Day 4 Hawaii--Apr. 5

Today was our day to see Volcanoes National Park. Different sources said the 90 mile drive would take us anywhere from an hour and half to three hours so we wanted to leave by 7:30. We followed Highway 11 south, taking a side road 12 miles down to South Point, the southern-most point in the US. The windswept point is home mostly to cattle and a small wind farm now. There are canoe lifts which are apparently used to lower and hoist canoes from the cliffs to the raging waves 50 feet below, but it was hard to believe anyone would do it in those prevailing winds. After climbing around on the lava surface for a while we climbed back in the car and continued on to the Black Sand Band beach of Punalu’u. The beach is just a short walk from the parking lot. It is famous not only for the black sand but also for the very rare hornbill and less rare but still endangered green sea turtles. The hornbills come there only to nest from May to October and there are only 55 known females in Hawaii. The green sea turtles come to the bay to feed on the algae on the rocks. After watching the waves for a bit we realized that the water was teaming with green turtles, impossible to count because of the wave action. It is fascinating to watch for them to stick out a flipper or bring out their whole head to breath. Finally tearing ourselves away we drove on to the Park, arriving at the Visitors Center about noon, just as a volunteer host who was a native of Oahu began a talk about the geography of the island and volcanoes, along with a mini lesson on how to pronounce Hawaiian words. He then led a hike but we wanted to eat so we passed on that part. It became abundantly clear that we were in a rain forest as light misty rains came and went. There were no covered picnic tables so we ended up enjoying our wine, bread and cheese in the car in the parking lot—not very picturesque! We went into the Center to watch three short films about the park and the present volcano action, and looked at the displays. A ranger went over the map with us, making note of what we should try to do with the rest of our day. We were a bit disappointed to find out that more than half of the Crater Rim Drive was closed because of the presence of high levels of sulfuric acid. But she encouraged us to take the Crater Rim Drive to Chain of Craters Drive and highlighted spots to stop along both. At our first stop there were three trails; one to a lava tunnel, one down to the lava lake of Kilauea and one along the rim of the cauldron. When Marv, Heidi and I returned to the car, feeling that we couldn’t see much because of the increased rain, Kris lost us. He hiked the half mile to the tunnel and returned, since he hadn’t found us. Heidi and came across him on the trail and explained what had happened. It all took about half an hour but there was no harm done. Chain of Craters Drive descends 4000 feet in 17 miles. Along it we climbed a couple of viewing platforms and took in the eerie lava landscape. In the process we are learning to identify pahoehoe and a’a, two kinds of lava flow. Near the coastline we took a mile and a half hike to Pu’u Loa, the largest collection of petroglyphs in Hawaii. Etched into the lava 700 years ago are 23,000 figures and shapes. 16,000 are holes, circles or concentric circles. Oral history tells us that they were ceremonial depositories for babies’ umbilical cords, left to appeal to the gods to protect the child into adulthood. It was a very spiritual spot. From there we continued quite literally to the end of the road. In 1983 when the Pu’u O’o vent spewed, the lava flowed down from the cauldron to the sea, right across the road for several miles. And that was the end of that circle drive! Marv and I opted to hike what they said was half an hour but was really more like a mile to get some pictures on the lava. As we retraced our journey there were more rains coming in so we saw a spectacular double rainbow over the black lava. Back at the top, we hiked a half mile or so through the rainforest to go through the very wet lava tunnel cave, which is partly lighted. It was close to dinner time so we headed into Volcano Village but found long waits and expensive meals at the two open restaurants. Instead we opted for coffee- and treats-to-go at a small café. It was dark when we returned to the National Park so we took Crater Rim Drive the other direction to see steam vents in the headlights, the Jaggar Museum (the first scientist to really study the volcanoes) and most importantly, the glowing Kilauea lava dome. No one knows when Kilauea will erupt again, but the growing dome makes it clear that it will happen again. Driving back to Kona, we were happy to come across the Shaka restaurant and bar (the southern-most restaurant in the US) still open and serving food. We found out that Duke had squeaked by Butler and ate dinner about 8:30 or 9:00. When we got back to the Kona Bali Kai, we were all exhausted from our full day, no one more than Marv, who is doing all the driving.

