Lost in Loreto

Location: downtown Loreto in Baja Sur, Mexico

Condition: Tangled, dirty, frayed and full of spider webs - a men's "ae" brand athletic shoe

Pray for Me at San Francisco Javier Mission

Location: 22 miles into the steep rugged mountains behind Loreto, Baja, Mexico - one of the first California missions finished in 1759. The journey up the steep, narrow, unpaved and unbarricaded rocky road passed too many Mexican death shrines with rusted auto hulks, hundreds of feet below.

Condition: A ladies left thong sandal with brown decorative beading - perhaps ignored and abandoned while the owner prayed for a safe journey back down the treacherous winding road.

Pressed Pink

Location: the Long's Drugs parking lot, Martinez, California

Condition: A toddler's soft leather slipper, separated from its owner (luckily) - apparently run over in the parking lot, flattened hard to less than a half inch . . . scuffed toe with a white kitty face on top and soft elastic to hold around the heel.

Trashed in Texas

Location: Jason Houston found this pathetically dismantled lost sole in Galveston, Texas - hanging out near a fishing pier. He adds, "Lots of other stuff also washed up on the beach
in that whole area."

Highly Posted and Recorded in AZ

Location: On Alamo Rd. at Jupiter Dr. (elevation: 2909 ft), South off I-40 in Mojave County, AZ. (lat: 34d 41' 13"N - long: 113d 54' 43" W)

Condition: A men's left Wellington style boot, nailed through the toe box to the top of a desert fence post. Highly posted recently, the leather is smooth and non weathered.

At the Salton Sea, CA

Location: At the Salton Sea, on the dried muddy shore of the Red Hill Marina.

Condition: Only the bottom of a turquoise sandal remains, twisted and bent in the heat just as the dying talapia did, struggling for their last breath in the oxygen poor/algae rich murky waters of the Salton Sea.

A Desert Death

Location: Dumped or lost on the sands of Ocotillo in the Anza Borrego desert.

Condition: Arid and barren - no water and apparently without life. A woman's frayed white tennis shoe bakes relentlessly, cracks apart on the sole line and bleaches chalky bone white.

Perdido Zapato

Location: Betty Clark just finished an awesome drive from the San Francisco bay area to the tip of Baja and back. She found this perdido zapato "on the Sea of Cortez beach".

Condiditon: She had a wonderful time and added, "It just seemed happy to be there."

Crapped Out

Location: Luckless with a pair of fives and a pair of deuces on its heel, left in the mud beside Old Hiway 80 in Flinn Springs near San Diego

Condition: A Globe brand name, fake black suede - muddy and wet with new fat laces tied and a lone drop of water sliding off the tip of a lace.

New & Pretty

Location: Driving on a new street in a new San Diego neighborhood, looking for a new library - at the intersection of Research and Judiciary Drives - wouldn't you think someone could keep their soles together?

Condition: Excellent - a woman's left thong, hardly worn - fancy engraving around the edges of the foot pad and real shell (abalone?) and beads stitched into the multi-layered leather straps.

Dumped in D.C.

Location: In the dimly lit underground Metro station beneath Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. - laying on the pebbly grey grime that accumulates under the waiting platform and beside the tracks -

Condition: A well cared for but worn men's black, left flip flop sandal - foot imprint toe and heel - black and yellow straps.

A Dead End Sole

Location: Jewel Valley Rd in Boulevard, CA - an old cracked asphalt road that dead ends near the CA/Mexican border, where men's dreams dissipate and their bodies can vanish as well.

Condition: this Vans right shoe (man's) is the worst - sun baked and rain rotted, filled with sand and dirt, split and torn sole - truly a sole with no future.

Electric Pink

Location: I never expected to find a lost sole tonite, on the floor in the aisle between small appliances and extension cords, at our local Fry's Electronics.

Condition: a very new woman's size 7 soft fabric slipper.

