks, and losing some money, we gottogether again at one of the rooms for some card games, no-money chip-poker, delivery pizza and the countdown to 2006.The vacation till now seemed like a total wash-out but I would say most of us had salvaged atleast something from the trip. We did have some 'I told you so's from some 'wise guys', but we didn't mind! Came the new year, we hit the bed, ready to travel back the next morning.
Meanwhile, the storm peaked into a snow blizzard some time around the 31st afternoon and around 3:00 PM the sky was blue, the earth was white and it was suddenly the best day ever. When we woke up the next morning, temptation crept in when we saw the clear blue sky. Well, we came here to ski, we can still do it and manage to get home by the night.
We then hit the slopes at Incline Village, took the beginners class, fell, bruised ourselves, even cried, and froze to our heart's content...And yeah ofcourse skied too! Then began the journey of heading home. The weather got bad again. Had some zero-visibility-drive-through-the-blizzard adventure. Got stuck in traffic with the snow and wind howling at us, but finally made it home just a little after midnight.
After this doom-from-the-start yet memorable trip, it sure is going to be a long time before we plan something together. Or is it? We still have the snow-checks from Sunday's ski cut short by the bad weather.
So before this season ends, maybe, we'll hit the slopes once again. Watch this spot to see if that happens!
Atleast we did not have a fight among us to make this a tough trip...or did we dodge one? :)
The Gang:
Anil, Sudeeptha, Prashanth, Chandana, Sangeeta, Ashwin, Davinder, Mohit, Raj and me.
More trip pics here.
3 Comments:
Hey Pavithra,
Gr8 write-up! N'joyed it!!
Gang,
It was such a nice trip!! Thank you all for making it so memorable :-)
Cheers,
- Sangeeta
Hey Pavithra the Magician,
Nice blog...Keep writing... And yes what about throwing some more blog(light) on some magicians trick as well... ;-)
Keep blogging dudi!! Nice one..!!
- Ashwin
A good one. It was fun reading it. Can I copy and save it please? What did you say, YES ? Thank you so much. I hope your written permission will take care of IPR issues. :-)
Indeed a memorable trip. Especially, when it was so close to being a disaster.
Thanks,
Davinder
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