Each year in January the NPMA holds their Southwest conference in Albuquerque New Mexico. In truth this meeting is nothing more than the New Mexico Pest Control Association meeting that is co-sponsored by the National Pest Management Association. My sales rep, Ross Eckstein had a commitment to the Louisiana Pest Control association meeting so I covered the meeting for him again this year.
I arrived in Albuquerque Monday around noon, picked up my rental car, and headed south towards Las Cruces where I had meetings with two researchers. On the way south I stopped in Socorro for lunch at the Armijo Restaurant. That evening I had dinner with Matt Lee of Entomology Consultants. He has done several studies for me over the years and I have a good relationship with him. He took me to meet his family and see his new facilities on the banks of the Rio Grande river. His father-in-law is LDS and Matt has had great interest in the construction of the Provo City temple.
Tuesday morning I met with Dr. Alvaro Romero at New Mexico State University and our PMP colleague David Allan, owner of Buggy Man Pest Control. We reviewed the Bed Bug study they performed last year and made plans for a fly control study this coming summer. Alvaro has moved his lab into a new building dedicated to Urban Entomology and he gave me a tour. Here is the obligate photo of Blaberus giganteus cockroaches from his insect rearing room.
I was back in Albuquerque Tuesday evening to set up for the trade show. That evening I drove over to my in-laws for dinner with Heidi, Jilian, and David. Doug was in Clovis for work so it was just the 4 of us. We had some delicious chicken marinated in a chipotle cranberry sauce. Wonderful!
Because I am not planning on renewing my pesticide applicators license in 2017 I have stopped going to most of the classes at these trade show events, so Wednesday I spent the day in my room working on email and preparing a presentation for the Nebraska Pest Management association in two weeks.
That evening I decided to go hiking. On line I found a trail that follows the Rio Grande river through Albuquerque. So after the 4 pm exhibitor break I changed clothes and drove to the trail head. The traffic was very heavy because there are only a few roads that run east west and cross the river. The road I needed to be on was one of those. It took about 30 minutes to drive the 7 miles to the trail head.
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| Sandia Peak to the east of Albuquerque from the Rio Grande trail |
The trail is for bicycles and pedestrians and is heavily used. The weather was perfect and I walked about 4 miles along the route. I returned to the hotel and had dinner in the Council Room restaurant and read my book, 'One Summer', by Bill Bryson about the summer of 1927. The food was excellent and because I was hungry from my walk I finished the meal with the brownie. It was a lot bigger than I expected but I was able to force it down :).
Thursday afternoon the show ended at 1:30. I packed up, drove into the city and had lunch, found a gas station and was at the airport around 4 pm. My flight was early enough that I was home in plenty of time to go to the BYU vs. San Francisco basketball game with Susie's brother Bert.
