Jimspeak

Like I said, waking up listening to the waves and crawling out of the tent to a beautiful coastline is hard to beat. Our second day of travel began not so early, with some coffee and bfast at a healthy food place in Hilo. Not bad, but I was hungry again before I'd even finished my bagel sammich. Needing supplies, we stopped at a thrift store and walked out with a radio for the car (the inbred one doesn't work): a $2 special needing 4 AA batteries and a little love but what an addition to the car! Four books also made their way into my hand before leaving. Oops.

Long's Drugs was witness to my dirty person walking in for further supplies: batteries for our new boom box, some juice, earphones (mine are over), a Time magazine (comments will follow soon on that front) and a Nerf football. Score! With our radio blasting Hawaiian tunes we darted onto a scenic highway and began our northward trek. It took nearly 5 minutes for D to request a stop. Not to clear out his bladder but for us all to slip and stumble 100 yards down a sheer hill to a waterfall and hordes of mosquitoes. Owie. Fortunately our mud encrusted bodies had a short time to wait before being cleansed. D lived on the Hilo side of the island for a couple weeks before heading out and salvationing me so he was able to guide us to some fun stuff.

Along the highway and maybe 50 feet lower in elevation was a small pool at the base of a long waterfall and D made us stop and get in. He and I bumbled down one side and leapt from the rocks into the current and across to a calm pool. The female types took the easier way down (of course. They are the smarter gender) and got into the calm stuff.

Goading and 'encouraging' D is a past-time that the other three of us greatly enjoy. This may give you an idea of the joy we felt when C noticed a rope overhead hanging from a tree. Of course D went up to check it out. A long branch was hanging out to aid in grabbing the rope (the bottom of which was maybe 15-20 feet over the water) and D soon had it in hand. With only slightly faltering nerves, he took flight out over several feet of rocks until he cleared underwater hazards and dropped, very uncoordinatedly into the water. Surfacing, a challenge was issued in my direction. Not one to ignore such taunting I made my way to the cliff-top and grabbed hold of the rope. Damn fine time! Of course it looks more intimidating than it really is, mainly because of the spine-snapping rocks extending out into the pool, but no matter. Two tears in a bucket, ya know?

D now came up with a brilliant idea-a backflip from the rope. As he tried to psych himself up and figure out how to pull off the maneuver, I told him to pretend he was Greg Lougainis (sp?) and he'd be fine. Not one of the three had any idea who I was talking about. That was depressing. I turned to mumble into the water just as D took flight. Reaching the extent of the rope's swing he lost his nerve and barely hung on and swung back towards the rock. Keep in mind, if he lost momentum and had to hang limply from the rope, he'd be over rocks with a long climb up the rope to the tree branch. Not a good situation. Fortunately, he was able to kick off the side of the rock and get back out far enough to drop safely to the water. Crisis averted. Barely.

The rest of the day was mostly driving with occasional stops to see sights near the road. A beautiful island to be sure. E took lots of pics (such as the 2 already posted on here) and I will put more on somewhere. Maybe a new page so's this one won't take forever to load? Let me ponder.