As I look out the window, the only thing I can see is the ocean. And the wing of the plane, of course. There is a thin layer of clouds toward the horizon and below us, but looking directly down (as well as I can through the window of a plane) the water below us looks calm and blue.
We left Oakland behind about ten minutes ago just as most people were starting their day. Mine started around 3:38 this morning. For some reason, the alarm clock decided to sleep in and didn’t go off at 3:00 like it was supposed to, so I had to rush. The taxi I had arrainged for is early and waiting- but he’s not blowing his horn. I jump in the shower, brush my teeth, and throw the last few items into my carry on bag and head out the door. It is now 4:05 AM. Still ten minutes earlier than I had scheduled for the Taxi.
The drver’s name is Robert – I would guess he is in his late 30’s or early 40’s. He tells me that he lives in the Phillipines 6 months out of the year and drives a taxi in Phoenix the other 6 months – which pays for the 6 months in the Phillipines. He has a buddy who has a 30 foot sailboat in San Diego and is planning on sailing to Hawaii in about a year. He mentioned this because he saw my sailboat in the RV driveway on the side of the house. He does not like all the development along Tempe Town Lake, but what can you do? He thinks that all the buildings have ruined the view. I didn’t ask what view is he referring to? The things that taxi drivers talk about on a ten minute ride to the airport!
There is no line at the TSA check point at the airport, but they have a new x-ray machine. It uses larger plastic trays and everything goes into a tray. No need to remove anything like your laptop from your luggage. But you still have to remove your shoes.
Both of my carry on bags – OK, my carry on bag and my “personal item” – were shuttled to the side for further checking. The new machine cannot see thru the aluminum inner lining of the cooler bag that has my cheese and sandwich meat. It also cannot tell the difference between a bag of rice and a bag of whatever white substance might be in a bag the size of a 2 pound bag of rice.
I slept on most of the flight from Phoenix to Oakland. We left Phoenix around 5:30 AM and arrived in Oakland at 6:30. It was a two hour flight, and California is one hour behind Arizona – at least, it is at this time of year.
My flight from Oakland to Kona left at about 8:00 AM. As we were boarding, there were maybe a dozen families with small children getting on the same flight. I was not looking forward to lots of crying and screaming in the near future! As I board, all the window seats in the first 15 or 20 rows are occupied – I am flying Southwest Airlines where they do not assign seats – so I move on back. At row 20, I see an open overhead bin and put my roller bag into the overhead compartment, but I take my back pack with me to row 25. I place my backpack in the overhead bin and sit in seat “25F” – the window seat.
I am joined a short time later by an elderly couple who appear to be in their late 70’s or early 80’s – Earl and Sally. I ask Earl, “So are you two on your honeymoon?” He smiles and chuckles. He tells me that they are headed to Kona on vacation. He asks where I’m headed, and I tell him a little about the property and the work ahead of me to tame the jungle. We talk a bit about Hawaii and of course, Pearl Harbor. He was in the Navy and was stationed at Pearl for a while. I didn’t mention about my Dad being at Pearl towards the end of WWII. He told me that they had recently been to Alaska. He was not as impressed with the whales and glaciers as Sally was, but “it was still nice” he adds. He said that when they returned home to Pittsburgh, he heard someone on the radio saying that it was colder in Pittsburgh that day than it was in Anchorage.
We are at 36,000 to 40,000 feet and about half way down to the ocean is a layer of white fluffy clouds like cotton balls.
There are a few openings in the clouds directly below us where I can see the ocean, but off towards the horizon, it is a thick blanket. The clouds are still gathered and bunched at the horizon. As I gaze at the later below, I follow them to the north. It appears that the clouds rise up and extend to the 40,000 feet elevation we are at – I wonder if that is some kind of ocean storm gathering there. About an hour before we arrive in Kona, the clouds below us clear away and I can see the blue ocean. This is one big ocean!
The flight attendants have passed out the mandatory agriculture forms. One per family. You are to fill them out declaring if you are bringing any agricultural items – fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, soil, etc. – with you. They collect these forms and the airline turns them in upon arrival. I wonder what the final destination is for these forms. Do they actually find their way to the Hawaii Dept of Agriculture? What do they do with them? With the vast number of people who come to Hawaii, there must be hundreds or thousands of these each month. Does someone do something with them? Collect the data and enter it into a conmputer? You are led to believe that if you bring something in and don’t declare it on the form, they will throw you in prison for the rest of your life, but I have yet to have anyone question me about them. I think that they just throw them into a bunch of cardboard boxes and then turn them into toilet paper. The number of these forms that they would get would require numerous data entry clerks, file clerks, along with the requisite supervisors, and acres of storage cabinets . I just don’t see the value of these forms other than as a deterrent with an empty threat. However, we ARE talking about government here, and government exists to spend money. I believe that they do this to provide the illusion that they are doing something worthwhile to protect the environment off Hawaii.
As we approached Hawaii, we flew over the SE corner of Maui, and over the channel that separates Maui and the Big Island. It was interesting to note that in the channel, there were white caps on the waves, but once past the channel to the south of Maui and to the west of Hawai’i, the ocean was flat and blue for as far as I could see out to the west – with no white caps disturbing the surface.
The plane banks to the left and we descend into the airport at Kona with Hualalai volcano off to the left. A soft landing and I have returned.
TropicalCastaway 