Day 3 Hawaii--Apr. 4

Sun. Apr. 4: Happy Easter! We wanted to attend a UCC Church today and got two suggestions from a church secretary in Hilo with whom I had corresponded before we came. We ended up at Mokuaikaua Church, which proved to be an interesting experience. Built by early missionaries in 1837, using coral and lava rock, this is the oldest Christian church in Hawaii. Because the Congregationalist missionaries first came in April 1820, they were celebrating their 190^th anniversary today. The service began with about 20 minutes of praise music and the Samoan minister had a pretty conservative, fundamental message for his very receptive congregation. But the people were friendly and welcoming, and the woman next to me gave me her lei with “some sugar” (a kiss). Heidi and I stayed to hear a history talk by a very fervent member, who did seem to know her stuff, but had a pretty sympathetic and approving (of the missionaries) point of view. Because the lines were so long, we regretfully decided not to stay for the anniversary luau to which everyone was invited. Instead we went back to change our clothes and make a lunch and took the roads leading to the north part of the island. There is a big difference along the drive between the lava desert close to Kona and the gentle slopes of the oldest part of the island as one travels north. We stopped at Kekaha Kai State Park Beach to enjoy our lunch and watch people playing in the waves. Marv and I went down and got our feet wet and marveled at the fine white sand beach, edged with harsh black lava boulders. Further on we took a very rough unpaved road to the south part of Kiholo Bay. Here we found “The Queen’s Pool”, a collapsed lava tube which has a spring that keeps a few feet of crystal clear fresh water in it. There is a ladder to climb down into it and one can swim under the rocks into another part that is open to the air above too, but none of us went in. Instead we hiked on up the beach to see the spectacular beach complex built by Paul Mitchell, which he apparently rarely visits. Pretty unbelievable!! Back in the car, the temperature dropped as we continued to drive. We drove around the northern tip of the island, encountering a lot of fine, cool rains. In Hawi we enjoyed a Kona Brewery draft at Luke’s Tiki Bar before retracing our route. As we came down the west coast we encountered the most vivid, full spectrum, full arc rainbows any of us had ever seen. Pictures may not do them justice but we took plenty! We returned to Kawaihae and had dinner at a Tres Hombres Mexican restaurant set back and above the beach at the harbor, over which we watched the sunset. Back “home we split a bottle of wine while we made our plans for Monday and Tuesday, and got to bed a little bit early.

