Tag Archives: Albuquerque

media news, national news

‘Routine’ traffic stop? No such thing

Anyone who’s ever worn a badge and a uniform while serving in law enforcement says the same thing.

There’s no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.”

Gregg “Nigel” Benner is just the latest symbol of that fundamental truth.

http://krqe.com/2015/05/26/rio-rancho-officer-killed-police-search-for-suspect/

Benner pulled someone over during a traffic stop in Rio Rancho, N.M., just outside Albuquerque. The driver of the car then shot Benner to death.

He is the first officer in the history of the Rio Ranch Police Department to die in the line of duty.

Police later arrested Andrew Romero and charged him with the officer’s murder.

I’ve made this point before, but I believe one cannot make if often enough. Police officers risk their lives with every call they answer, every time they go to work, every time they approach someone — anyone — they don’t know while carrying out their duties to protect the community they serve.

And yet … I keep hearing local media — whether it’s here or wherever I happen to be at the time — refer to these traffic stops as “routine.”

“State police pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs out of a car during a ‘routine traffic stop,'” the news report might state, either on the air or in print.

Gregg Benner didn’t expect to die when he pulled that car over in Rio Rancho, but he did.

He wasn’t performing a routine act in the line of duty — becauseĀ there’s nothingĀ routine about police field work.

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Acoma Indians defy modernity

ACOMA SKY CITY, N.M. — Once in a while you hear and see stories that defy the imagination.

My wife and I ran into one of those stories this week in the high desert west and a bit south of Albuquerque, N.M.

We saw it atop a mesa named Acoma Sky City. It’s a pueblo that houses a little more than 100 families. It’s part of an overall Indian community of some 5,000 residents. The folks who live there do so without any of the creature comforts that others enjoy. By that I mean they have no electricity or plumbing.

They collect water in cisterns scattered throughout their neighborhood. They have to sift the silt from the water and then boil it — over open fires — before drinking it. The water comes from rainfall.

We took a ride in a car driven by a good friend of ours, Ed Chamblin, who lives in Albuquerque with his lovely wife, Caroline. Their son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons live nearby. We’d spent the previous day with Ed and Caroline touring some of the sights around the city. Ed wanted to show us the pueblo to give us a glimpse of some serious local history and color.

The Acoma claim to have been in the region since 1150. Many of the pueblo’s dwellings date back to the 17th century. The centerpiece of the community is the church, named San Esteban. Its construction was begun in 1649. A good bit of it is original.

The folks who live there do so to honor many of their traditions. They resist mightily any effort to bring anything resembling modernity to their lives. A young guide who took us around the top of the mesa told us the Acoma don’t even want wind or solar energy to light their homes. Doing so, she said, likely would enable young people to spend “too much time on their computers” and they wouldn’t appreciate the history and culture of their people.

The Spanish fought the Acoma. They killed many of them — including women and children — trying to persuade them to adapt to the conquerors’ culture and religion. The Acoma still practice their own religion as well as worshiping Jesus Christ.

Next to the church is a cemetery, which is virtually full. The only people allowed to be buried in that plot are tribal elders and U.S. military veterans. “Other unlucky ones” are buried in cemeteries in the valley, our guide told us.

The Acoma have survived.

Still, I felt for a moment as if I’d fallen off the face of Planet Earth. Could I live as they do? No. Then again, I doubt some of them actually could live as I do.

God bless the Acoma.

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Another hurdle cleared on path toward retirement

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement.

We knew we could do it. We knew we could hitch up our shiny new fifth wheel to our nearly as shiny new 3/4-ton pickup and take it on the road.

What we didn’t know is that we’re getting pretty good at it. Are we “seasoned” RV travelers, equipped to handle any challenge that’s thrust in front of us? Well, I don’t know. I’ll let you know when we think we’ve mastered the ultimate challenge, whatever that might be.

Our three-night excursion took us to Albuquerque. We spent two glorious days of fellowship with good friends, Ed and Caroline. On the first day, the two of them took us to the city’s famed botanical gardens, then to the zoo and finally to the aquarium. On the second day, Ed arrived at the RV park we called home for three nights and we scurried about 50 miles west to an astonishing pueblo occupied by members of the Acoma Indian tribe. We parked our vehicle and rode a shuttle to the top of a mesa overlooking a spectacularly beautiful valley — and where Acoma residents live with no running water, plumbing or electricity.

We toured the pueblo and heard the tale of how the Acoma arrived in that region in 1150 and endured purely unimaginable hardship. They were persecuted for worshiping their native religion and essentially forced to become Catholics, thanks to the Spanish settlers with whom they fought.

At the end of both wonderful days with our friends, we went routinely back to the RV camp and enjoyed the evening in our travel vehicle.

I guess the most surprising element here is the ease with which we are able to get hooked up, to get on our way down the highway, to unhook the assembly and then rehook it up for the return trip home.

To those who have done this before, I likely am preaching to the proverbial choir. Or, perhaps you’re thinking: “What a weenie. Of course it’s simple. It ain’t rocket science, bub. What did you expect?”

It is a big deal for two people who are discovering the joys of a new world that still awaits. We’ve worked pretty damn hard for many decades and we’re getting set to enjoy some time exploring the North American continent.

