Spur of the moment decision: Let's go to Hawaii!

Oahu's South shore, scenic beyond belief

Sometimes plans change: Sometimes, people get sick and die; sometimes races get cancelled; sometimes I fall off my bike. No, not this time, at least not the latter. But, unfortunately, Sabine's mother's unexpected diagnosis and subsequent passing changed our plans for Sabine's coming to the US, and a race in South America for which I had been planning for months vanished without much of a trace. So, instead of driving with Sabine through Central Texas on an exploratory trip I ended up working a cyclocross race in Elgin, TX, and then the Texas State Road Championships at Ft. Hood. And before I knew it, wanderlust overcame me and I had a First Class ticket to Honolulu in hand. Thanks, American, for charging me only $11.80 for taxes and fees. For once, using miles was easy and fun.

A study in contrasts: The arid West shore ...

... and the verdant East shore

So, a week ago I arrived on Oahu, after just a few days of planning for this trip. But that was enough time to contact my old commissaire buddy Scott who calls The Rock home. A few emails later, and I had secured a room in his pad in Honolulu. To get around the island, I needed wheels, and since RCI timeshare points are almost worthless I cashed in a generous amount for a rental car that cost me the transaction fee of $25. Good. And for my last two nights I invested two C-notes for an Airbnb room on the North Shore, about a 4-minute walk away from the spectacular coast. Bingo. That's the way to travel.

The Ritchey, with Chinaman Hat island in the background

Chinaman Hat island--I found a skinny dipping spot right here, away from the cars

I had been to Oahu at least once before--I can't remember exactly. The trip I do remember was a fabulous cycling vacation with Judy, when we circumnavigated the entire island and camped out every night in a different State Park. To do so, you need reservations for each and every night, but the permits are free and they give you access to truly choice spots, nice facilities, and a safe environment. That trip was enough for us to put Oahu a notch above the Big Island and Maui, which we also visited over the years. For this trip, I took the Ritchey along to ride and see beautiful coastlines and just relax. With a rental SUV (Dollar miraculously upgraded me from a Pinto) I was able to easily access the various starting points of my daily jaunts, avoiding boring and intensely populated stretches and trading them for miles and miles of shoreline.

For miles I rode mere feet away from the Pacific; this was one of the best shoulders I encountered

Incidentally, when I arrived in Honolulu my man Scott was in Vegas for Interbike, so I had to do a little bit of beer sampling (Waikiki Brewing Company, Honolulu Beerworks, and Aloha Brewing) all by myself. At the Beerworks (located next to the shop where Scott works!) I started up a conversation with a local, Rick, who'd later on taught me how to stand-up paddleboard when I got to the North shore. Beer, the universal facilitator... Here's to you, Rick!

Like a native, well, almost

With my new Hawaiian friends in Haleiwa, on the North shore

During my five days of riding in Hawaii (today was a pure beach day since I had to check out of the Airbnb), my Ritchey and I covered 216 miles on all four coasts of the island. Let me tell you: The sights are magnificent! And the roads mostly suck! I just read a comparison of road quality for all US states, and Hawaii is just slightly ahead of D.C., Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, but not by much. Well, I believe it. Even if there were a few smooth shoulders (wide enough for a bike to feel safe, but not a TX-sized one), the majority of infrastructure that a cyclist has to contend with is pure and simple shit. Broken pavement, potholes, shoulder width reduced to the disappearing white stripe on the side of the road. This is not for the faint of heart. You need to contend with car after passing car as the number of roads is limited and there's only one road that leads around the island. The traffic isn't fast, with 35 to 45 mph speed limits in most places; still, the constant parade of passing cars is different from what we experienced 20 or 25 years ago.

Proud to be American

But the scenery makes up for it. Let me tell you: The best way to ride around an island that's not run by the British is counterclockwise. Why? You'll be riding right next to the water! Literally, for mile after mile I was less than 10 feet from the lapping waves of the Pacific. Good thing that bozo-in-chief Trump calls global warming fake news, because if it were real, a lot of the areas where I rode would be in a bunch of trouble. Of course, who cares about whether global warming is real when all it takes is a well-aimed missile from North Korea. Believe me, that thought entered my mind more than once.

Lava beach on the North shore

Parrot fish caught in a tide pool

The North shore

It's difficult to sit in a perfect spot on the beach, overlooking the Pacific with night falling, and thinking about how nutty we humans can be. There are those palm trees, the sounds of the waves, the first twinkling stars--and we don't seem to realize how fragile all this is. It's not just nuclear armageddon: It's the 19-year-old son of the Airbnb host who thinks that recycling beer bottles is "just not worth it," and billboards by the road complaining about the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. To each his own.

The beauty of riding a bike is that one can stop anywhere. Unbelievably, there are still untold miles of pristine beach, without a soul in sight! OK, I didn't say that there aren't some souls around, they're just not in sight. It doesn't seem that much has changed in regard to the huge numbers of homeless people who live in make-shift shelters somewhere along the coast, mostly trying to remain out of sight and out of trouble. Shopping carts, burned-out cars, plastic tarps, mattresses, and jerry-cans for drinking water are the signs of civilization in lots of places. Judy would tell me about various social agencies on the mainland would buy a one-way ticket to Hawaii for their problem cases, and that practice may not have ended. That's the other side of paradise, and it's a very obvious one.

Burned-out cars by the side of the road are a common sight

One of thousands of make-shift homes

Tent, bike, a few belongings--the other side of paradise

The Cadillac of the homeless population

Quick: What's the state bird of Hawaii? Of course you wouldn't know unless you rode a bike around the island. It's the CHICKEN! I swear it must be, because they are everywhere: on the shoulder, on the beach, in parking lots, in people's yards, cackling and running around with tiny chicken keiki! Google the question and you'll be mislead into believing that it is a type of goose, the nene, but that obviously can't be true. The only question that I have: Why are eggs so expensive?

Well-trained cat--or a disaster in waiting

Lubbock may have grackles, Oahu has chickens!

Yep, things are expensive out here, with few exceptions. For example, I was surprised that gasoline was selling for $2.85 to $2.98 a gallon at a time when Lubbock's price was around $2.35. Of course, they haven't had a recent hurricane here that laid waste to the gulf refineries, but still--I would have thought it'd be higher. At McDonald's you can still get a large drink for a buck, but that's where it ends: Go to any food truck and expect to pay between $12 to $15 for an order of fish tacos or garlic shrimp. A big shaved ice (yep, they charge not only for the ice and syrup but an additional 50 cents for the container they put it in, plus of course tax) will empty your wallet by a fiver. Bread, milk, meat, any staples are way higher than on the mainland. Heck, I can buy Hawaiian Dole pineapples in Lubbock for half the price they are commanding here. It may be paradise, but you better have a well-paying job to enjoy life out here.

It's time to close things down as my red-eye flight to Phoenix will start boarding in about an hour and I still need to add some pics to this post. I'm sure glad that I came out here for this repeat visit, and I must say that I had a really, really good time. In about 48 hours I will arrive in Angel Fire, NM, for another collegiate mountain bike race, and before I go to Germany in mid-October there are another two races downstate. A man has to make a little bit of money--how else would I be able to afford the $11.80 airfare, eh?

4 minutes from my Airbnb

Almost like Lubbock ...

Jürgen