Day 2 Hawaii--April 3

We slept fitfully but all night long, awakening by about 7:30 Hawaiian time. We made our single packet of coffee and enjoyed it while waiting for our agreed upon time of 8:00 to call Kris and Heidi. I went down to see if I could use the Wi-Fi in the open air lobby of the Bali Kai (I could!) and then Marv came down to say we were going to get our pals. They had watched the tourist info channel and found out that there is an every Saturday organic farmers’ market right nearby. It is held in the parking lot of the Keauhou shopping center so we could kill several birds with one stone. Each couple shared a large breakfast plate from one of the vendors. After tasting the coffee at several stands we each bought 100% Kona coffee to have here and some to take home. We meandered and sampled and enjoyed the live Hawaiian music being played on a stage. When we had our fill, we went to the drugstore and supermarket for other breakfast and lunch foods, and went back to put them in the fridges in our rooms. We loaded up the car to be gone for the afternoon and drove south to the Pu’uhonau O Honaunau National Historic site. Our picnic on the lava rock beach was welcome before we climbed around on the rocks and examined the tidal pools alive with corals and tiny fish and crabs. Then we were thrilled with our first sightings of two humpback whales, quite close to the shore. Most of the humpbacks have now begun their journey to the Arctic Ocean so we were really pleased that we got to see a couple. We returned to the self-guided interpretive walk around the sacred grounds which only royalty could enjoy or even see and learned about the strict rules which governed the populous between 1550 and the nineteen hundreds. For example, a commoner could be put to death for even casting a shadow on the sacred grounds within the 17 feet thick, 12 feet high stone wall. Interestingly, the shore of the point just outside the wall was a Place of Refuge. If a person could reach the Point of Refuge (usually by swimming across the bay) then they were safe and, after purification by a priest, could return to his/her place in Society, absolved of the crime. As we walked around the area, Ken kept us updated on the Butler/ MSU Semi-Final game. Things seemed to be going well until we didn’t hear from him for a while and then got a sad, one word text: LOST. It became gradually cloudier as we explored but the woman in the gift shop said it wasn’t clouds, it was “vog” or volcanic fog from Mauna Loa. Be that as it may, we did drive through some very light rain in the same area. We took a different route back and stopped at the Painted Church. This Benedictine Catholic Church was built down near the coast, but when a new priest came in 1832 he supervised moving it up the hills into the cooler climate where the village people were moving. Then he began painting the interior with decorations and murals of important Bible scenes, modeling his work after a Spanish church. He died before finishing all the murals but the church is being kept up as he left it and has an apparently active membership with Mass the first Sunday of the month. We continued on to the Paleaku Peace Garden but drove past without stopping. We hoped to visit the Kona Coffee Living Museum but found that it had limited hours and days when it is open and was closed. Donkey Balls chocolates proved to be too expensive for the likes of us, so we drove on to two scenic overlooks and then dropped back down to the La’ Aloa Beach, just down the Ali’i Road from the Bali Kai. There a small swatch of fine white sand beach is surrounded by black lava rocks. There were lots of kids having a great time playing with their boogie boards in the surf. While we watched them, a man yelped that he had stepped on a sea turtle. Our attention turned to observing two large turtles feeding without concern for the buffeting waves that sometimes brought them perilously close to the large lava rocks. We were disappointed when two people told us that just a few minutes before they had seen a humpback whale “dancing” and breeching just off shore. As one of the turtles swam off we decided to return to the Bali Kai and rest up before going down to the shore area there to see if there would be a sunset worth watching. We also agreed to try the nearby Kona Brewing Company for dinner. The sun peeked out for a few minutes just as it reached the horizon and was well worth seeing. However, Kris and Heidi arrived just after the sun set so they missed it. Kona Brewing Company and Pub turned out to be a great choice. We ate outside under a sort of open sided umbrella tent. They had good sandwiches, really good beer and an amazing brownie and ice cream dessert which the four of us shared. Yum---my!!! Back at the Bali Kai, Marv, Heidi and I opted to go in the hot tub and pool for a while before we all hit the—very welcome—sack.

Day 1 Hawaii--April 2, 2010--Happy Birthday, Mom!

Fri. April 2, 2010: This is the big day—we’re going to Hawaii! And so far, so good. This is written from the LA airport (LAX?). We started with two small problems: Marv was randomly selected as being unable to check-in online, meaning he had no boarding pass in Detroit and had to answer some questions to get through the check-in. After we got that taken care of, the swab of his backpack was suspect, so he was “wanded” and patted down in security. But once another machine cleared him, everything improved greatly, including exit aisle seats to Chicago and an empty seat next to us from Chicago so we could spread out and come and go as we pleased. “Orson Wells and Me” during the flight.We saw the film We board in about half an hour with next stop---Hawaii!

The next leg of our journey was unremarkable. We sat next to a woman who was going to Hawaii with 4 generations to celebrate her 85^th birthday. She was delightful! We watched the film “Dear Heart”, for which Jeff Bridges got the best actor Academy Award this year. Arriving at the Kona airport was easy and we got or luggage and took a shuttle to get our rental car. That took a while but Dollar was out of the Dodge Charger-size vehicle we had reserved so they upgraded us to a Lincoln Towncar at the same price. We’ve never had such a big car! The GPS took us straight to the Crown Kona Bali Kai, where we checked in and got our rooms. We’re in separate buildings so I don’t know how Kris and Heidi like their accommodations, but we’re happy with our “Mountain View” (not really) room with a kitchenette and king size bed. Bed we can see the ocean across the street from our lanai. It should do us very well for our five days here. We tumbled into bed about 10:45, having been up for nearly 24 hours straight without sleep!

Day 42--The last day of our great adventure!

