Seen in Tucson After the Rains

Today we rode the Santa Cruz to Rillito trail.  We saw debris on one of the ramps into the Santa Cruz.  We're wondering if the water was really that high, although I don't know how else the debris would get on the fence posts.  The highest one is about 10 feet from the river bed.  Pretty impressive!

We saw this on the trail that runs up the east side of the Santa Cruz.  It wasn't moving, and we're not sure what it was for.  It's an interesting looking machine.

Camino de la Tierra is one of the roads that crosses the Rillito River.  It's not bridged.  Water is still crossing the road.  The road is closed.  We can tell that the road is closed by the yellow "road closed" signs, which are connected by yellow caution tape.  That did not stop the mini van driver with two small kids in the van.  She made it through the water, but then bogged down in the mud and the rocks.

The nice young man driving the pick up attached a yellow strap to the mini van and pulled it back to safety.  They didn't make it all the way, the strap broke and went flying off.  She was able to back out of the mud and make a clean get away.  They had quite the audience for the whole thing.

She was lucky a tow truck was not required.  Tow trucks report these to the police.  Arizona has a Stupid Motorist Law.  It applies specifically to people who drive around road closed signs into water and require rescue. The driver can be billed for all costs associated with their rescue, and fined an additional $2,000.  Apparently Pima County budgets for water rescues, so they don't always bill the errant driver.  Every year people drive into deep water here.  Every underpass is painted with a gauge that tells you how deep the water is, and they go in there anyway.  People!