Aloha!

Yes, in case you didn't guess by my title, we are now in Hawaii! Woo-HOO!!!! (I LOVE HAWAII!)

We flew to Oahu on the 15th and spent the first 3 days there, then we flew to Kona (on the Big Island) on the 18th. We will be here in Kona for a week, flying back to Oahu on Saturday, then back home to Santa Maria on Tuesday (a week from tomorrow)....boo hoo!

As you can imagine, the weather is PERFECT! So far we haven't done anything big...just hanging out, driving around, and relaxing. Today we drive over to Hilo and from there go south to where the road ends (due to Kilauea, the lava spewing volcano these last 21 years or so). We will be renting electric mountain bikes and riding a 4 mile trail to where we park the bikes, then hike another mile or so and hopefully will be able to SEE the said spewing lava into the ocean! I will come back tonight or tomorrow morning and add some of those pictures to the post.

And so, without further adieu, here's my ongoing pictorial essay of our last few days in paradise!

 I love to look at my FOOD! This is corned beef hash and eggs with buttermilk pancakes and coconut syrup at Eggs and Things, Waikiki Beach....MMMMMMM!

 Soy glazed Butter-fish at Tikis bar and grill, Waikiki.

 No pictorial journal of Hawaii is complete without the iconic image of  Diamond Head.

 Jeannie and I on Waikiki beach with Diamond Head as our backdrop. Ahhhh...Hawaii!

 One of the most fabulous meals I've ever head...SOS at Uncle Bo's Pupu Bar and Grill, Honolulu. SOS consists of lobster, crab, shrimp, clams and scallops in the creamiest and tastiest bisque-sauce on the planet! I'm serious...if you're ever on Oahu, this meal is worth an Uber ride if you don't have a rental car (it's a good walk from Waikiki, over 2 miles from our hotel). Jeannie found it on Trip Advisor as it had fabulous reviews...it's where locals go.

 Friday night fireworks at Hilton Beach (the Hale Koa military hotel is right next to the Hilton Village). We are sitting at the world famous Hale Koa Barefoot Bar (at the pool) where they happen to make the BEST Mai Tai's in the entire world (at least the best we've ever had thus far). they are wicked awesome AND wicked deadly! We've crawled back to our room more than once.

 We're on the Big Island now. This is a rather rare view of the mountain just above Kona (part of Mauna Loa as best I can figure). Typically it's covered by clouds already.

 As the day wears on the clouds are starting to form around the peak.

 Ahhh....the Kona home of Kona brewery (the beer is actually not brewed on the island but back on the mainland). This is their brewery/bar/grill. They have some fantastic beers!

My lunch, the shrimp-melt sandwich, with papaya Cole-slaw, and my choice of beer this day was an Almond Joy (a 50/50 mix of the Black Sand porter and their Koko brown ale). It actually has an aroma of an Almond Joy candy bar, and is just a wonderful creamy dark concoction of flavor!

It's now Tuesday morning. Yesterday we went up and over the "saddle highway" (not called that anymore, it USED to be a rather horrible and slow road and you weren't supposed to drive your rentals on it...but now it's a veritable yellow-brick-road!) to Hilo, then continued south to Kalapana where the road ends and the lava begins. We rented bikes and rode on the plowed lava 'dirt' road a few miles to the National Park boundary, locked them up and started hiking towards the hill. Just 2 weeks ago we would have kept riding and gotten to where the lava is pouring into the ocean...but it stopped doing that so now we go inland to find flowing lava. Here are some pics....
 

 Here's my bro-in-law (and Navy buddy) John on his "e-bike". The e-bikes had a few modes of 'pedal assist' and then full-on "put your feet on the pedal and twist the throttle" and go, without pedaling. This seemed to be the mode of choice. It looked very fun! (I was on a conventional mt bike, but not a big deal as it was only a few miles of dirt road).

 

 Johns wife Peggy on her e-bike, riding across the dozed road over the older flows. 

 

 And my wife Jeannie on her e-bike. She had a BLAST and I'm now thinking we should look into getting her a road-e-bike (I rode one a month ago and it was AMAZING!) 

 The bikes locked up and we are ready to hike!

 Into the lava we go! This USED to be an entire housing development 21 years ago, Kalapana Gardens. It was completely wiped out in the initial eruption/flows back in late 1986.

