• Best 43 Bucks Ever Spent or Gee Honey, You Were Right.

Have you ever been to Lake Elsinore's River Walk?

Well, it's only going to cost you $43... if you choose the preferred parking like I did.

Trophy Row Parking!!

Here's the lowdown. A group of locals puts in a three mile walk each weekend. We have several different loops we use. The Santa Rosa Plateau, the Wildomar channel (AKA Murrieta Creek), and the levy behind The Diamond in Lake Elsinore.

Always looking for new local trails/paths/loops to walk on, the River Walk in Lake Elsinore was mentioned.

Our advance scout went there the day before to locate the best place to park. It seemed that near the little league field would be best. She even got the seal of approval from a local baseball mom that she "parks there all the time and never gets ticketed." What could be more of a sure thing than that?

Here's where the "I told you so" comes in.

My lovely wife said, "How about I drop you off so you don't get a ticket, and then I'll pick you up when you're done."

I was about 98% certain that there was no way I'd get a ticket so I declined the offer.

D'oh!

The worst part is that I was running late (I had no idea where this was. I had initially gone to the wrong ball fields, the ones that can be seen from the levy). I get to where the group is meeting up, and park next to a friend's car. I get out of the car, lock the car, take about five steps and then realize that the group is about 200 yards further south. So I get back into the car and drive past a NO PARKING sign (that should have been my first clue that I was in for it.)

Then we went on the walk and enjoyed the morning.

Great weather, good conversation and hey, it was even great walking past homeless guys doing their laundry and sleeping on the benches. They didn't even hit us up for loose change, though one did have his belongings all over the path. Kind of a fun obstacle course for the young at heart.

At the conclusion of the walk we were greeted by white envelopes on our car windshields.

I was hoping it was for 50% off my third pizza or maybe inviting me to try out some new fitness place.

 No such luck. 

My favorite part here is that Lake Elsinore sends out their tickets to NEWPORT BEACH for processing. Like the OC needs more jobs that could easily been done locally, and probably is being done by locals that drive there in the first place. 

We went over to the little league field to commiserate with people parked there, also marked Boat Trailer Parking Only. Lo and behold, they didn't get tickets. They'd never heard of people getting tickets for parking there this time of year. We all agreed that it would be a different situation had there actually been boat trailers there. Or if we'd tried to get out of paying.

A view of the Boat Trailer parking adjacent to the little league fields.

Ready for a bunch of excuses? Well I am...

• There was no one manning the launch area (where they take the money to park).
• The gate was locked in the opened position.
• Other people were parking there.
• I didn't think the sign applied to me.
• The dog ate my homework!

But seriously, it's pretty jacked up when a city wants you to visit it, and then goes ticky-tack with ticket writing. Either close the gate or allow for off season parking near the mouth of one of your city's attractions.

Still, in the end I'm glad I strolled on LE's world famous River Walk (though I think it would be better named, Drainage Ditch Walk —but I'm thinking they wouldn't be able to hoodwink as many into coming with the more truthful name). One and done for me. I can't afford it a second round.

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