Earth Moving, Stuck Trucks and New Shoes

Greetings Earthlings!  Long time, no write.  I will now catch you up on the glory that is full timing in hot climates.  Wednesday we had to be up at oh:dark:thirty to take the bus in for the annual oil change.  We also needed a new air filter which was surprisingly expensive.  On the way out of the RV park, following in the truck I stopped to get a picture of a Trichocereus in bloom.  Of all of the blooming cacti, this is the best.  How does such a beautiful flower come from this?

 

Yesterday we were up and out early on the bikes.  We stopped at the bridge overlooking the construction site in the Santa Cruz River bed.  All of this is in preparation for a bike path.  I would really like someone from the Army Corps of Engineers to explain this to me.  Look at the center of the picture (click to enlarge).  See the fence next to the vehicles.  They are digging down into the river bed.  This is after moving the bank back about 100 feet.

This is off to the right.  They're moving that bank as well.

The whole thing looks like a massively over sized project to the untrained eye.  I get armoring the banks, but I am at a loss to understand why the earth moving is of this magnitude.  This project really needs a web site.  There's never anyone around that I can ask about their thought process.

Today's ride had much entertainment value.  We went north on the Santa Cruz trail toward Sunset. When we crossed the last little bridge just before Camino del Cerro, we saw this on the right.  There was a giant wrecker with very long cables pulling this vehicle out of the water.  We watched it for a few minutes, and another rider came by and said there were two more just up the trail. 

We rode up to the bridge that parallels Camino del Cerro and found the other two. This is the same body of water the wrecker is pulling the blue car out of.  Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition.

How does this happen?  I don't even know how you would drive to this place.  The vanity plates on the truck say "ONCALLS."  He will not be taking calls for awhile.

Then, in the desert near the left bank of the little river, we see this.  His left wheels are in sand up to his hubs.

Naturally we had to go back and gawk at the wrecker.  Two young guys drove their old Jeep Cherokee into the water and could not back out.  One wonders if alcohol was involved.

When he opened the door, water came pouring out of the front of the passenger compartment.  Apparently the owner was amused because he let out a couple of excited whoops.  However, excitement turned to sadness when the engine would not start.  The wrecker was forced to come back and get him out of the wash.  This will probably be very expensive towing.

Look at the ground squirrel bottom right.  Is he not adorable?  They're like rabbits, they think if they don't move you can't see them.

In news of the feet, I can say that I have a new shoe paradigm.  After foot surgery, my left foot rejected my La Sportiva Imogens that I had been wearing for five years.  I had five pairs of them, because my feet previously liked that shoe.  Apparently they have switched their allegiance to the Ultra Raptors.  This makes sense to me because La Sportiva recently discontinued that shoe.  So, I'm good for two years, anyway.

This is a new good thing.  Superfeet makes insoles that my feet will accept.  The copper insole has memory foam.  So, for all of you with cursed feet, check them out.  I'm liking them more than my custom orthotics, and I really like the fact that they are machine made with very little variability.  Custom orthotics work sometimes, and sometimes they don't.

Currently it is 93 degrees outside.  The humidity in the bus is 4% due to the continuous running of the air conditioners.  We're leaving the 19th and it will not be a second too soon.  It's HOT!