I think I’ll always associate this pandemic with Hawaii. My wife and I visited Hawaii right before the pandemic started. And this is the last photo of the day before it was declared a pandemic. Hanalei Bay Report in Princeville. I had walked down to the beach to see the sunset.

Little did I know the change to the world that would happen in the days, weeks and now year since I got back from Hawaii. This change will slowly come to an end as Monday I’m scheduled for my first vaccine. I’m optimistic and apprehensive at the same time. I want it to go smoothly.

I’ve found out alot of thing about myself and humanity during this time. One thing is that Americans are incredibly selfish. They will yell “Freedom!” and state wearing a mask is tyranny.

For me perseverance was the key. Telling myself, and having my wife tell me that there is light at the end of this long tunnel helped. Daily devotionals helped as well. Praying to God each day that this pandemic would end helped. And God does answer prayers, because now and in 5 weeks (2 weeks after my 2nd shot) this era in my life comes to an end.

As expected we woke up at 5AM Hawaiian time, 10AM Nashville time. Nashville time seems further on out as they had their time change that day. We will not miss loosing the hour, but ours wil be more difficult to adjust to as it is more jet lag than skipping forward.

Roosters actually serenaded us in the morning. It was almost a standoff as to which rooster could crow the best. One was pitiful. Sounded like he had a frog in his mouth.

I dosed a little until about 7AM when I figured it was time to get up and go to Walmart for some food and other estentials. It was just 5 minutes away. I left Sharon do write up her blog post.

Walmart was just like any other Walmart. I think it had a limited selection on eggs – only a couple of brands – all said “Mainland Eggs” indicating it was imported in. Seemingly you’d think that with all the chickens on this island, they could have an egg production. However Sharon pointed out to me that egg production is a huge operation if industrialized and would generate a lot of waste (chicken poop).

I got a dozen eggs, bacon, Sprites, Aloha Maid Strawberry punch in cans, an oven baked pizza, orange juice (still seemingly expensive), a Pinepple, appropriate sandals for church for Sharon, a styrofoam cooler, and reef friendly suntan lotion. One thing Walmart didn’t have was plastic bags. You could buy those canvas totes at the register or just have everything loose in your cart. I’d love it if Tennessee would implement these measures.

I got back and Sharon was just about done with writing her blog post via her Rocketbook. She cooked our bacon and scambled eggs. She didn’t have any salt for the eggs, but the bacon grease she cooked it in made up for it.

Sharon found out that she didn’t write well enough for the optical based character reader in her rocketbook to recognize it so she was going to have to read it. While she read it into Google, I went outside to take some photos of chickens. The roosters are always beautiful, compared to the hens which are scrawny compared to the hormone raised hens for meat production. Nope these are feral chickens set loose by the hurricane which hit Kauai in the ’90s.

Sharon and I have differing opinions about whether to attend Bible class. I like to attend, if only to spend more time getting to know fellow Christians at church and getting to know the demographics. Sharon is more of a introvert, wanting to stay back at the hotel room. We chose the latter this time, while Sharon worked on fixing her blog.

Then was onto church, which was only 5 minutes away. It is the only church of Christ on the island. We enjoyed a warm greeting by a family from Warren County,, Tennessee who are snowbirds and planning on going back in a week having been there for 2 months.

There is no full time minister at Kauai Church of Christ. Rather men of the congregation take turns presenting the sermon. Today’s sermon was by a high school English teacher, very well presented for a non-trained preacher. This is proof that small congregations can survive on their own without hiring a minister.

After church service some young ladies took our picture for their album of visitors. I wonder how many back home had attended, had their photo made, and then passed away, but yet their picture remains.

Then it was off to Walmart to get a bag of ice. On the way in I saw a man getting into his truck, but he left his empty buggy right behind him. I thought about telling him to move it, but I didn’t, thinking it was none of my business. Sure enough he backed into it, but I’m guessing no harm was done to his vehicle or buggy.

I got the smallest bag of ice I could get – 10 lbs. And then we were on our way to Puka Dog in Koloa. We passed by a shopping center with a Jack-in-the-Box, Taco Bell, a Dine-in Dominos, Petco, among other.

