A day of pleasure – hiking with Houston friends

WHATS IN THIS BLOG:
• Tom and Anne Thomas roll in to hike New Mexico.
• A river runs through it – El Porvenir.
• Wild fruit – raspberries, apples and tomatoes.
• Lunchtime at second waterfall.
• Hot springs and mountain lion.

El Porvenir: the rocks, the stream, the pine trees. Click to enlarge, then back-arrow to return to blog article.

TOM AND ANNE THOMAS DROVE OUT IN THEIR CAMPER VAN FROM HOUSTON. I have known Anne for years, principally from Chapelwood United Methodist, a wonderful church. She was an insurance broker, originally from the deep south (Georgia). Tom, a mechanical engineer, worked for a service company that supported the oil industry. His last job was to oversee the building of an enormous submersible platform to be used to drill and produce oil in deep seas like the Gulf of Mexico. He retired recently.

Winder (left) with Anne and Tom at a stream crossing.

I picked them up plus their grandson, Winder, in my Subaru Forrester at 7 am and we drove to Las Vegas, about an hour north-east of Santa Fe, New Mexico. El Porvenir (meaning “The Future”) is a beautiful hike and a well-kept secret, and two of my previous blogs can be read HERE and HERE.

Anne and Tom on the granite.

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT. After a couple of miles, the bottom of the stream becomes a pinkish granite, which is quite appealing.

VIDEO. Tom took a cute 20-sec video of a portion of our hike. Click HERE to view it. Its a pretty neat clip! Then use back-arrow to get back to blog article.

First waterfall close to the granite.

LOCAL FRUIT. We came across a (wild?) apple tree, but the apples were small and too tart to eat. We also discovered some wild tomatoes (too green to eat), and a few small raspberries, which we sampled. The native flowers included yellow sunflowers, red fairy trumpets, and a small daisy-like flower.

LUNCHTIME. This was our turnaround point – the second waterfall. Tom took a brief nap. Then Tom and I cooled our feet in the water. Winder ate most of my trail mix, because Anne hadn’t brought enough lunch.

Hot springs just outside Las Vegas

HOT SPRINGS AND MOUNTAIN LION. On our way back, on the outskirts of Las Vegas there are hot springs next to the road. I was curious. The water was very hot. We didn’t go in… especially after seeing the sign below. I could imagine myself fleeing through the grass in my underwear with a mountain lion snapping at my heels!

Dangerous mountain lion – on the outskirts of Las Vegas!

We finished a lovely day with dinner in the garden at Harry’s Roadhouse in Santa Fe. Harry, the owner, knew Winder and came over to our table to greet us.

If any of you old friends from Houston want to come to the Land of Enchantment, I’d be happy to treat you to a day like this. The hike was only 5.5 total miles — but it took me 3 days to get over it.

Thanks to Tom and Anne for sharing your pics, and video, and of course your enthusiastic company.
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PS: I write blogs about Health and Hiking, Science and Energy, and Inspiration and Hope.
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The Gray Nomad ….. Hiking for health
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That same day, Sunday, two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, SEVEN MILES OUT OF JERUSALEM. As they walked along they were talking of Jesus’ death, when suddenly Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. But they didn’t recognize him, for God kept them from it…
Then Jesus quoted them passage after passage from the writings of the prophets, beginning with the book of Genesis and going right on through the Scriptures, explaining what the passages meant and what they said about himself…
As they sat down to eat, he asked God’s blessing on the food and then took a small loaf of bread and broke it and was passing it over to them, when suddenly—it was as though their eyes were opened—they recognized him! And at that moment he disappeared!
They began telling each other how their hearts had felt strangely warm as he talked with them and explained the Scriptures during the walk down the road. WITHIN THE HOUR THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY BACK TO JERUSALEM, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus greeted them with these words, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!”
[Book of Luke, chapter 24].