A large gravel and dirt parking lot lay exposed down by the far end of Port Costa, all the way down by the railroad tracks and the river. Trash and discarded plastic bags were blown against the cyclone fence and caught in old tangles of fishing line. An old tire, large and perhaps off a truck, had been discarded there too.

Some believe that the best place to discard a tire is in water. Such oafs will roll them into a river, or toss them into the ocean, or even throw them just off shore at a beach. Here at the Martinez shoreline park by Carquinez Straight, a section of waterfront was set aside as a scenic beach. Just off shore, a tire rested on the bottom, exposed by low tide, and washed clean by the movement of gentle surf.

At low tide, much jetsam was exposed in the bed of Mission Creek between the shore and the houseboats. Among the trash, was an old tire. Chances are that it came from the parking lot on shore, rather than from a houseboat. Other than as cheap fenders, houseboats have no need for tires.

A huge, industrial size tire was suspended from cleats on the wharf. As a frugal fender, the tire provided a cushion for large docking ships. As can be seen, the dock was in poor repair.

As the wonderful Elkhorn Slough Safari drew to an end, the boat passed a beautifully scenic shore with old houses and weathered wooden gate. Overgrown with green at the end of winter, the idyllic scene was marred by a single tire embedded in mud. One might reasonably ask which offended the scene more, the gate or the tire? Those with more mechanical life, might accept the tire more readily than the gate. Those of a more literary, or poetic, or natural bend, might accept the gate more than the tire.

A wide section of the Bay Point Regional Shoreline had suffered from a grass fire in the recent past. One of the casualties was this tire. It had been abandoned here as trash, and then later it was partly melted by the heat of the grass fire.

A old truck tire had been transformed into a nautical buoy complete with the required lounging seals atop it.