We returned to Sarah and Craig’s this morning after finding the fold-out, tent-like play house we sought. With an attachable tunnel and Thomas the Train Engine on the sides it was a big hit. We chatted and played and had a bite of lunch before Ken and Jen took off for Howell. We stayed until the boys went down for their naps and then left. We had a sunny 50 degree day to drive in and it was all fine until, just short of the state line, we had another blow-out on the camper! Again we were lucky in that we were right by an exit so we got off the freeway and into a parking lot to open the camper and change the tire. I told Marv he was getting way too good at it! Back on the road we listened to MSU’s season ending game against Michigan, where we totally blew them out of the water. Bliss! We backed into the driveway just as the game ended. I ran in to turn up the heat while Marv unhitched the camper. Then we drove to Coral Gables to have dinner. When we returned we turned on the water and emptied most of the back of the truck before watching the Oscars and generally relaxing a bit. We had driven 7,612 miles through 12 states, spending at least a night in 6 of them. We averaged 16.2 mpg and saw gas for as little as $2.27 (when we had a full tankL) and paid as much as $3.06, but it was usually between $2.49 and $2.69. Considering the weather going on elsewhere, and before and after we visited several areas, we felt that we were pretty charmed for the whole trip. Two blown-out tires on the camper, both times in easy, safe places to replace them, were our only emergencies. We both agreed the trip was as good as or better than we had hoped, but perhaps not quite as much warm weather as we would have preferred. We will settle back into life here in East Lansing and enjoy what will hopefully be a LONG run in the Big Ten and NCAA basketball tournaments. I don’t plan on adding to this blog until the first full week of April, when we will be traveling to Hawaii with our buddies Kris and Heidi for her spring break. Do come back then to read the continuing adventures of The Savage Traveler.

Day 41--Indianapolis and Jordan's 2nd Birthday

Things went pretty much according to plan this morning and Marv got things emptied and dried to his satisfaction before we got on the road. However, we had forgotten that we would be passing out of Central Time Zone so we were suddenly an hour ahead of where we thought we were. We still managed to check-in at the Jamison Inn, drop the trailer, and get to Jordan’s second birthday on time. All of Craig’s family except his brother-in-law, Mike, and brother, Brian, was there. And all of Sarah’s family was there, along with a friend named Marie and her daughter, Claire. Cessa and one of her divers also dropped by, having dropped off her special Elmo cake before practice. A wonderful time was had by all and Jordan was a delight. He sang to himself and spontaneously wished himself Happy Birthday several times. He and Eli fought over who would play with the presents and he quickly figured out that, for one shining day, he could always count on being given priority. So he extended the privilege to pretty much anything Eli picked up. It was pretty funny. Craig’s family and the others all left before the boys went to bed, but we stuck around until about 11:00, with Ken and Jen staying in the guest room. It was so nice to see our family again!!

Day 40--finishing the Natchez Trace

Sadly, this was really the last day of our six-week adventure. Tomorrow we’ll be beating a fast path to Indianapolis, with no interesting stops along the way. We had over 200 miles left to drive on the Trace, so we got on our way close to 8:30. It had been another cold night, down in the twenties but it went above freezing as soon as the sun rose. Today we learned that President Jefferson ordered the army to clear the Natchez Trace beginning in 1800 because Mississippi seemed so remote that the government was afraid that it would decide to become a separate country. The Trace was meant to serve as the postal route, along with continuing to be a return route for “Kaintauks” who had floated a cargo of goods down the Mississippi to Natchez, sold the boat as lumber and were heading home. We also learned more about the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes who controlled most of the lands the Trace crossed. We drove out of Mississippi, across the corner of Alabama and into Tennessee over the course of the day. Among other things we saw today was the grave of Meriwether Lewis, who died from two gunshots (most likely self-inflicted) at Grinder's Stand. It was so interesting to see the insignia for the Lewis and Clark expedition with which we became so familiar on last summer’s trip. But it is sad to think that he died in so remote a location, on his way to Washington, DC to defend his government expenditures for the expedition (he was cleared of all charges posthumously). We stopped at several Paleo-Indian Mound sites, some from the time of Christ. How strange to think that there were thriving communities of natives trading over thousands of miles for copper, flint and shells at the same time and longer ago than Jesus! We took a few opportunities to walk again on the original Trace where it has been maintained as a pathway. At our final stop we came upon an armadillo, peacefully rooting beside the trail and hardly concerned about our presence. We passed over the award winning bridge spanning Birdsong Hollow and shortly after reached the end of the Natchez Trace Parkway. What a jolt it was to return to an interstate with its traffic and billboards and big trucks racing! We went around Nashville and got to Bowling Green, Kentucky, our twelfth state of the trip. There was a KOA close to the freeway where we could have electricity for the first time in three nights, and Wi-Fi for the first time in a week or more. We’ll empty the trailer of all water in order to get back to the frigid north this weekend.