Just add Christine Taylor and you've got the set from "Hey Dude."
As we continued north, though, the region became more mountainous:
The small cities and towns we passed were no longer rundown urban areas, but rather... well, now they all looked like the sets of Westerns:
Downtown Alpine, TX.
The small cities and towns we passed were no longer rundown urban areas, but rather... well, now they all looked like the sets of Westerns:
Downtown Alpine, TX.
My favorite part of this train ride was crossing a big river between Austin and San Antonio (I think it was the other Colorado River, but I can't quite remember). This was because of one Texan child's commentary:
"Look, mommy! The ocean!"
"Look, mommy! The ocean!"
On Saturday March 13th, I arrived in El Paso, TX, which was oppressively hot and dominated by Taco Bells and Church's Chickens and Pizza Huts and Sonics and the like. I was relieved to be stopping there only long enough to rent a car for my drive to Silver City, NM. This leg of my trip was uneventful until just outside of my destination, when traffic slowed to a halt. I saw flashing lights at the end of the line of cars in front of me, so I assumed there'd been an accident.
I was wrong.
I was wrong.
I'd heard that drunk driving was a serious problem in New Mexico, but the statistics I've read state that only 32% of their driving fatalities were alcohol-related in 2006, compared to the national average of 37% (in Vermont it was 33% and in Massachusetts it was 38%). Also, I have to question the usefulness of these checkpoints when the cop didn't give me any kind of sobriety test; the only thing he said to me was "You're fine, move along." While I'm sure I appeared as sober as I was, I can't help but assume being a petite, white lady with a nose ring and out-of-state plates discouraged any further investigation. It reminded me of being at the New Orleans airport in 2008, when I put my pocket knife in the bucket for your shoes and keys and such; all my things went through the metal detector without so much as a glance from security, while a friend of mine with olive skin and black hair had her lotion taken away.
I will write about exploring Silver City and the Gila National Forest in my next post, which I will probably write this afternoon.
I will write about exploring Silver City and the Gila National Forest in my next post, which I will probably write this afternoon.
I love the view of the river.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I've lost two mini-swiss army knife blades in the past year (due to re-packing my bags and forgetting where I put it - it WAS in my checked bag until I moved it). I'm certainly a white, petite and I've got large breasts so you'd think if security was really screening that way, I'd get a pass too. These were 2 inch blades; I lost the first one because I thought you COULD have a blade that was under 2 inches. Apparently not anymore.
I think it depends on the person, not the system. The system isn't necessarily a bad idea, but the training needs improvement.
Great photos! I can't wait to see what you thought of Roswell and Santa Fe! MOAR UPDATES AND PHOTOS!
ReplyDeleteAs for drunk driving, the numbers stand out much more dramatically when they are correlated by capita. After all, Massachusetts is the 15th most populous state and New Mexico is the 36th with a difference of almost five million people. With that in mind:
Massachusetts ranked 48th out of 50 with 2.26 drunken driving related fatalities per 100,000
New Mexico ranked 9 out of 50 with 6.75 drunken driving related fatalities per 100,000
(http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/20/driving-drunk-highway-forbeslife-cx_sw_1120drunk.html)
@Mink: While it definitely does depend on the airport security person, racial and gender profiling definitely does happen. I'd love to read a study on it, though, since our personal experiences don't line up (which reminds me, my friend who had her lotion taken away has rather large breasts as well).
ReplyDelete@Peter: I don't completely understand those statistics. I'm not saying that population density shouldn't be factored in (it definitely should), I just don't understand HOW it changes the statistics I presented. Also, I think the list of the worst states for drunk drivers that that Forbes page links to is problematic because it only lists fatality rates; the main article itself states that of course the drunk driving fatality rate is going to be lower in more populous states cuz ambulances can arrive on the scene almost instantly. I'm more interested in the frequency of drunk driving accidents in general, whether the result is death, injury, or just property damage.