Puka Dog is a restaurant in a shopping center designed for tourists. They serve polish sausages wrapped in sweet tasting mango relish and sweet mustard. Very unique and very good. Sharon was a bit disappointed because she ran out of hot dog before she ran out of bun. So she had. 3rd of a bun left which she could not eat because it was tooo sweet for her.

As we ate we noticed 2 roosters seemingly fighting over a hen and at the same time wanting our food. One of the roosters was very boastful, crowing every few minutes for no reason.

Afterwards we hit the road for Talk Story Bookstore which boasts as being the western most bookstore in the United States. The shop is “run” by Celeste – a very lazy cat who naps in a basket behind the checkout counter. Occasionally she will wake up and ding a bell for a treat, then back to bed. Sharon bought a book on Hawaiian birds and a Talk Story postcard.

After driving back to McDonald’s for a bathroom break, we headed to Polihale beach a remote state park area. The road to Polihale is a very bumpy road. I tried it a few years ago in a rental car, and made it, but it was very difficult. This time we came prepared, having rented a Jeep. Sharon was bouncing around a lot as I drove over the humps.

Polihale beach is a very nice beach, in that since it is so remote, it is not very crowded. Sharon and I enjoyed having the waves hit our feet and sometimes pushing us down to the ground.

We watched the sunset – very beautiful – before heading back to our hotel for oven baked pizza and some breadsticks before drifting off to sleep at around 10PM

We made it to Honolulu! Sharon was sure to wipe down our seats on our flight from Seattle, hot spot for the Corona virus. I spent most of the time listening to 60 Minutes podcasts. It was a 5 and a half hour flight, slightly less than a flight to Europe from the West coast.

Even though I was really tired I still could not sleep on the flight because I could never get comfortable. Sharon listened to Rhett and Link’s ear biscuit podcast from the time before they renounced Christianity. Ever so often she would let out a smile as if she heard something really funny on the podcast.

Now we’re waiting in the Honolulu airport for a flight to Kauai. We have about 45 minutes left before our flight boards. We are really tired as it is after midnight in Nashville but only 8:32 p.m. in Hawaii.

Tomorrow we plan on sleeping in not only with Asheville Tom but also with Hawaiian time. Church doesn’t start until 11:00 which is actually 3:00 p.m. Nashville time. I will probably end up stopping at Walmart and Kauai to pick up some essentials before church.

Sharon is excited about her first trip to Hawaii but she’s also very tired as am I. We plan on having a good week seeing things but also relaxing. Stay tuned to this vlog as we will share our daily adventures.

The caption on the photo says “6:20 this morning trying to get a pass for Rise of the Resistance.” It was taken at Disneyland by a friend of a friend on social media. I can tell you that no matter how much entertaining Disneyland is, I will not under any circumstance get up in time to be somewhere at 6:20AM at Disneyland. Sure, I’ve gotten up early in Europe to get a train to another city, or a flight home. I’ve got to wonder if there is some type of Emperor has new clothes thing at Disneyworld/Disneyland. It’s for kids and adults who never exactly grew up. I know people who go to Disneyworld every single year. It’s their comfort zone. At some point they just started consuming whatever Disney had served, not worrying about if it was actually good or not. And to think that you’ve got to get up early to be at an attraction at 6:20AM proved my point…it’s the Emperor has no clothes, where just because it’s Disney, it’s good. Personally I prefer something different in my life such as visiting another country or seeing all 50 states, exploring history and finding my place in the world.

I woke up a bit earlier than Sharon. I figured it would be best to start packing after all we were driving to the Denver Airport today and needed to have everything ready before we dropped off the car…and it is best to do this before hand rather in the rental car return line.
 I managed to separate the clothes into nicely folded piles. The only problem was that one pile was on the bed and near Sharon’s foot. I ended up waking up Sharon before I meant to. I know she has been tired and I wanted to get her an extra few minutes of sleep.


While Sharon was in the shower I explored the property. Seems this property is one big long hotel with most of the rooms on the ground level. They all open to the outside and not some hallway. Behind the hotel property are more houses…or rather mobile homes. It looked kinda run down. At the end of the hotel are a couple of garage doors which makes me think that it is a family run hotel. The front desk situation kinda confirmed my suspicion. The front desk clerk wasn’t there when I came to check out but he immediately came out of a non-descript room behind the desk soon after I arrived.


