Rest And Relaxation

The northern route around the Big Island covers a great distance and encompasses scenery which ranges from beautiful black coastlines with white waves crashing against them to a barren dried up wasteland along the flanks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Originally, our route was to take us up to the Waipi’o Valley and then to continue through the Parker Ranch and returning to Hilo by way of the Saddle Road, a windy narrow twisty path hastily installed in the shadow of the two great volcanoes by the military as a means of getting from one side of the island to the other quickly. We’ve driven this road before and there’s nothing quick about it. It’s a test of man and machine, of nerves and mechanics, and at the last minute Carl decided once was enough. So the route was re figured to take us to Kailua-Kona instead. By the way, Kona is the place made more or less famous by the Iron Man Triathlon, and is exactly opposite Hilo with more than one hundred miles between them. The long and pretty much straight road takes you through miles of nothing but lava and just when you think you’ve seen it all, there is more. Off in the distance, large fancy hotel complexes began to spring up, fancy to the tune of $400-$1,000 per night. We drove past these palaces and headed for the other side of town where the rents were a bit more reasonable. Carl had been driving for eight hours and we decided the Sheraton Keahou Resort was just fine. A light supper and an adult beverage was followed by observing a beautiful sunset from just beyond the pool and then we retired for the night. Only sunrises are possible from Hilo and up in Volcano, altitude 3,500 feet, there is usually clouds and evening rain.