Update on last 10 days.

Feb 24, 2011. Flight to Hawaii. Full flight to L.A. 1/3 full to Kona.

Feb 25 Paddle in the a.m. with Keauhou Club. Spinner dolphins. But, no feeling of being in paddling "groove." Spent time trying to find John Forrester and Merle Montani--no one had a phone number aside from an old cell phone # for John--dialing that yielded a message: Put in another dime, please. Mixed dough for bread. Up to the Donkey Mill Art Center, where one paddler, Richard Notkin, had some art on display---teapots and ears. Tea was interesting. First warming the teapot, warming the vessels for pouring and then making the tea. Tasty, but who really has time for that ritual except on that odd occasion?

I wish I had my camera. The phone camera while decent is really a poor excuse for a camera.

Feb 26 A.M. paddle. Out of the groove. Great bread. Mixed more dough for 2nd loaf of bread. Had a discussion w/Vern & Janet re: declining membership in Wakinikona paddling club. Where are the paddlers? Why does it cost so much to paddle?

Feb 27 To Volcanoes N.P. with John Forrester and Merle Montani. very cool. Steam vents. People hiking across the caldera. Pretty cool--I'd rate that park a 9 out of 10. The road to Hilo led us past an Orchid farm/shop which we visited. very nice
Through Hilo where, after about 15 minutes, we found a Starbucks to get Merle a soy chai. Plenty of rain in Hilo, but warm, at 75 deg F. I could deal with rain at that temp. I could paddle in rain at that temp. People were surfing in the bay--most had paddles.



Feb 28 To Hawi with Vern and Janet H. to do that zip-line thing with Big Island Eco Adventures. I was impressed with the setup required, but was not altogether convinced that the tour was that interesting. The two guides didn't talk much about the history and ecology of the area. Information seemed not to flow--you had to pry it out of them. They didn't offer plant or tree information. No real organization. It was safe and they did the job to keep all persons out of harm's way. They seemed like they'd be right at home on snowboards or skateboards doing tricks. The guides took us on a six wheel drive lorry toward Pololū--you could hardly hear yourself think for all the noise the truck made. The truck carried us on a double track road past old sugar cane fields and past the Kohala ditch--much more information about the ditch came from Bill Rosehill the following day than from the guides. Such as that the ditch descends a foot for each running mile. More information here. We came to a grassy hill which the guides tried to ascend with the truck--the tires couldn't bite into the grass enough to pull the truck up. What is so "Eco tour" about that? We parked and walked up a hundred or so vertical feet to the first zip line. We received instructions about zip lining. We heard a two stroke engine whining a few hundred feet distant. Mosquitoes began to hover, land and suck blood. The "natural" repellent sold at the shop had minimal effectiveness. We seemed to zig zag through the forest. We zipped over unremarkable woodland, small waterfalls and other chasms, but really didn't have a good long lo0k at anything. After the 4th zip, we caught up with the two stroke engine, which powered a blower whose operator was supposed to have finished his work before 8 a.m. Really poor form to have the guy out there making noise after we'd paid over $170 each. After the 8th zip, which was 1000' long, we came to a small clearing where the truck awaited us. At first I thought, "oh, somebody brought the truck down here from where we got off." Not. No one had moved the truck. I recalled that the guides said that elevation gradient was 1 foot of descent per 100 feet of cable. That coincided with my observation of the first few lines in which I perceived little difference in elevation between the start and end of each zip.

My rating for the zip-line tour: 1 out of 10.

I think I'm not a zip-lining type of person. If I was, maybe I wouldn't have rated this business as poorly as I did. When you take an "Eco tour," you should receive information about the habitat, flora, fauna, history etc and you should not be rushed from one zip to the next. Guides should stop the truck to talk about features instead of trying to yell above the din of the engine. There is probably not much reason to zip through a non native forest when a walk on a trail would have sufficed.

Oh some people just get grumpy when the day drags on.

February 29, 2011. Bought a chicken from KTA grocery store and went to Ace hardware to get a bit of hardware cloth big enough to make a cage for the chicken and also to get a length of cable to attach to the cage. Brought some rice in a pot with water. Returned to Volcanoes N.P. with John and Merle, put the chicken in the cage and lowered it into a steam vent. we used oven mitts to set the rice pot in the steam vent. we returned after about 90 minutes. Great picnic until the Park Police arrived. Then we had to bribe the officer with a beer, a wing and a breast. Then it began to rain and we all finished eating in the car.

Back at the condo. Mixed even more dough for another loaf of bread.

February 30, 2011. Great bread. Paddling was great, had a huli practice in warm waters after the paddle.

February 31, 2011. Day of rest. Watched Laurel and Hardy films all day.

March 1, 2011. Paddling: in the groove. Whale tail near shore north of Keauhou Sheraton. Flying fish!

The vacation over, Vern took me to the airport, where I stood in the United Airlines line for >100 minutes to get my boarding pass. Southwest Airlines would have handled the same line in about 20 minutes. I wondered about the source of the problem: Island Time culture, bad software or really bad training. The restaurant at the airport was exceptionally bad--a teriyaki chicken burger was a 2.5" hockey puck of chicken perched on a 5" bun, a weeping leaf of lettuce and 4 pickle slices with a bit of Teriyaki sauce that cost >$9. No one should be that desperate. Bad, badder and baddest.

On the plane back to San Fran and then Seattle--well, the first plane was 4 hours late, getting me into SF at 1 a.m. United Airlines seat spacing was extremely poor--I'm not tall, but I could see tall people in distress--horrible, horrible airline company. I accepted the hotel room and breakfasted at 8 a.m. Got to the airport at 9 a.m. but this plane was also delayed, 3 hours. Finally in SeaTac at 3 p.m. yech feeling until I napped at Berkeley Drive exit in Lakewood. Stopped in Olympia to clean out the last niches in the Volvo before selling it. Then found a McDonalds, where I discovered that a 1/3 lb Angus Burger Deluxe supplies 750 calories, the medium fries 380 calories--I felt sated for at least 4 hours. Got on the rollers and pedaled for about 20 minutes.