Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Lazy day
Back to business, the recounting of last week.
After waking up in the front seat of an economy car, I dismounted through the window and took up a position on a rock looking out over the ocean. C was doing the same down the way, E joined her and D wandered around. It was a beautiful morning; the sun was coming up, the breeze was pleasant, and the heat had not yet begun to sear the ground. The waves still beat upon the rocks (we were perched on a 20 or so foot cliff) and the volcano still spewed though we could no longer see the lava's glow. As I pushed through 'Paradise Lost', I gradually came to realize that rain had begun falling and that it was cold. Up I hobbled and we all gathered around the car discussing what to do. Drive. We did. A few miles down the road we stopped for a short hike to some petroglyphs which were neat, but the rain picked up again as we returned to the car. The intensity increased and we were forced to make a decision: go for a hike in the rain now or go out of the park into town for a hot breakfast. Food won out the day, and it was good (so were the 3 cups of coffee. I love free refills!).
The rain did not let up during our meal so we scrapped the hike and headed further from home toward Hilo town, where we stopped to get fuel for D's camping stove and more clothes for D and C at the Salvation Army. Exciting, yeah?
Driving up the east coast now we stopped an hour or so later at the ocean-side park near the farm D worked on before coming to offer me salvation. It was a nice little park, poised at the mouth of a river pooting into a small bay. The swimming was not good and there was no sand to fall down on, so we ran around a grassy area tossing the disintegrating Nerf football at each other and being rowdy. Fun times.
Tired of fun and desirous of more food, back into the car we piled and headed to Honokaa, a small town we'd stopped at before with lots of good natural foods places and great dining at every turn.
We had sammiches. Then burgers and way too many fries. It was decadent, but so it goes. It made me realize that we are not being fed enough here on the farm. Any time we get away, food becomes top priority and we all gorge. Hm.
The day was sort of growing late so off we drove to find our campsite for the night. C knew of a campground high upon a mountain which we found while listening to Billboard's Top Hits of 1993 (the library in town met us before we left Honokaa, and a few cds stayed with us. Good times). A beautiful place it was. A new microclimate: foggy, hazy, cool, large trees and big ferns. Designated campsites were on concrete pads under roofs-it seems large branches like to fall and it's safer this way. It was quite nice even though we never found a ranger to buy a permit and he cussed us (very half-heartedly) in the AM. We set up our tents and hammocks and spread out to nap and read for a while. Very relaxing. Eventually we gathered around and had some food and talked for a long while, eventually falling to sleep. Much nicer than in the front seat of a car let me tell you!
After waking up in the front seat of an economy car, I dismounted through the window and took up a position on a rock looking out over the ocean. C was doing the same down the way, E joined her and D wandered around. It was a beautiful morning; the sun was coming up, the breeze was pleasant, and the heat had not yet begun to sear the ground. The waves still beat upon the rocks (we were perched on a 20 or so foot cliff) and the volcano still spewed though we could no longer see the lava's glow. As I pushed through 'Paradise Lost', I gradually came to realize that rain had begun falling and that it was cold. Up I hobbled and we all gathered around the car discussing what to do. Drive. We did. A few miles down the road we stopped for a short hike to some petroglyphs which were neat, but the rain picked up again as we returned to the car. The intensity increased and we were forced to make a decision: go for a hike in the rain now or go out of the park into town for a hot breakfast. Food won out the day, and it was good (so were the 3 cups of coffee. I love free refills!).
The rain did not let up during our meal so we scrapped the hike and headed further from home toward Hilo town, where we stopped to get fuel for D's camping stove and more clothes for D and C at the Salvation Army. Exciting, yeah?
Driving up the east coast now we stopped an hour or so later at the ocean-side park near the farm D worked on before coming to offer me salvation. It was a nice little park, poised at the mouth of a river pooting into a small bay. The swimming was not good and there was no sand to fall down on, so we ran around a grassy area tossing the disintegrating Nerf football at each other and being rowdy. Fun times.
Tired of fun and desirous of more food, back into the car we piled and headed to Honokaa, a small town we'd stopped at before with lots of good natural foods places and great dining at every turn.
We had sammiches. Then burgers and way too many fries. It was decadent, but so it goes. It made me realize that we are not being fed enough here on the farm. Any time we get away, food becomes top priority and we all gorge. Hm.
The day was sort of growing late so off we drove to find our campsite for the night. C knew of a campground high upon a mountain which we found while listening to Billboard's Top Hits of 1993 (the library in town met us before we left Honokaa, and a few cds stayed with us. Good times). A beautiful place it was. A new microclimate: foggy, hazy, cool, large trees and big ferns. Designated campsites were on concrete pads under roofs-it seems large branches like to fall and it's safer this way. It was quite nice even though we never found a ranger to buy a permit and he cussed us (very half-heartedly) in the AM. We set up our tents and hammocks and spread out to nap and read for a while. Very relaxing. Eventually we gathered around and had some food and talked for a long while, eventually falling to sleep. Much nicer than in the front seat of a car let me tell you!
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