Stuck in Albuquerque on business.

Albuquerque is really quite a nice town to be stuck in. I’ve been here since last Monday and the weather has been mostly nice with lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s. And except for the first week, it has been dry. The people are generally friendly and there are a number of activities available for the weary traveler.

I mentioned in a previous blog that there are 361 city parks here. And just east of the city are the Cibola National Forest and the Sandia Wilderness Area, where I hiked over the weekend. But, except for the weekend hike, I have limited much of my activities to eating and drinking beer so as not to overwhelm the residents of the fifth most fit city in the U.S.

As I said, I’m here on business. We are conducting a class for the Intertribal Information Technology Center (IITC). The IITC coordinates business activities between various Native American tribes. The people in the class are representative of different Native American tribal companies around the country. We have been hired by the IITC to train tribal members to convert technical documents for their various customers, which include the U.S. Army.

This class is quite diverse. We have one person from Oklahoma, two folks from Wyoming, two from North Dakota, two from Hawaii, and four young people from Barrow, Alaska.

Even though the class officially began Monday last week, the single guy from Oklahoma didn’t arrive until Tuesday. His boss explained to us that he thought the class started NEXT week. In typical Oklahoma fashion, the Pawhuska area of Oklahoma apparently began “daily-savings-week” early in October and his boss just lost track of time. And like everything else associated with Oklahoma, it is OK.

Pam would be interested in knowing that the two NoDaks in the class live close to Rugby, ND, the geographical center of the North American continent. For those of you who are geographically challenged (my lovely Niece Andrea comes to mind) the geographical center is the location where the oceans are the same distance away regardless of the direction you go.

We have two pictures taken at the monument at Rugby. The first is of Pam pregnant with Catie Jo, and the second was taken a few years later with Pam, Catie and Daniel. I mentioned this little fact to the NoDaks, but they didn’t really seem impressed. They can be excused though - if a picture is worth a thousand words, then it must take a thousand words to describe a picture. And family photos are boring to begin with, so try to imagine just how bored these ladies must have been listening to me describe my family photos.

Pam would also be interested in talking to the two from Wyoming, who are from Riverton. Pam and I passed through Riverton on a trip across Wyoming a few years ago, a beautiful but isolated area of the country. This guy and gal had to drive three hours to Denver to get a flight to Albuquerque. Their only other choice was to drive three hours to Cheyenne and catch a flight to . . . . Denver, to get a flight to Albuquerque.

A bit more geographic/demographic information: Did you know that there are more people in the city of Albuquerque than in the entire state of Wyoming? Neither did the Wyomings. Did you further know that there are just as many people in the Oklahoma City metro area than in the entire state of New Mexico? I have been a proverbial fount of information during this business trip and I’m letting everybody know it while I have a captive audience.

Throughout the past week, the Hawaiians have made quiet and polite comments about the cool temperatures in New Mexico. Most days, these two ladies have worn sweaters and jackets in class, while the Alaskans have constantly pointed out just how hot the weather has been (no joke here).

The Alaskans were interested in joining me on my recent hike. Being from Barrow, they said they have never walked through mountains before. They told me something I didn’t know - they informed me that the topography of Barrow is flat coastal tundra covered with permafrost. There are no mountains where they live. They also said that the only wildlife they get to see in Barrow are polar bears, arctic fox, seals, coastal whales and dolphins and various other species I had only heard of on the Discovery channel. They wanted to hike in the mountains with me because they were anxious to see some “exotic” animals, like ground squirrels and coyotes (no joke here, either).

They ended up not going on the hike with me, which is just as well. Considering the amount of aches and pains I experienced (and I’m rather used to hiking in hills at least), I can only imagine the difficulty they would have had.

Besides, they said that one member of their group had never been to the “lower 48” and they wanted to take him to some clubs. I didn’t ask, but I think they wanted to take some embarrassing pictures of him to show the tribal elders back home.

Anyway, this has been a good class and easy work for me. At the end of this week we will travel home. As soon as I get to Oklahoma City, I will depart for Kansas City to get there Saturday evening. It will be a quick turn-around, but I understand Jackson Danger wants to see me about something. Probably needs my advice about girls, as usual.