 This shot looking into the enormous lava flow shows where we needed to go to see flowing lava. It looks like a long ways...it was. I'd guess at least a mile out. And walking thru this is incredibly difficult. For one, there is zero flat, it's all lumpy, bumpy and cracks, blobs, mounds, etc. For two, IF you were to fall you'd end up in the ER getting your horrible gashes cleaned and stitched as all of this is like razor blades. I'll talk more about that (the ER) in a bit.

 Peggy and John in the lava. Here you can see better what the hiking terrain looks like.

 Jeannie on the lava-hike. It was actually pretty fun hiking on the dried lava...certainly there's nothing else like it on the planet. Just don't fall! She was amazing, staying right on my heels the entire hike!

And WE FOUND IT! Surface-flow LAVA! You can see the fresh flow as it's a lighter-gray color in contrast to the black of the older flow. The leading-edge is still molten (around 4000 degrees!) and was moving very slowly, AWESOME!!

A tiny finger of molten lava, looks like the back leg of a dog. A 4000 degree dog. We can't fathom 4000 degrees. At 5 to 6' away it was scorching and almost unbearable. Any closer than that and you'd be getting burned (seriously).

 As you're watching the gray 'crusted' lava suddenly a crack would appear and a new blob would ooze out at varying speeds...typically it had the consistency of something like a very thick batter you'd pour into a pan.

Jeannie about 6' away from a fresh blob. You can't imagine how hot it is where she's standing (especially her right side which is facing the lava). Here you can really see the extent of this lighter-colored current flow on the surface of the older flow.

 

Here we are with the oozing lava! You can see we are fairly close to where the hillside comes down to the flatter flow. Directly in the top middle of the pic you can see steam coming off the hillside..there is lava flowing down the mountain there (can't see it, mostly inside lava tubes). And teh green blob of life on the hillside directly above us was our distant target during our hike out...we were told head for the middle green...and here we are!

 Another blob oozes out of the crust! Watching lava flow just doesn't get old! You can also see on the bottom right the light glow of the cooling lava...any moment at any spot on the leading edge another blob could break thru.

My final lava pic. Here you can clearly see the fresh blob breaking out of a lightly cooled area. Even at the top of the pic you can see red blobs that break out and flow on top of its-self. There's no rhyme or reason as to how lava flows. It just goes wherever it wants.

And now for the rest of the story. It was a fabulous day to this point. John and Peggy had turned around not too far into the lava-field hike, as she wasn't really up on this sort of thing and was afraid she'd fall. So they went back to the bikes and were going to ride further up the road and play around, then head back and we'd meet them at the car. Right about here (with this final lava shot) my cell phone went off. It was John. Peggy had fallen over from her bike as she was stopping for a bathroom break and was hurt. So we headed back across the lava field at the best speed we could do (pretty much the same as when we came out...you can't rush across this field of razor blades).

Just about the time we got back to the bikes (and were speculating/hoping she wasn't really hurt) I got a text from John...EMS had arrived and were loading her up...she had been hurt bad and couldn't get up off the dirt road. We had seen the flashing lights of the ambulance as we were heading back and wondered if that was for her. We got back to the car and turned in our bikes, and headed into Hilo to the hospital where they took Peggy. When we got there she was waiting for X ray. Not too much longer they did that, and then were just waiting for the Dr. to tell her what's wrong. It was bad. Broken hip. She needs surgery...so they admitted her, and FINALLY gave her a room. John stayed with Peggy (she got a private room) and Jeannie and I headed back to Kona (about a 2 hour drive from the hospital). We got back to the room about 1:30am. I did stop at about 6500' in the "saddle" of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Saddle Road, turned off the car lights, and stepped outside to view the stars. OMG...never seen it SO DARK (no moon). It was flat out amazing! No wonder they put a bunch of observatories on the summit of  Mauna Kea! However it was pretty chilly...about 42 the car said (it was 70 back at sea-level in Kona later).

John called this morning, they are waiting for the hospital to schedule the surgery (hopefully today)...then she will likely spend a day or 2 there before they release her. URGH! Gosh  how suddenly a very fun day/vacation can turn. I guess it just shows you never know.

