Ring Around the Big Island

A fine example of a kind of view that we didn't get in Hawaii.

"Come to the coast, we'll have a lot of sunshine..."

OK, so our first visit to Hawaii proper, or "The Big Island" as it's commonly known, didn't go quite as badly as Jack McClain's visit to see his ex-wife in California but lets just say I didn't use a lot of ink scratching things off my must-do list for this place.

We arrived early in the day on Friday and mercifully the weather held off long enough for us to enjoy a couple of beers and a cheeseburger on the outside patio at the Kona Brewing Company. For a few glorious hours, things were looking up and the potential for this vacation was unlimited. Here we were drinking Hawaii beer, eating Hawaii beef and basking in Hawaii sun.

Only an hour south of Kona, however, we realized that this trip would be no different than the last trip. It all starts off so innocently; some black-ish clouds in the horizon, a couple of drops of rain on the windshield. "No big deal," we tell ourselves, "it rains every day on Hawaii, this just just the afternoon spit."

Then the heavier rain starts to fall and the justifications begin. "You know this place doesn't get to be so beautiful without a little rain falling," Alison says from the passenger seat.

"Yea, plus we are just driving around the island tonight anyway. Tomorrow is the day that really matters," I respond.

Well right there I might as well have just strapped a boot to my right hand and punched myself in the nuts because that pain would have been awful but it would have receded quickly. However since I had the audacity to wish for a day of nice weather, I was punished for that transgression with one of the worst thunderstorms that I've ever camped in.

Sure, in my post-vacation rose-colored-glasses evaluation of the trip, things COULD have been worse. The rain COULD have started an hour earlier thus forcing us to set up came in a downpour. At 4000 feet above sea-level, the sheets of rain that came down all night COULD have turned to hail, or snow, or ice. While the tent leaked and some of our stuff got wet, my trusty 15 year old Sierra Designs car camper held mostly true and kept us warm. The endless thunder and lightening could have been closer...

We woke up the next morning alive and had no problem shaking off the cobwebs as the bathrooms were more than a 10 second sprint from our now-battered tent. After performing our morning duties in a hasty manner, we tossed our drenched gear into the back of our nondescript mid-sized SUV along with a wet dog (well, at least it smelled that way). Alison prepared some cold instant coffee in her stained, unwashed metal thermos while I munched on a banana and some beef jerky that I was up until this point saving for our hike in Volcano National Park.

We were off, and once again Driving from the Rain...