It’s starting to come together.

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NM knows how to build highways

Albuquerque, N.M., along with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, ought to market themselves as the highway interchange construction champions of the nation.

They know how to do it.

Albuquerque is home to what the locals call the Big I, which is shorthand for the Interstate 40/25 interchange in the middle of the city. The state rebuilt the Big I over the course of many years. My wife and I drove through it a couple of times when it was under reconstruction. The experience was harrowing to say the least.

It’s done now and the Big I actually is a thing of beauty, if you consider highway projects to be works of art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-40_approaching_the_Big_I.jpg

The link here really doesn’t do the Big I justice. Suffice to say, though, that NMDOT has done a fabulous job of creating a piece of civil engineering that is quite pleasing to the eye.

The landscaping is quite spectacular, featuring native flora — desert cactus and other plants that require little irrigation. One overpass on I-40, just a big west of the Big I, actually has multi-colored indirect lighting that glows at night.

I bring all this up because the major interchange in Amarillo, where we live, is far less appealing aesthetically than the one in Albuquerque. I’ve heard complaints from Amarillo residents over many years who say, in effect, that the I-40/27 interchange — which also was rebuilt some years ago — as in “eyesore” to motorists passing through the city.

One friend, a local lawyer, once griped to me about the terrible impression the Amarillo interchange leaves on motorists who may never come back through the city again.

I happen to agree with him.

Albuquerque has done it the right way.

Other cities should take note and follow the Albuquerque’s lead.

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First ‘real’ RV outing awaits

This is another in an occasional series of blog posts about impending retirement.

Our next significant hurdle looms as my wife and I prepare for our first out-of-town excursion in our shiny new fifth wheel travel vehicle.

We’re taking our rig on the road, westbound on Interstate 40 to an RV park on the western edge of Albuquerque, N.M.

My wife made this call and, as usual, it’s a good one.

We chose Albuquerque as the place where we’ll indoctrinate ourselves with the open road for a couple of reasons.

One is that we love the city. There’s plenty to see and do there. Downtown is quite interesting, with a wonderful Historic Route 66 district. Old Town is quaint. Sandia Peak features a spectacular tram ride to a summit that’s more than 10,000 above sea level.

The other reason is that Interstate 40 is a relatively straight shot between Amarillo and Albuquerque.

We don’t envision a lot of challenges between the cities. The landscape is wide open. We’ll just set the cruise control on 60 mph (or thereabouts) and head west. There will be some mountain grades to climb as we approach Albuquerque, but our Dodge Ram pickup — which we’ve named Big Jake — is quite capable of completing the climb.

The “Big I,” which is the I-40/I-25 interchange in the middle of the city, could present a mild challenge as we navigate our way through. Our hope is that we’ll time it so that the traffic isn’t so bad once we get there.

We’ll spend three nights at the fully equipped RV park, getting more acquainted with our rig. We broke it in nicely a few weeks ago with a local outing in Amarillo. The time is coming for our next big challenge. We’ve been to this place already, visiting my sister and brother-in-law who were camped there overnight this past March. It’s got all the amenities we need: water, sewer, electricity, cable TV, Internet access.

We’re trying to be systematic and methodical as we adapt to this new way of life.

Wish us luck.

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Destination set; timetable to be determined

This is another in an occasional series of blog posts concerning the onset of retirement.

OK, we’ve set a destination for our first “real” trip with our shiny new fifth wheel, which we’ll be towing behind our shiny new 3/4-ton pickup. It’s not far, but far enough for us to get the feel of actually taking our rig out for a serious test.

We’re planning a four-, maybe five-hour drive to Albuquerque. I won’t divulge when that will occur. Suffice to say it’s in the near future.

We’ve seen the site where we’re going to take our trip.

My sister and brother-in-law came for a visit in March. They had been on the road for several weeks, traveling from their home just north of Portland, to Arizona, to San Antonio, the Houston area, then to New Orleans. Then they started the return trip, with a stop in Allen, Texas, to meet their great-niece — ahem, our brand new granddaughter, I should add — and see our son, daughter-in-law and their two sons.

Then they came to Amarillo. We visited for a few days and when it was time to go, we decided to follow them to Albuquerque, where they camped at an RV park on the west side of the city; we stayed at a hotel nearby.

We got a good look at this location. We liked it. It’s a full-hookup place, with water, sewer, electricity and shower facilities.

We’ve already taken our fifth wheel for one test run, to an RV park in Amarillo. We spent three nights and learned a lot about how to hook up and unhook the plumbing, how to hitch and unhitch our truck from our travel vehicle and how to enjoy our fifth wheel quietly.

Our RV park hosts said we were “smart” to acquaint ourselves with our new vehicle while staying close to home. If we ran into trouble, we could call the dealer who sold us our RV. If we couldn’t get someone there, though, our neighbors would be more than glad to help. We’re told that’s how it works in the RV community: Everyone’s your friend when you’re in need.

We will learn even more as we head west soon. We’ll test our truck’s pulling capacity as we move into the mountains between here and Albuquerque — although we’re quite certain our pickup is sufficiently muscled to do the job.

Another adventure awaits as we prepare to venture farther from our nest.