Author: Peg

Out doing my aerobic exercise this sort of early this morning. In the afternoon I went for a little swim. The bathrooms and shower were closed. I am sure that made many of the cruisers very unhappy. It made me unhappy. Had to walk home with sandy feet. Anyhow, public bathrooms are scarce in Kona.

Did I tell you this story about Molokai? We were out in the car and decided that we needed a pitstop. SO. We went to the airport. It was nearby. Parking was easy and about 100 feet away from the terminal. And there were no guards or TSA. Just nice clean bathrooms. Can you imagine going to Dulles Airport just to use the restroom?

Just Science Fiction? I am re-reading Robert Heinlein’s 1982 classic Friday.  Two quotes:

• • It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn’t the whole population.

  • Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as you have named…but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

Just Science Fiction?

Went out to Old Airport with Billy to welcome the sun this morning. We also did breakfast and cruised around doing errands and visiting.

One stop was at the hardware store. It doesn’t sell origami paper anymore. That was a bummer. I’ll make my holiday origami out of an old calendar as planned.

This was the end of cruising around in Billy’s truck.

One of today’s projects was to get cracking on some holiday origami. So, it was off to the thrift shop where I hoped to score some sheet music no luck. So, I had to get a book or two to turn into origami paper. I left the Bush and Cheney books. And settled for a 2021 calendar (free) and a Japanese book (75 cents).

I have never folded this star because it starts from not a square of paper but a pentagram. The pentagram was just too much trouble. Well, it turns out, as long as you have scissors, the pentagram is not a problem, and the star is a crease-and-collapse model, so it’s all rather fun.

Gratitude

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I am grateful to not be using the Pixel Phone to update the blog. 

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Five weeks. Then back to “real” life at The Asylum.

I hope to make good use of my five weeks. I have several computer projects to work on. Just for me projects.

I really need to increase my aerobic fitness. There is a fine hill right out my door. Everyday Carlton walked up that hill. BEFORE his first cup of coffee. The man did die at 79. But, except for terminal cancer, he “died in good health”. So. I am not sure I can do it BEFORE the first cup of coffee however.

Guess Carlton is on my mind today. I had his favorite local breakfast – spam musubi. And I did his walk. Now I am having coffee and Diamond Bakery Graham Crackers at 4PM. That was another Carlton Kona ritual. Sometimes he swapped out the Diamond Bakery Graham Crackers for Hilo Creme Crackers. 

Gratitude

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Thank you Carlton.

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One of those computer projects is to get the 2024 photos, current number 4035, culled and cataloged.

The “old church” on the backside of Lana’i. From yesterday’s jeep adventure.

Made it safely back home to Kona. Arrived home about 5:15. Went to the grocery store. Doing a load of laundry. Sorta unpacked. Made chicken and broccoli for dinner. Having coffee and bread pudding for dessert at this instant. Then heading off to bed soon. I am tired. 

More about the grand trip to Moloka’i and Lana’i later. 

Much of today was spent driving down a four-wheel drive Jeep road. Stopping from time to time to see this or that abandoned something or the other. Church, school, graveyard, Baldwin train engine, and a stone bread oven. Too many pictures to interest anybody.

Isn’t technology grand? 98% of the island and 100% of the hotels are owned by Larry Ellison. So it’s no surprise that our little hotel is technologically up to date. We have a Toto toilet. 5G cell service. And fine Wi-Fi. We also have shades, lights and air conditioning that are “smart”. Well, yesterday I could not get the bedside lamps to go off or the bathroom lights to turn off. No matter what I did. I solved the problem by unscrewing the light bulbs by the beds and closing the bathroom door.

Unknown to me the kids had the same problem. I’m results-oriented. The kids being process oriented, reported the problem to the desk and got moved to another room. While we were out on our adventure today, the so-called smart system seems to have smartened up and the kids are back in the original room and my lights are all working now.

Mostly travel today.

I even had the same seat both flights.

We had a little trouble with the rental jeep. But it was worked out

The cheap hotel is pretty sweet.

Yesterday, we left the hotel and turned right. Today we turned left. First. We stopped for a little breakfast in town. Plan was to stop at every shop, store, and beach along the way. When the road ran out we would turn around and come back.

Started off with breakfast. And the Kumu Farm Stand was the first stop. Next stop was Maunaloa. It’s a ghost town in the making. Back in the day it was a plantation town. We inspected several shops and headed off on beach quest.

There was one guy surfing. One guy
He had the place to himself.

This was a totally end of the world sort of a beach. There was sand as far as you could see in either direction. The beach was very crowded. There was one other person on the beach.

Fortunately the road ran out. Well rather the paved road ran out. I believe we were all sort of beached out by then. Back to town for another little Hawaiian kind lunch. And some more shopping. Because tomorrow we’re going to Lanai. It takes 2 little planes to get there.

Sam is in charge of ground transportation. And she has decided that today we will drive out of the hotel lot and turn right and drive to the end of the road. Pretty simple. Moloka’i is pretty simple. 

We inspect the Goods and the Grinds and decide to skip breakfast but we’ll get lunch here on the way back. A bit peckishly we continue on.

The road is long and narrow. Traffic is non-existent.

We come to the Pu’u O Hoku  Ranch. They have a ranch store. It sells deer steaks. Cool t-shirts. And really good large cookies. I know they are good because we got some. Remember. No breakfast.

After travelling down incredibly narrow road, we come to the end of the road.

Time to head back towards the hotel and lunch at Goods and Grinds.

And, I wanted a picture of this very unique hibiscus.

One little plane trip down and 3 to go.

We arrived before 9am and got a car and a 5,000 calorie breakfast before heading out.

Well, now that we have done absolutely everything that there is to do on Moloka’i it’s time to find our hotel.

It’s going to be interesting to see what we do next.

Part of the ultralight packing is an attempt to save my life. I left my fins and mask and snorkel back in Kona. On purpose. More people than you would imagine. Die snorkeling in Hawaii every year. And nearly every one of them is a visitor. I don’t really consider myself a visitor but I do consider myself an overconfident old woman. So to prevent being totally humiliated by drowning like a dumb tourist, I decided to just leave the gear at home in Kona. After all, moderation only leads to long life.

A normal person would have taken the hotel shuttle to the hotel. Not me. I walked. The hard part was finding sidewalks.

The hotel is modest.

The room is huge. I can see the airport, the ocean and Diamond Head. And it’s as far away from the highway as possible.

And I am such a party animal. It’s 6pm and I have dinned and am all settled for the evening in my room.

And I hate doing the blog with my phone. That’s surely one of my first world kind problems don’t you think?