Outdoor ice

I love when it gets cold enough to have outdoor ice. There is just something so right about gliding over frozen water with the wind in your face and the puck on your stick.
A few months back, my little family moved to southern New Mexico. We are about an hour and a half from actual Mexico.
I thought my days of outdoor ice were over. Enter Cloudcroft.
Cloudcroft is a map dot about 16 miles from where I live. It is up in the mountains and has an elevation over 9,000 feet. Recently we had two large, for this area, snowstorms. I heard word that the public park in Cloudcroft had opened their small rink mutch earlier than usual because of the weather.
I hopped in the car and headed up the mountain and there it was, outdoor ice. I slapped on my vapor xxxx's and started to skate as fast as I could, weaving in and out of the tourists enjoying the novelty. I just had to grab my stick and a puck to play with as well.
The ice was snowy and chipped up pretty bad, but it was worth it. I even went back up the next morning to have the rink to myself.