May 3:

The conference for district 5520 began in the morning, much like the Olympic ceremony. All the countries that were represented at the conference marched in with their flags that were collectively hoisted on the stage. As the GSE team, we were given a chance to sing our national anthem. This “performance” was a much appreciated one, especially as despite no music and no practice, we sung perfectly in sync. (The credit for this goes to the schools in India that always begin the day with the anthem.)
One of the most distinguishing trait of this conference was the DGs official address. When DG Mark Glenn was through his speech, some music started playing and his team of ADGs sitting among the audiences started dancing to the tune. Then they broke into a full-fledged dance and song routine, doing it in Gangnam style.
We got to hear the story of a real life hero, too. Shilo Harris, a retired Army seargent, had burnt his ears and fingers in a bomb explosion in 2007 in Iraq. He spoke about how he is trying to rebuild his life over the years. Everybody who heard him had a tear in their eyes and a smile on their lips. He truly inspired all present.
We also met our outbound team again after long.

May 2:

This was the first time when we were having breakfast and lunch at clubs but not giving any presentation. Rather we sat through one where some high school students spoke of their experience at Rotary Youth Leadership Awards training.
We tried to fix ourselves a fusion meal at lunch, making some spicy vegetable pulao. It was also the day when we were transferred to the hotel. Thus ending our GSE experience officially with no more host families to look forward to.

May 1:

On our second day at Las Cruces, we had some vocational visits arranged for us all. Having spoken to us a day earlier about our vocational visits, our hosts organised one extra visit for both Chanda and me.
In the evening, we went to a meeting of a Rotaract Club in University of New Mexico. It was impressive to see a big number of young, energetic students who took pride in working for the society. It felt good to have a relaxed pace after very long. Also the clubs at Las Cruces had to accomodate us at the eleventh hour. Therefore, we extend a very special thanks to the Rotary clubs of this city.

April 30:

Very close to Truth or Consequences is a town called Elephant Butte where I was staying. Today, everybody came over to see the insides of a dam built here in 1911 to arrest the waters of Rio Grande. When it was built a century ago, it was the largest concrete structure in the world. The water arrested by the dam has formed a lake known as the Elephant Butte Lake (butte is Spanish for stone and theres a stone in the shape of an elephant.
This visit was followed by a presentation at the club after which we left for Las Cruces. The very mention of this city reminds us how close we are to the end of our trip.

April 29:

Today, we saw one of the coolest and most productive projects of Rotary in the USA. This was what they called “Don’t Meth With us” and aims to discourage youngsters from doing drugs. It involves Rotarians enacting a situation where a person runs into trouble after doing drugs. This little skit is followed by a small presentation on drug abuse. It was all the more credible as Sgt George Lee plays himself in the skit. By the end of it all, the kids look totally convinced about the evils of drug consumption.
After this, we visited the Spaceport America – a port equipped with the facility of allowing space crafts carry space travellers way above the Earth’s surface. Though not fully functional yet, there is a lot of planning and investment that has gone into this ambitious project. One of the biggest clients for the port is Virgin Galactic. The port also has a facility for rocket launching.
The port looked like a place straight out of a sci-fi movie. The control room looked like that of Star Trek movie with the buildings shaped like those in Jetsons.
That evening, we also sweated it out with some Zumba moves and relaxed at the hot springs before heading back home.

April 28:

All through this time, we were facing some cold weather and breezy winds. Suddenly, we faced hot days that made us feel right at home as far as the weather was concerned.
And it was on this hot day that we visited Copper Flats mine. A company called THEMAC has taken it upon themselves to restart a shut down mine in this area. This is being done with the help of technology that can help environmental sustainability.
This was followed by a tour of the Armendariz Ranch which is one of the many properties of Ted Turner in New Mexico. Along with the many research projects being run in the ranch, efforts are going on to conserve endangered species like bolson tortoise.
At dinner that day, we learnt to make a typically American dessert called smore. This is made by roasting a marshmallow, sticking it on a Graham cracker and topping it with a piece of chocolate.

April 27:

The day started with driving from Fort Stockton to Truth or Consequences. Few people seem to remember the name of this town that changed its name for being the city where a radio quiz show by that name could be aired.
The evening was spent at a local night club called Pine Knot where everybody went crazy dancing the night away.

Early in the morning, Teresa Ballard drove us from Fort Stockton to Big Bend. For most part of the day, we were hiking through the mountains around Rio Grande. This river was named so because the ancient inhabitants of the area as it was a huge mass of water. Today, however, it has shrunk to an extent that it looks like a very long rivulet. That seems true for all rivers across the globe as we are struggling with similar issues with the river Nag that gave our city of Nagpur its name.
Since the hike up and down the hill took a long time, we stopped for dinner in the town of Alpine. And guess who we walked into? The mayor of the town who happens to be an Indian named Avinash Rangra.
It was a long, tiring day yet totally worth it all.

Coming to Fort Stockton had put uis through yet another time change. This place followed the Central time zone rather than the mountain time zone we had been moving in all along.
We all had our vocational visits as well as the club presentation on this day. To whet our appetites that were getting small as the dinnertime came in very early by Indian standards, the club decided to take us to a local winery. St. Genevieve Winery is the biggest winery in the big state of Texas. We could also get some complimentary wine samples to take to Bob and Cindy Dunagan who were hosting the dinner that day.

April 24:

This day brings us to the end the Roswell lag of our trip. Most of the day was spent in travelling to the next destination, Fort Stockton.
It was a pleasant surprise to see a lot of big families and kids around us after so long. Contrary to what we had heard, this place seemed to promise a warm and friendly stay.