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!

April Whining and Crock Pots

Oy!  My ennui knows no bounds.  Note to self - next year do not stay this late into April!!!!  In past years we've always taken a week and flown up to Seattle to see our vast fleet of medical professionals and to visit Jim's Mom.  This year we've slid the medical fleet to July and Jim's Mom is no longer with us.  Without that week break from April in Tucson, the days are weighing heavily on us.  It's hot, and it's windy. I've been reading Metamorphosis Road's account of their recent time in Sedona.  I think we're going to go there next year, and go where they went. 
We headed out to Fantasy Island this morning to try out my new back tire on my mountain bike.  It has deeper tread and I'm hoping that it will feel better in sand.  Anyway, when we arrived there were about 60 cars parked in the lot.  Generally if there are 6 cars in the lot we're surprised.  There was some sort of event going on with tents and many children and their parents.  So, we abandoned that plan; we'll try it again tomorrow when people have returned to work and school, where they belong. 
We ended up doing laundry, defrosting the freezer and doing plug adapter research.  Apparently the Czech Republic uses a plug adapter that we do not currently own.  Their outlets have a protruding ground pin, and the adapter must be able to accept that pin.  Ours do not.  I'm happy that we discovered this prior to leaving on the trip.
The sky has been interesting with all of the clouds being swept through because it is windy.

I do have a cooking tip.  We have a crock pot, but we quit using it because cleanup is kind of a pain in an RV.  Slow cooking produces a lot of liquid, and we don't want that in the gray tank.  You probably already know this, but I recently learned that one can buy crock pot liners.  Put it in, put the food in, cook.

They don't melt!  Pull food out of bag, let the crock cool awhile, tie the bag up with a twist tie, throw it away, and you're done.  I like this.

Other than this pitiful accounting of our pitiful ennui, I have not too much report.

Hiking in the Tucson Mountain Park

High winds dictated a hike today instead of the bike.  We went out to the Tucson Mountain Park and covered about four miles.  It was a gorgeous day.

The Buckhorn Chollas are in bloom.  We saw the red and yellow varieties.  So far we've seen no fuschia, which are my favorite color.  They're not so common.

 

The ocotillo are still lovely and plentiful.

 

 

On the trail back to the truck.

Is this not cheerful?  It's growing in the RV park.

Today's hike once again suggested that we really need to spend more time on our feet.  If we're going to walk all over Prague, more conditioning of the feet is going to be required.
The ranks continue to thin here.  We get a little melancholy this time of year.  Two more of our friends came by tonight to say good bye.  I'm thinking we have 19 more days before we go.  It'll be good to see something new.

Last Kids at Camp

We're starting to feel like the last kids at camp.  The ranks are really getting thin at Rincon Country West.  Don and Jamie headed out this morning to return to Winnipeg.  Before going, Jamie gave me one of the flower stalks from her orchid, since they can't go into Canada.  I love orchids.

This is Don and Jamie last year.  This year's picture didn't turn out because I had them looking into the sun.  Bad photographer!  Bad!

There they go.  Should we tell them it's snowing in Fargo?

I found this on a thumb drive yesterday.  This was taken Thanksgiving weekend 2006 in Oregon.  This is how we used to spend winters in the GPNW.  I will list for you what I am wearing below the picture.

From the top:

• A headsock under the helmet, and a helmet cover over it
• Long sleeved undershirt, long sleeved jersey and jacket
• Full fingered gloves
• Bike shorts and heavy tights
• Toe booties over the bike shoes

Only one fender is on the bike in this picture.  If you could see the entire front wheel, you would also notice the mud flap which prevents water from spraying up onto your shins and then running into the shoes. This is how we spent the winters - putting layer upon layer of clothing on and going out into the wretched weather.  Tucson is so much better.

In other news, there is not too much to report.  It's still windy, so we'll be up and out early tomorrow to begin the mileage goal for April.   We've been here long enough.  It's time to go.

Cloudy Skies Make Good Sunsets

We had a pretty good sunset tonight.

Things Seen From the Bike and the Truck

Friday's ride took us through the Christopher Columbus Park, where we saw this.  These are RC boats, they're about 3 feet in length.  They have gas engines and they are fast.  I think their speeds were around 60 mph.

Look at the rooster tail.  Two of the three boats racing flipped and had to be rescued.  They throw a weighted string at them, and attempt to pull them to shore.  I think they need a rescue kayak.

Today it was windier.  We went north on the trail and south on the frontage road.  It seemed that there was a head wind in both directions, not sure how it does that.  We did notice yet another steenking yellow tree producing pollen.  I have not a clue as to what this is.

Things are blooming in the park.  I can't identify this bush, either, but aren't the blossoms just amazing?  They look like a cross between a lantern and a party hat.

 

And there are cactus.

This is my favorite.  Notice how the blossoms are different colors on the same plant.

Later we went out to run an errand.  This is Jim in his flowered shorts.  Pretty cute, eh?

Check out the front gate of this house.  I love the color they painted it.  The fence uprights are ocotillo ribs that they stuck into the ground.  Most of them rooted and are growing.

Some of them are blooming.  This photo is a zoom of the blossoms in the fence.

It appears that we're planning to leave Tucson on April 19. At that point my blog may become less boring as we head north.  At least there will be pictures of things we haven't seen for awhile.