Me: I need to update my blog.
Me: Yes, you do. And you need to finish your Hawai'i entries and make them thorough, well-illustrated and entertaining before you move on to something else.
Me: Hmm. That's a lot of work. Maybe I'll update it tomorrow.
And so it went for the last 9 weeks. You may notice a switch to La-Z-Bloggr mode today. But then the hairball will be gone and I can move on with my online life.
* * * * *
As the tea was drunk and the smoothie gradually lost the battle of viscosity vs. suction (see Part II), we cut across the island towards the northwest corner. The scenery along the saddle road gave me a whole new perspective on Hawaiian landscape. Sure, there are the parts with the palm trees and the sand and the big pretty flowers, and then there's the leeward side of the Big Island:
Looks like Montana, no? Complete with barbed wire and paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys; not pictured).
We were heading for a few historic sites on the northern coast. One was the birthplace of Kamehameha, the warrior leader dude who united the Hawaiian islands.
Birthplace wall- or perhaps a recreation of one. Not sure.
The other place just next to it was the Mo'okini Heiau, a sort of holy place that was the site of thousands of human sacrifices.
Corner of the heiau wall
Kind of an unholy holy place, if you ask me. The 10,000 people sacrificed here against their will might agree.
Contrast that place with another heiau we visited later in the week, this one a place of refuge where people running for their lives could find safety; kind of a Hawai'an "ollie ollie oxen free!"
Pu'uhona O Honaunau- wouldn't have to twist my arm to take refuge here.
No description of our trip, no matter how abbreviated, would be complete without including the roadside modern art, as David Wilcox would call it. As we bumped and jolted our way along a very rutted and rocky (BIG rock rocky) dirt road, we followed the coast toward the Kamehameha birthplace. There was no signage anywhere at this point, and we were kind of going on faith that we weren't just driving ourselves off the edge of the northwest corner of Big Island. Then as the line of the cliff curved in front of us, we saw the glint of glass or metal in the distance. Oh good! we thought, there are other visitors' cars there. We must be on the right track. Then we eventually came around that corner to be greeted by this sight:
Waa! Sort of freaked us out, actually, given the very isolated setting and after reading in the guidebook about all that historical death and violence at the heiau. But wait, there's more:
So much for fellow tourists. Had we stumbled upon the Great Hawai'ian Car Graveyard by mistake?
Those were the first abandoned cars we came across on the trip, but certainly not the last. I say "abandoned," but that's grossly understating it. As you can see, the laid-back Hawai'i aloha attitude does NOT extend to derelict cars.
Glass smashed, tires sometimes gone, body attacked, and in one case:
I'm no CSI professional, but we think those are axe holes in the hood.
But we thankfully did not encounter the vehicle-hating axe-wielder and both us and our rental car made it there and back without losing any car or body parts.
Then we camped at a park on a beach.
All right, I need one more day. Darn you, Hawai'ian hairball! I still have high hopes of wrapping this up by Friday. If I have any MSR visitors left after breaking the cardinal rule of Publish or Perish, I'll be back soon. Really.
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