After packing up we went to the 19th Street Diner for breakfast. It’s a 50s themed restaurant where (apparently) the locals frequent. We were positioned near a local man who brought his grown son to have breakfast. He knew our waitress, “George” – must be short for “Georgia.” Sharon had a bacon and cheese omelette while I had a ham and cheese omelette. Both came with sourdough toast and potatoes.

After eating we set out to make the 2 hour 45 minute drive to Denver. We were to drive I-70 through the mountains. During the drive we saw some of the most picturesque county with clear blue streams, yellow deciduous trees (which had just changed to the fall color), white patches of snow from Colorado’s first snow earlier this week, and green pine trees. This made for a plethora of colors. Sharon took several photos from the car window. We stopped at a rest area to use the restroom. I saw a kiosk titled “Updated traffic information.” The only problem was that the time stamp of the printout showed “2007” as the printed date. So I’m not sure how updated the traffic information was.

We kept seeing signs stating “Chains needed when flashing.” Then soon after it there were inspection stations to see if people actually had chains on their car. I don’t know the first thing about driving in the snow and I’m not even sure how to put chains on my vehicle. Which begs the question – asked by Sharon – would rental car companies provide you with chains and help you put them on?

We went through the Einsenhower Tunnel – or Johnson Tunnel depending on which tunnel you’re using. I remember this tunnel from my visit in 2011 with Mark and Megan. It was a very long tunnel. I would not be surprised if it was the longest tunnel in the United States. After we exited the tunnel, a electronic sign flashed “Next 44 Miles are Downhill. How’s Your Brakes?” Sure enough we were at a 5 to 6 degree grade. Trucks in front of us flashed their caution lights. Sharon said the drivers were probably laying on brakes.

After a while we finally made it to Denver. We decided to eat snacks which consisted of Doritos and Fanta. The plan was to do the Four Mile Historical Musuem then eat at Atomic Cowboy / Fat Sully’s for late lunch / early dinner.

Four Mile Musuem is about 15 minutes off the interstate. It contains the oldest surviving house in Denver. It used to be an inn for wagon train travelers trying to get out west for the goal rush. Horses had to rest every 3 to 5 miles. So travelers would stay at these inns along the way. Inns were named in relation to have far they were from Denver. So it seems that this Four Mile House was four miles from Denver.

At the open air musuem we saw a blacksmith’s shop, a fur trading post, a small school house, a stable, horses, sheep and chickens. The angora sheep was being walked by her keeper. Her keeper said that the sheep was rejected by her mother and she thought humans were part of her herd. She had been bottlefed by humans. She would want to follow and be with humans. Her keeper said that she didn’t like to be petted, but helped hold her while some visitors petted her. She got sheared twice a year and her wool is very white after being sheared.

We waited around for a tour of the Four Mile House. Our tour guide was late and had given a tour to another couple beforehand. The then gave us a tour – about 15 of us.

There were three sections to the house – the original wooden cabin part – the brick part containing the formal parlor – and then the frame house which was moved from it’s original location. This contained the bedroom.

It was all very fascinating to hear the history of the house – how it changed owners and purposes – from a travlers’ inn to a farm house – and even to a private residence up to the 1970s. Sharon was very impressed as was I.

Next we drove to Fat Sully’s / Atomic Cowboy. Sharon wanted to see this because it was featured in Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We were afraid we wouldn’t find a parking spot, but sure enough we found one right outside the front door.

It’s a quirky restaurant of sorts with some type of 60s space theme. We each ordered a slice of sausage pizza rather than try to eat the 26 inch pizza. It was decent pizza but not as good as Rocky Mountain Pizza the night before.

Then it was on to the airport. First we found a gas station to fuel up and get rid of our trash than we returned the vehicle. When we checked our bag, it was 5 pounds over the weight limit. It was either get rid of 5 pounds or pay an additional 75 dollars. We managed to made it work and get it down to 49 pounds!

Now we are waiting on our flight, anxious to get home at 12:54AM Nashville time!