Oh...as to falling in the lava, while Jeannie and I were sitting in the Hilo ER waiting room (John was back with Peggy) a very nice couple came in, the girl's calf was all bandaged up with blood running down her leg from the bandage. They were out in the lava hiking to find a flow and she had fallen. Apparently her leg is gashed pretty bad, the fire dept (who keep people out there as this seems to happen quite frequently) bandaged it and told her to go to the ER. And here they are. They never made it to the flowing lava...so I showed them my pics and they were so happy to see it...so I texted them a few of my shots...they are flying home to Fresno today. She was still back being cleaned/stitched when Jeannie and I left. Yep...you do NOT want to fall on the lava. Or the road.

So now Jeannie and I will shuttle stuff to the hospital this morning...clothes, phone chargers, ipads, stuff like that. And then we will take things as they come in the following days. Poor Peggy...she certainly doesn't deserve this. She is the sweetest person on the PLANET! Life isn't fair for sure.

And that's how our amazing day in the lava field ended.

Aloha!

Update, Tuesday 11/21. Peggy had surgery to repair her broken hip (femur). They wheeled her out around noon, Jeannie and I got there around 12:30 and when they finally took her back for surgery we all went to lunch, got back just as she was coming out into recovery. The Dr. says it went well with no complications or issues. He is concerned with her traveling back to Virginia next Tuesday... he's NOT a fan of her sitting on an airplane that long. So John will be taking it day by day and remain as flexible as possible as to how / when to go home to Virginia.

I also have 2 more pictures to add from the drive over the saddle today....it was a nicer view than yesterday.

The view of Mauna Loa volcano (of which the currently spewing Kilauea is part of) as seen from the top of the saddle road (about 6500' elevation). Both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are over 12,000' high. Mauna Loa is fascinating as it REALLY shows the gentle grade over a HUGE span of miles of the cone (being a "Shield volcano"). They say that if you follow the 2 volcanos all the way to the water, then keep following them under water to where they rise from the sea floor (which happened a millennia ago) they are taller than Mt Everest. That boggles the mind!

This is Volcano Park (not sure what it's all about, we stopped there and the building with teh flags was locked...I thought it might be some kind of a ranger station or something with info and such...not. But anyway, that is Mauna Kea behind it, which also goes up over 12,000'. It is also a shield volcano but is shaped wildly different than it's sister which is smooth and almost perfect in it's gentle cone-shape. I was hoping to drive up to the summit today but we left the hospital way too late and it was dark when we went over the saddle on the way back to Kona. I've been to the top years ago, pretty fascinating view for sure!

OK. that's all for today. Aloha (again!)

Working in the Springs

I'm back in Colorado Springs, been here a bit over 2 weeks now (head home on Friday, woo-HOO!) Quite busy this trip, like all the trips here. Just making a dent in this current job, there will likely be a few more 3-week trips before this one is done. The good news is that I have been storing my old mt bike here so when I do come out I have a mt bike to ride. The bad news is that it's not always fit to ride here...but more good news: that isn't very often.

The week we got here it was in the 60's and 70's, then a storm rolled thru and it snowed and got into the 30's for a few days, then back in the 50's, then 30's. It yo-yo's like that a lot. I scraped 2" of snow off the windshield last Tuesday morning (with my hotel room key cuz Avis FORGOT to give me a scraper in my rental this trip). And I didn't lift my windshield wipers up overnight (forgot, SO not used to snow anymore) so they were nicely frozen to the windshield.

I've been riding my bike when I can...a 3 week trip nets me 2 weekends, so I need to make the most of those 4 days...and I did. Last Saturday I did my usual Cheyenne Canyon 1st-weekend-day 'crush my sea-level cardiovascular-system 5 hours in the saddle ride, going from 7500' to over 12,000', covering 42 miles and with over 5000' of climbing. Then on Sunday I had PLANNED to stay a bit lower in the mountains and do a few laps of my favorite trail here: Capt. Jacks. Turns out they started allowing dirt-bikes on this trail since I was here last (Feb 2017). Dirt bikes really can tear up a trail, especially as they come UP it, churning up the trail into mounds of soft stuff. Then the mt bikes come DOWN the trail and suddenly it's a whole different ballgame.

I went down (ie, crashed) pretty hard on that trail last Sunday...going over a root at a moderate speed and as I did my front tire dove into one of those churned up piles of soft stuff, hit something I couldn't see down in the soft stuff and instantly spun sideways, and suddenly I'm going over the bars on a 15% downgrade, and slamming down pretty hard on my left side...really thought I broke some ribs under my left arm for a day or 2 they hurt so bad. Amazingly me left shoulder/elbow and knee came out of it pretty well considering (I believe I might have dislocated my collarbone if it had happened on my right side....I dislocated my left many years back and now it's got a much larger profile and likely healed stronger than the original).