A Sole Full Morning - a Triple+!

Location: As I drove by the RR tracks this morning in Chula Vista, I spotted a lost sole about a foot from the track.

Condition: A very worn man's right casual faux leather shoe with a tiny weed growing out of the soul and the inside packed tight/spilling out - perhaps previously a mouse nest?

Location: With power lines crackling overhead, across the tracks I could see another lost sole in an empty field.

Condition: A Reebok athletic shoe, size 11 - in very poor condition with a worn down, cracked sole - no laces, no mate.

Location: And off to my right, at the edge of a nearby field of very tall weeds . . .

Condition: A Saucony, left - UK size 11 - weathered upper but a like new sole. Clean laces.

A passerby watching me take photos, told me about a nearby shoe repair shop. I drove a half mile and at 246 Broadway in Chula Vista found the Boot Round-Up Shoe Repair shop.

I met Chito (the author of the words on the window) and told him about my lost sole collection. As I was taking his photo, he told me he has owned this successful shoe repair shop for 22 years.

Fit & Trim

Location: Poised, waiting, watching - facing south in a parking space in front of the gym at the Golden Hill Recreation Center, San Diego.

Condition: Strangely with no laces, a man's athletic right shoe, size 9, Vans brand - black and white. Used, but still firm in very good condition.

Bright White

Location: Found in the early morning light, poised and alone on the edge of the sidewalk corner - intersection of Dwight and Granada Avenues in North Park, San Diego.

Condition: A Truffles brand ladies 7-1/2M leather slip on with words nearly worn away inside, cracked leather on outside. Medium wear. Made in China - given up in California.

A Pooped Slipper

Location: Seeking protection up against the cement base of a parking lot light standard in Santee, CA - in the Best Buy/IHOP restaurant lot.

Condition: A man's huge slipper - size 12 - 13, black corduroy, used and scuffed with a fresh white plop of seagull poop on the big toe.

Left at the Lake

Location: Left among the mossy rocks at the water's edge of Lake Wohlford near San Diego, California

Condition: A woman's slip-on, left brown suede shoe with a high def tread sole - for hiking? Looks to be about a size 7 with lots of moss growing all around the base. Blends well with the other moss covered rocks but seems out of place, cold and lonely.

Tiny Blue Cutie

Location: Catalina Island - early morning before anyone was walking the main beach stroll of Avalon, this tiny shoe was just sitting alone on a patio table in front of the Villa Portofino hotel

Condition: Brand new, not sure the owner was actually walking yet -no scuffs or stains on the bottom. Thomas & Friends brand - right shoe, size 1

An Alley Orphan

Location: Found in a neighborhood alley between 33rd and Landis Streets in San Diego

Condition: Women's New Balance, left, model #766 - muddy, sun damaged - no mate, been foot loose for a long time

Mangy in Maryland

Location: On a freeway off ramp - Hiway #68 about 30 miles east of Cumberland, MD

Condition: Pathetic, very worn, outer leather blown out over big toe - no laces, puffy red torn interior - 4 small spiders inside. Left boot only - looks to be about a man's size 10.

Stuck in the mud!

Location: mud flats in San Diego bay/Imperial Beach, 40 yards from running/bike path

Condition: wet with tangled weeds, laces intact/recently tied, no sun damage

Next of kin: n/a

Lost Soles Found

You've seen them, they're everywhere - in the best neighborhoods, in the poorest neighborhoods . . . forever traveling solo, abandoned by the side of the road. How do they usually become separated from their mirror twin? How do they manage to hang from overhead wires, the lucky ones, discarded with their mates - hanging by a shoelace, evenly divided?

This blog is dedicated to all the lost soles out there - paired or unpaired . . . sung to the tune of:

* Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)

*These Boots Were Make for Walking (Nancy Sinatra)

*Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? (Shania Twain)

*Head Over Heels (The Go-Go's)

*FootLoose (Kenny Loggins)