250. Tumble in Strange Twirl Wind

My trip continued to be a mixture of pretty bad luck and incredible fortune. It was like I was tumbling in a bizarre twirl wind of both good and bad.

The flight from LA was delayed, again. It was only 45 min late, yet it made a big difference to me. I had to check out a rental car and then drive another 2.5 hours on a windy road in the dark. I was already concerned about driving that late (the original landing was at 9pm Hawaii time—mid night of AZ time which I have been used to for more than a year), especially after flying for 6 hours.

I was sitting in the same row with a lady. Linda was in her 60^th. We started a conversation right away. When she heard about my plan, she said it would be too dangerous and offered her quest room to me! I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, of course. It was incredibly kind of her to open her home to a total stranger. I had never met anyone like her before. Since I did have concerns about driving and finding my host in the dark, I gratefully accepted her offer.

During the flight, the two of us started a conversation with a flight attendance, standing in the back of the plane. We talked for about half an hour. The flight attendance liked us so much that later on she brought some snacks and a bottle of champagne, just for us! How wonderful, but usual this was!

When we landed, Linda gave me her address and I when to pick up the rental car before handing to her place. There were a number of people waited in line to pick up their cars. When it was finally my turn, I was stunned that they couldn’t find my reservation. Well, somehow, my reservation was at a different location on another island! I still can’t figure out how it happened. I thought I was very careful when I make reservations and I have been making reservations of flights, car rentals, rooms… for many years. Nothing like this happened before. Well, it really didn’t matter how it happened. The bad news was I had to pay a lot more and I had no choice (I actually paid for one night first, hoping to resolve the issue the next day. It didn’t work).

Ten minutes after I picked the car, a police flashed behind me! I almost cried when he parked right in front of me. I had way too many problems in the last two days. Luckily, he waved and signed me to pass him. It turned out that he was trying to deal with a car parked in the dark right in front of him. I was so relieved! Really couldn’t handle another problem at that point.

Linda and her husband have a great house on top of a hill overlooking the ocean! I even saw a whale and dolphins the next morning standing right in their back yard. They have such a wonderful place. And more importantly, they are such a kind and loving couple. I was treated like their old friend and I will be their “old” friend soon since they invited me to stay another night with them before I leave the island!

Can you believe my experiences? If I wrote these in a fiction, most likely an editor/agent/publisher could think this was too “cheesy” and unreal. Yet it happened to me!

PS. The pictures were taken from the northeast side of the Big Island of Hawaii. It was cloudy and rainy most of the day. The photos turned out to be very dark, not my favorite style.

 

(Waipio Valley)

(Pololu Valley)