Akakafalls

The time I tried to go on a bike ride to the Akakafalls

I really don't know what this blog is going to be, but stick with me while I figure it out.

Al has a minimum of 10 bikes in the hotels backyard. They would all be super nice rides, if they’d work. Right, every bike has a different issue, from flat tires to not having any brakes exept 2 of them.

Adrian a former Worktrader was working on one of them when I got to Hilo and told me the bike was really unstable. Having one flat tire after another. I didn’t care and I put a lot of trust in the bike.

On my day off I wanted to go on a 30km (sorry but talking in miles confuses me) to the Akakafalls. Everyone I told had the same look on there face and was giving me the same advise: „Take the bus, that’s a long ride“. But me, being me would not listen to any of that. So I took one of the functioning bikes and got on the highway to the Akaka falls. I got half way and heard my tire poped. End of story.

At least that’s what I thought. I left the highway and went to look for a pump because I still had hope that the tire just lost some air but would work just fine. That was not exactly the case. I gave up on trying to pump air into it and went back on the highway to hitchhike back. I coul have called Al or Merlie but I was scared of what they would say. So I stood on there with my thumb out and waited.

5 minutes later some car pulled up and rolled his window down. There were two people inside. One lady, she was probably in her twenties and really pretty, and a dude with a crazy face tattoo. He asked me where I was going and I told him Hilo was my destination. He just answered: „Ok sure, that is where we are going. Get in.“ And I did. I didn’t think anything, I was not concerned about him being kind of weird, I was not scared, that he could take me anywhere. I just got into his car and I felt so thankful and happy.The funniest thing about the situation was, was that we tried to fit my bike into the smallest car the US has ever seen. I was hoping for a truck to pull up and take me with them, but no it was a normal size car.

Infinity (yes that was his name) kept talking to me about random stuf fand asking me all sorts of questions. He even invited me to some sacred party that was going on later this night. He told me how he got kicked out oft he Hostel I was staying at and that started to make things kinda weird.

It was only a 10 minute drive, so we got there pretty quick and I got my bike out oft he trunk and was ready to leave. He asked me for my phone so he could give me his number, typed it in and gave it back to me with a 500$ bill attached to it. I smiled and handed him his money back, said thanks and that I would call him later this night and deleted his number.

I told Al immediatley that I needed some tools to fix the bike and the look on his face was priceless. „You know how to fix a bike? You go girl“. I was so happy about being my parents daughter and having them teach me how to do stuff. Apparently girls don’t do stuff like that. That is probably not what he meant to say. But it made me think. Everyone thought it was pretty cool that Adrian spent hours and hours fixing the bike. But when they heard of me doing it they were surprised and stoked. They thought it was so cool, that I was able to use tools. I mean it is pretty nice but it’s not that big of a deal. And it makes no difference to me if a girl is handy or a boy. I just think it’s awesome in general, if you don’t depend on others in any way. Thanks Dad for making me fix my own bike before I left. Now I’m the girl that was able to fix bikes.

Al would be the last person that would mean anything like this. But I’m sure a lot of people do. A lot of people are still in old mindsets, that there are girl chores and boy chores.

Stop that people. Just get over yourself. There is police women, female mechanics, male ballet dancers etc.

After this incident I used a different bike and visited all sorts of places. I might try going to the Akaka falls again, I'll get there before I leave the Big Island of Hawaii on the 16th, eventually.

Aloha and Mahalo,

Zoe

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