It was a good game plan...

Hit the road early, hike through 10 miles of rain forest and have time to give Hilo the once over.

Funny how the hike description and map forgot to mention the 2.5 mile road to the trailhead was on private property. Whoops! With thoughts of the Hawaiian version of "Deliverance" (ukuleles instead of banjos) I didn't force the issue. 

I'll lay it on the I Pad line, if you read something on the "Wandering, Wondering Jew" blog site, the information is accurate and honest. I crossed all my toes and fingers while I typed that. 

So...I played tourist and visited a waterfall, a Botanical Garden and gritty and gray Downtown Hilo.

I drove over 200 miles. They don't call this the Big Island for nada. Fun Factoid: all the other Hawaiian islands combined would fit into the still-growing BIg Island.

I found more Wandering Jews! They seemed pretty well entrenched. They must be on a wandering hiatus. I do that every now and then myself. 

I'm going to limit my driving to less than 100 miles mañana.

Good night from VOGGY Kona,

Jeff

The Beach Chair Blues...

and how to avoid them. 

I wonder, (remember I wander and wonder) if there will ever come a time when I wake up, stretch, scratch a few private places and go sit on a beach chair. That'll be my day. So far, I've been dodging this less than grueling lifestyle.

How do you do it Jeff? Good question.

I owe it all to a pot of coffee each and every morning. 

In the Aloha State, I've been drinking Kona and Columbian brews (Good Stuff). For me it acts like a liquid defibrillator. After downing a gallon, I have to go out and do something. That energy has to be directed somewhere. So I might as well hike to pretty places like this.

Poor Eddie might have drank too much of my brew. He OD'ed. 

I don't condone the use of legal drugs for everyone, but it sure works for me. Time and time again.

Now it's time for an IPA,
Speaking of book sales and IPA's, I sold one Kindle edition of "Destroying Demons on the Diagonal" today. That will buy me one/third of locally made "Throwaway or Big Swill" IPA. Their real names are Castaway and Big Swell. The Hawaiians are more adapt at making java than hoppy beer.

Good night

PS. Those Wisconsin cows (see my shirt) provide the Half & Half for my coffee. God Bless them.

"And now the rest of the story"...

The 1871 Trail acquired it's name from one inter-department mail from  Henry Cooper, Kona road supervisor to F.W Hutchinson, Minister of the Interior dated August 1, 1871.

 "I have remade two miles of road on the beach across the lands of Ke'ei and Hōnaunau, this improvement was much required as the road had become almost impassable."

History lost the second half of this message. But Jeff Sambur, archives sleuth found the aged parchment in a dusty corner of the Kona library. 

Here it is:

"Hey F.W, I wasn't going to bust a nut on this project. It ain't a bowl of papayas (see photo) to try and make a two horse trail out of lava.

Here's my suggestion, if we hang loose until 1959, Hawaii will become a state. Then the Mainland Haoles (White Guys) will come in with Federal Highway Funds and build us a two lane highway. Until that time, we can surf, drink umbrella drinks and work on our tans.

Wadya say?" 

And that's the rest of the story.

Good day!

Jeff (Paul Harvey) Sambur

PS the trail is still good enough for one goose.