Wednesday morning I slept in until 10, which is unheard of for me. It felt great until I finally got up and realized the mosquitos I was too tired to deal with the night before had left welts on both my cheeks. I opted not to shave over the welts, and instead went for my first long run since before Treasure Island (Long run is relative in this instance, as you’ll see by the 14km lo Haleiwa that took me nearly 75 minutes. Now that is some slow running. The highlights of the run: wild moma pig running after her two little baby pigglets, and sneaking past the guards on the set of Lost.
I got back from my run and there was a war going on. Boomer and Katie (my cousins) had invited over their friends and six kids were running around with Softair guns shooting each other. I was pretty close to joining in, but decided instead to join my uncle for dirt bike riding through the valleys above his house. I really wish I’d remembered my Garmin for the motorcycle ride because I have no idea where we went.
The ride was really fun, and the fact that we were rained on nearly the entire journey just made it better. To the left is my Uncle Carl on his dirt bike. His bike is a lot more fun than the ’91 KTM 125cc bike that I normally ride. That bike is a great bike, but the extra 75cc’s that Carl has made for a much easier time in the trails. I only know this because my bike was being very tempermental, so Carl offered to trade. He cleaned the carborator out by blasting blue smoke in my face up a big hill, but as soon as he decided the carb was clean and the bike would work for me, the spark plug cap fell off and the bike quit. We fixed that and headed to a trail called Daisy’s, which doesn’t make much sense because there is no way daisy’s would grow in all that mud so low in the valley.
Carl and I agreed that both of us would prefer if I didn’t dump his nice bike (I’m not that good), so I took back the 125cc as we headed down the trail-head (left).
I was having a blast, rounding tree roots, throwing mud, one hand feathering the clutch (my hand is actually sore from this), one hand on the throttle, and both feet helping with balance (again, I’m not so good). Then the spark plug gave out. We switched the plug and Carl convinced me to take his bike, figuring it was easier for him to be on the bike when it stops than to have to walk back every time it happens. We cruised out without any more problems, and after a slight deliberation decided not to push our luck with more trails. That was fine with me, as I was pretty content with the fun I’d already had.
Back at Carl’s house I was 
saved from a 2.5 hour bus ride back to Hawaii Kai by Brian and James, Carl’s good friends, who offered to lend me a car for a few days. That’s right, this dude is cruisin’ with wheels now! I’m unstoppable. In fact, Thursday turned into a pretty good day because of it. More on that later. For now, It’s bedtime back in Adam and Bob’s place.