I hiked with the White Rock Senior Center group today. I met them at the Alamo Boundary trailhead on Dome Road. There were 12 people - unusually large for this group. There was a couple I had never seen on the hike before who brought a guest visiting them from Palmdale, CA. She seemed to really like the area. I talked with her toward the end of the hike and really enjoyed the conversation. She had heard of the book by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight. She told me that Jill's website has clips of when Jill was on Oprah. I want to look at those one day. I'm really enjoying the book. Her stroke made her completely right brained for a while. She's healed now but doesn't want to lose the positive aspects of right brainness and wants to teach people both stroke awareness and awareness of the personality of our right and left brains. She has a really easy to understand section on brain anatomy with reference to her stroke.
I didn't get the California woman's name but I mentioned to her in our conversation, in the context of Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way that she had mentioned, that I had been listening to an Eagles song on the car drive and began crying because I realized that I had always wanted to be a singer and move people's emotions and then I thought that perhaps I didn't want to pursue singing now but I could write poetry that would move people. (Of course, my procrastination talents being so highly developed, don't expect a book of poetry any time soon! : ) Then she told me that when she was 62, she decided she would be a singer/songwriter and made some music. She was a ballerina at one time in New York City. What an interesting person!!
We walked 3.56 miles per my GPS, going a little onto the Coyote Call Trail. We enjoyed the caldera views but couldn't see any elk or cows. One hiker said the cows are in there already.
Susi, a hiker from the LL group who I hadn't seen for a long time, came on the hike. She's all healed up from her knee replacements and broken toe.
After the group left, I walked in a little on the logging road toward Misty Meadow for a total of 5.26 miles. At the parking lot, looking up at Scooter Peak and Rabbit Ridge, I didn't want to leave all that lovely peace!
After the hike, I went to the Jemez House Thrift Shop and bought a Glenn Miller Christmas cassette, a Bing Crosby White Christmas cassette, a Nat King Cole cassette, and a paperback by Dr. James Duke, The Green Pharmacy. First I went to MPL and picked up some magazines for daughter from the non-return box. After the thrift shop, I went to Smith's and bought strawberries, shredded cabbage, baby carrots, spring mix with herbs, and 6 packages of the $4.99 a pound wild sockeye salmon. I'm poaching one of the packages tonight. I liked that I could buy them frozen and just pop them in the freezer for later use.