So anyway I was rather timid last week during my after-work rides in Palmer Park (a nice trail system here in town). Funny how that works...I don't crash very often, but when I do it shakes my confidence for a while and I descend even MORE like Grandpa than usual (I'm NOT a fast descender...nor really a fast climber, nor very fast on flats or rollers actually...my only real claim to fame is that I can just ride a decent pace a fairly long time...and by "fairly long time" I mean somewhere between 6 to 8 hours).

But by the time this weekend rolled around it turns out my 'bruised' ribs were feeling much better and it didn't hurt to breath anymore (or only for really deep breaths). And the temperatures were forecast to be up in the 60's on Saturday, HOORAY! However...there was high winds forecast (30mph sustained with higher gusts). BOOO! I drove up to my usual starting point (the High Road parking lot, sits at 7500') Saturday morning, opened the back on my rental mini-van and the ludicrous winds instantly blew a ton of debris into the van. So I closed the door, got back in and drove back down the mountain to the bottom and parked at the Cheyenne Canyon Visitor center (right at 6000'). Figured I'd ride the Columbine trail (which I haven't ridden in YEARS) that goes from the visitor center all the way to Helen Hunt Falls (which is just below the High Road parking lot). I figured staying lower on the mountain and in the trees (mostly) would still allow me to ride, AND keep me out of MOST of the horrible winds. And I was mostly right...I was able to ride, it wasn't really cold at all, and the winds ranged from near zero to gusting strong enough at any given moment to push me up a steep climb or nearly throw me off the trail a dozen or more times. It was crazy but still a good ride.

The winds let up some as the afternoon wore on but the damage was done and I only ended up riding a bit over 3 hours...the wind really takes it out of you. But that's ok...the forecast for Sunday was better...much lighter winds (around 10-15mph) tho cooler...high around 56. So yesterday I did the ride I was HOPING to do on Saturday: Climb all the way back to Mt Baldy road and then take trail 667 down into Jones park and finally tie it back to Buckhorn and finally back to Columbine and back to my car. I did all that, but with the STUPID time-change on Saturday night, by the time I was descending Columbine it was coming up on 3:30pm and was already deep in the shadows and cooling off FAST. I was QUITE chilled when I got to the bottom, but it was a good day, and netted me almost 6 hours in the saddle, over 34 miles, and over 5200' of climbing (high point of right about 10,100'). Not too shabby for a sea-level guy if I do say so myself!

And so...I have some pictures that I took during my 2 weeks of riding here...it IS a really beautiful place, and I could honestly live here one day if the situation ever arose that it became practical. It's a big city with a TON of stuff to do, and it has this enormous mountain range on it's west side including Pikes Peak (over 14,000'). The mountains are choked with roads, trails, streams and lakes, and are just chock full of adventure for any outsider-type person. Enough on that...here are some pictures!

 A blurry shot taken thru my windshield heading west towards the Springs, looking at the enormous mountain range just west of town. The highest bump on the right is Pikes Peak.

On Gold Camp Road at about 8400', coming up pretty close to the 1st open tunnel (the 1st tunnel is collapsed and you go over it). There USED to be a narrow gauge railroad here long ago but it was torn out and now there is almost 8.5 miles of this dirt road off limits to cars. They do allow dirt bikes tho.

The 2nd tunnel I ride thru.  This one turns to the right once inside and is pretty 

awesome and shorter than the 1st one.

 Looking down on the city from Gold Camp Rd, probably about 9000' here.

Looking across at the backside of Cheyenne Mountain. You can barely see a bunch of antennas on the ridge directly in the middle of the picture...those are right on top of  'the mountain'. No idea what the base is used for these days but it's still there. It USED to be the side of NORAD (North American Air Defense)...remember the movie War Games with Matthew Broderick? In that movie they were inside saving the world from Joshua (the computer).

Now I'm on Old Stage Rd (Gold Camp Rd joins it) and vehicles are allowed here. In this picture the road goes around a GIGANTIC rock. It's literally the biggest rock I think I've ever seen. It goes up quite a ways beyond the scope of this picture.

 Now I'm over 11,000' and climbing towards Mt Baldy. There is a slash across the peak in the middle of the picture...that's the road I will be on in an another half hour or so that takes me around the right side of the peak via a saddle.

