After the lavish welcome and wonderful feeling of the Aloha spirit we received at the Hawaii MVD, we headed out to do some shopping. We purchased six 2 x 4 x 12 for the eastside porch of the shed, a large and heavy digging bar for dislodging large rocks, and a mini refrigerator. I had purchased a used one previously, but I felt that it was causing an overload of the original inverter. In fact, it had even short circuited the new pure sine wave inverter I had purchased so that it will not turn on. Perhaps a newer one would draw less current.
The grocery store was next. Milk, eggs, bread, and we hit the road for Naalehu. It is now 5:30 PM. It is overcast and threatening rain. Traffic up the hill is not as heavy as usual and we make good time – through South Kona, Captain Cook on the hillside above Kealakekua Bay, where the Captain Cook Monument sits at the location where the Hawaiians killed Captain James Cook, then past the turn off for Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park and Two Step Beach where the snorkeling is fabulous. Soon after, we pass the turn off to Hookena Beach, and the houses become fewer and farther between; with developments selling ocean view lots with large iron gate entrances at the highway and the development stretching down the hill. The jungle gives way to rough lava and ohia trees in the Kipahoehoe Natural Area Reserve until we pass the turn off to the fishing villiage of Miloli located on the coast some 1200 feet below. We drive up a hill and the road turns gently to the left as we pass the Nanuka State Park on the left side of the highway. Then we are at Ocean View. Less than ten minutes later, we turn off the highway onto South Point Road. Then on to Kama’oa Road past Discovery Harbor and into Mark Twain Estates.
It was dark when we arrived – and the air mattress had lost a bit of air. The battery powered air pump was dead. So, Alanah began filling it up by blowing into the little nozzle on the side. After she finished, I added a few more breaths, just for luck. We put the sheets on the bed along with blankets and pillows and went to sleep.
“The bed is flat.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
Two questions I was hoping not to hear. Especially in the middle of the night. I just lay there with the wood pallets digging into my back. I’m not sure how long I just lay there before getting up, putting on my pants and shoes to go get the single mattress from under the shed. We moved the air mattress out of the way, put the pallets back on top of each other and put the single mattress back on the pallets like I have had it before. Then I folded the air mattress in half lengthwise and laid it directly on the floor next to the bed. On top of this, I put a small blow up raft – about 5 foot long, and a blow up pool float that was about 6 foot long with a built in pillow. I covered this with a sheet and a couple of blankets and lat down on it while Alanah got into the single bed and we tried to go back to sleep.
As the sun was just coming up, I woke up to find that both the blow up raft and the pool float had lost all their air as well, and I was laying on the floor.
Friday – 8/27
Alanah went on line and found a single bed – a mattress and box springs – for sale for $20 in Fern Acres. I had stayed in Fern Acres twice before, so I knew exactly where Fern Acres was – over by Hilo, past Volcano. It is actually in the town of Mountain View. We called and they still had it for sale. We told them that we would be there around noon. I was putting in 2 x 4 blocking in the walls to support the tin siding. I finished cutting and installing what I could with the wood we had bought in Kona. I had used most of the 2 x 4’s as floor/deck boards for the east side porch.
We headed out to Fern Acres around 11:00. It started to lightly sprinkle as we passed Pohala and after we entered the National Park and headed up the hill towards Volcano, it began raining rather heavily. The rain continued as we went past the entrance to the Visitor’s Center at about 4300 feet elevation and as we started to descend into the Hilo area it became a sprinkle/drizzle as we turned onto S Kulani Road in Mountain View.
When we picked up the bed, we backed onto the lawn/grass area. We loaded the mattress and box spring into the back of the Ford Escape to keep it out of the rain. They stuck out the back about 6 inches, so I wrapped the ends in a tarp and tied the hatch down. As I was doing this, I was attacked by dozens upon dozens of mosquitoes. Further evidence of why I do not want to be on this side of the island.
From Fern Acres, we drove on into Hilo and picked up some double A batteries for a wall clock that Alanah had brought over, and six more 2 x 4 x 12’s. We also got gasoline at $4 .07 per gallon. During all my trips to Hawaii under the previous President of the United States, I never paid over $3.20 per gallon for gasoline. I am so glad we now have a President who cares about my individual welfare! (Thank you Mr President) We also picked up a small block of ice – maybe 10 pounds – before heading back to Naalehu.
We moved the air mattresses out of the way – I folded them and put them outside on the porch. Then we put the box springs and mattress on the floor next to the single mattress. We put sheets and blankets on this and went to bed – Alanah on the “new” bed and me on the single mattress. After not getting much sleep last night, we slept through the night.
To be continued . . .
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 