…but then again, too few to mention.

To date, this has been a remarkably regret free adventure.  Sure, there have been little things here or there that I wish had gone differently, or had been a little easier.  (The Canada visit comes to mind)  Really though, the only noteworthy regrets are photo opportunities that I just missed.  Three in particular continue to harsh my buzz a bit.

The Water Crossing

I told the story earlier, in Cayce and Kathy Present: Fun with (Apple) maps, of our experience on the long, long, LONG, drive down Panoche Road.  I managed to get a number of decent images along the way, but I did not get an image of the water crossing we got to drive through.  Luckily, and amazingly, Google is a thing these days and is extraordinary.  Sure enough, a search very quickly revealed an image of the exact place.  The water when we crossed was quite a bit deeper than this. From memory, I’d say about twice as deep and wide.  Much more of an, “Oh sh*t… now what?” moment.

The Boulder

This one killed me.  Coming down highway 243 from Idyllwild in mid-January, and about half way down we hit a traffic stoppage.  A bad one.  A crawling along at 2 or 3 miles and hour one.  We had no clue why, and just assumed it was a standard construction or accident delay.  Finally after an hour or more of creeping along, the speed picks up just a bit, and we round a corner, (that I later learn is called “dead man’s curve.”) and come upon the reason for the delay.  A truly giant boulder had clearly fallen from the mountainside (To be fair, there was a sign that said, “Danger, Falling Rocks”) and landed in the far lane of traffic, completely blocking it.  Completely.  Road crews and much heavy equipment surrounded it and many men were at work.  This boulder was huge.  It dwarfed my truck as we came alongside it, and I’m frantically fumbling with my phone trying to get the camera app up and ready in time and then we’re past it.   ARGGGGGGG!  There was just no time.  I couldn’t stop, there was literally no place to pull over.  No shoulder on my side, the lane I was in was moving, (maybe 10 miles an hour now) the giant boulder lane was filled with men and equipment, a short shoulder, and then cliff, with no place to turn around and come back.  Just an opportunity, there for a few seconds, then gone and not coming back.  Does Google have a record of this?  Yes it does.  Turns out a giant boulder falling onto the road is a bit of a story, and the Press Enterprise had a few articles about it.  With pictures.  Seems it took a full 3 days to clear, and broke many, many pieces of heavy equipment and machinery.

The Fish Lake Valley Hot Springs, “Stop killing the wildlife,” sign.  

This one was just a, “dammit, I forgot,” moment.  And I’m still kicking myself.  For some reason, this sign struck me as funny.  I passed it a dozen times and would always think, “I need to grab a shot of this,” and it just never happened.  I really wanted to get an image of the sign into my post about the hot springs, with a (hopefully) funny line or two, but I never got the image, so no funny line.  As best as I can make out, the sign reads:

Attention!
this facility
will be
closed
and filled in
if the vandalism
and killing of wildlife
continues.

The sign warning against vandalism and the killing of wildlife is filled with many, many, many bullet holes, (currently, more than show in this image) including at least one big, dead center shotgun blast.  We can only hope that killing the sign is in lieu of continuing to kill the wildlife.  :)  I like the place and don’t want to see it filled in and closed.