 A slightly different shot of Mt Baldy (the center hump, it's actually higher than the bump to the left which is just closer). 

 Here I'm on that slash from the prior picture, climbing up towards the saddle. The trees are really starting to thin out here, about 11,500'. The tree line is around 11,800 or so here on this mountain.

 Past the saddle and now looking up at the actual Mt Baldy peak from the backside. There is an electronics tower you can see on the right side, it's actually higher than the part in the middle (again, it's just closer). You can see the road switchbacking up. This road is pretty horrible, all soft stuff. AND I'm just shy of 12,000' here...just a bit up the road I cross that altitude, and the peak is about 12,300 or so I think.

This is a survival barrel. It's there in case you need to seek refuge during a storm, and you can wait it out and/or rescue. We had these when I was in Adak Alaska a lifetime ago...and I stayed in one for a few days when we were trapped by weather. It was stocked with coal, a stove, and the old-style military "C" rats (rations).

 Back on the road from the saddle and heading down, looking on Colorado Springs a MILE below..hoo-YA!

This is a shot of the Columbine trail. It's rather steep here and VERY soft and gravelly. Impossible to climb, and pretty exciting (as in terrifying) to descend. Thankfully there's only a small stretch like this, the rest of the 4 mile climb is pretty 'climbable'.

Looking down on the road to Helen Hunt Falls (and past that the High Road parking lot) from the Columbine trail. NICE!

Looking at the Springs from the Columbine trail. This was taken on Saturday, and it's hard to tell but to the right of the picture (in the city below) there is a giant dust-cloud from the insane winds we had that day. Been coming here for a decade or so and that's the worst wind-storm I've seen.

And finally, Helen Hunt Falls. Not really much but it draws a lot of people up the canyon to see it.

That's all I have for pics this trip. I'm tired, and it's about time to go HOME (yay) And then next Wednesday we fly to Hawaii (HOORAY!!!) for 2 weeks! We will be on Oahu the first few days (Honolulu, Waikiki Beach) and then we fly to Kona HI (the Big Island...you know, the one with the volcano going off the last 30 years?) for a week, then back to Oahu the last few days. A nice way to spend Thanksgiving for SURE!

OK. I'm about out of here. I know it's big-time football season, but I have to tell you I've taken a knee (HA HA!) to the NFL this year. Not watching OR keeping track of any particular team, or supporting them in ANY WAY. Yep. If the entire league can turn a blind eye to their players dissing every veteran in the history of this country, then I (and hopefully MANY MANY OTHERS) will turn a blind eye to their sport. And maybe one day it will hit them where it counts: in the pocketbook, and many MORE of them will find them wishing a team would hire them (talk to Kapernick). I personally think they SHOULD be able to be fired. I would be fired if I tried to protest anything while I'm at work in MY job...why should they be different? They're in uniform at the stadium, and they're on the clock. Doing their JOB. And protesting the National Anthem of THIS country. They are PRO NFL Players, they could call a press conference pretty much any time, or give away half their ludicrous pay to help their cause, or any of 1000 other different ways to make their protest WITHOUT taking a knee (or not coming out of the locker room, same diff to me) for the National Anthem. As a retired Navy guy I find this SO offensive that I hope the entire league folds if they (the NFL) continue to allow this. Seriously. I can live without it. But hey, that's just MY opinion. And I'm entitled to it, as everybody else is theirs.

OK..sorry to get political there...but this protest thing really burns my butt!

But I will still watch college ball...and boy did I have a good weekend...OSU lost, Penn State lost, and Michigan WON (they are almost back in the hunt for a Big 10 title!) OSU plays Wisconsin this weekend...Big Blue plays them the next. GO BLUE!!

And with that I will wrap up this post. Next post will be with pictures from Hawaii.

Quick update: I tried to post these to Instagram and Facebook, but only the 1 pic made it...so anyway, here's my "all you can eat shrimp" @ Joes Crab Shack, CO Springs pics...I may not be able to go toe to toe with the 'big boys' but I think I'm definitely a contender in my weight class

 This is the 'before' shot. 

And this is what it looked like when I finally called it quits. Those are all 'peel and eat' shells, and the little trays on the right are what they bring each batch in. I stopped w/ the coconut and crispy shrimp after the first few batches and stuck w/ the steamed. MMMMM!

Later gaters!

Cheers!