Yesterday, was a tough day but one we shall not forget easily although it will not go down in infamy. It’s worthy of a short story or perhaps broken down into a few parts. Here’s one. We hired a cottage in Volcano on the eastern side of the island. The interesting part of the deal is that the house comes with a car. Nice touch. The very interesting part; there is an active volcano just two miles from the house.
Our landlord said we should rather cancel our car rental that we had organized previously in order to drive the hundred miles across the island. His previous tenants would leave a Mazda truck for us somewhere in Kona, probably at the airport, following their vacating of the property. We wondered about the logistics but the island people have been doing these things since Captain Cook days.
We had to return our rental car by 11am. The landlord's would be parked opposite Budget car rental, keys under the mat, by 2pm the latest. (This is Budget's overflow lot.) We sat outside Budget, with toilet breaks and car searches every half hour, from 11:30 until after 3pm. We did have a backup plan. Should the Mazda not arrive by 2pm, we could take the green Suzuki instead. Small problem discovered. Where was the Suzuki? By that stage, we were in constant communication with said landlord who is based on the other side of the island.
To shorten the story, he suggested a last option would be for us to take the maroon Toyota Rav that should be in the airport parking lot. Gosh, we had nothing better to do especially with attendants observing us from all sides, sitting in our overdue rental. In addition, we have always wanted to search parking lots so this turned out to be a great distraction. In fact, we once were in the parking business. A little nostalgia would go down well, we thought.
After another four conversations and a dearth of imaginary cars, we were all stumped. Our landlord had never lost a car before, so he said, never mind three in one day. A further complication is that he could not remember the cars’ licence numbers. It helped to make the puzzle a little more challenging, which is just what we needed. To summarize, we were looking for a grey Mazda truck, a green Suzuki or Maroon Toyota Rav, the latter two cars, licence plates unknown, somewhere in Kona. Our editor, looking on the bright side, mentioned, “At least we’re not searching in Los Angeles.”
Then, almost out the blue, we felt a spark through the airwaves. “A red Chevvy Tracker,” he blurted, “not a maroon Rav. Now I remember—it’s a Tracker.”
“Nice touch, Len, we’ve been staring at that vehicle for the last three hours.” Sure enough. The keys were under the mat. In retrospect, we shuddered at our attempt to open a red Rav in the airport lot. Imagine if the owner or a police officer was watching. On second thoughts, he probably would believe the story as who could make up one like that.
We enjoyed a wonderful experience in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park where we hiked for nine miles along the rim, down into the caldera and then a crater including the 'devastation area'. Unfortunately, part of the road and trail is closed because of dangerous fumes. Nevertheless, we got a taste of the aftermath of nature’s less than happy moments rather than the smell.
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
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