Ruidoso

November 10-12, 2023

Ruidoso, New Mexico

Our anniversary plans was to eat at Cattleman's Steakhouse, a premium steakhouse in El Paso.  But Michelle had this idea of going to Ruidoso. Ruidoso is in the state of New Mexico and is nestled in a valley at altitude around 7000 feet. The town is a resort town and known for skiing, gambling, log cabins, hiking trails, and wildlife. I'm not sure about the popularity of the place, but none of my friends know so it must not be that popular. However if you talk to anyone from El Paso, they know about Ruidoso.

Casinos

New Mexico has a history of Native American settlers. The Native Americans have a few casinos in Ruidoso. The first casino we went to was Garden of the Gods Inn. This I believe is the nicest casino in Ruidoso. Its on an Indian Reservation run by the Mescalero Apache Tribe. They only have slot machines. 

We gambled for about 30 minutes. I was already down to my last $2, but ended up winning like $50, so I was only down $50. Michelle played for the entire 30 minutes, but broke even at the end. 

At the casino is an overpriced restaurant called Wendel's. I was shocked at how expensive the menu was. Even if they made the food to perfection it was not worth the price. One interesting item on the menu was Elk. I head Elk had a ton of protein and was a very healthy meat. I took a chance and ordered it. Michelle ordered the filet mignon. Both steaks ended up costing us a combined $100. We also bought oysters which was $45 for only 6 small oysters. The bill came up to over $200 with the tip. 

The second casino we went to was Billy the Kid Casino. We believed that this casino was for the locals. It was run down and looked old. The casino wasn't busy. The workers were very pleasant and we enjoyed our time there, mainly we won over $200. We ended up close to breaking even. 

There is also a horse racing track on the premises. Since it was November, we missed the season. I think the season ended in September.