The Big Island to Virginia Beach

The air at 13,756 ' isn't much. At 10,000' there is no life no where when you are on Mauna Loa. It's still the only place I've ever been where it rained, hailed, snowed, fogged, rainbowed, moonbowed, sunnied up all with the absense of any growing thing, any living thing, including bugs and birds! All this in a twenty-four hour period. I'll see if I can downup-load some pictures. In 1979 before she started blowing and has not stopped there was a cabin with Bunks for overnight guests who would make the climb. You used to be able to drive to 10,000 '. Then you would follow cairns ( stacked rocks ) to infinity because most people are not geared for this elevation. Tom was the only cigarette smoker and he danced as el ledo,( He loved his vodkaa), I think Madame Pele is served vodkaa also! Anyway I took up the rear. We were showing two canucks the "Big Island" and ourselves too! They had just graduated from college and were on their way around the world. One had a dgree in chemistry and the others was ( Jane and Sheila ) guess? Geology! When we were done I felt like I had a degree in Volcanology! Shelia new her opoepoe, her A'A and minerals too! I didn't think Jane was going to make it. Tom, the cigarette smoker, got his! They had said to Tom, "How will you be able to handle this hike at this elevation being that you smoke"? They found out the hard way! Jane was white to begin with but she had the hardest time. I spotted her the entire way. She was borderline turn-around but I must admit she persevered! The log book at the cabin on the edge of the caldera went back to the early 1900's. I have often wondered if they got it out of there when she blew? It was really interesting reading what other people had logged in. One was supposed to bring fuel and of course leave everything usuable behind for the next group. We didn't see anybody ourselves and by the book no one had been up for a week. You can still drive to the golf ball/ Mauna Loa observatory but Mauna Kea has continually erupted since "81" I think. I know it took out Kalapana and is making a bigger big island! It's bizzare that I lived on the oldest island Kauai, and it has one/third more sand and beaches than all the other islands put together. I lived on the Big Island for one year and the only beach I found with white sand was Spencers. I heard there were two others and a hotel with imported sand kind of like Waikiki! Ha! Just thought I'd throw that one in there! So Sheila and Jane were with us for two weeks, plutonically. Tom is a marine engineer, goes to sea for 6 mo's at a whack. He invited me to go to Virginia. We'd had so much fun it seemed like a good thing. The part that relates to this story is I asked him if I could get my "Z" card in Virginia? He laughed and said it was impossible. It is a true catch "22"! You can't get into the United States Merchant Marine without a Merchant Mariner's Document and you can't get the document without having a job! Here is how I did the impossible and blew my friend away! I quit my two jobs, one at the Hilton and the other at the Chart House ( I told them I knew Joey Cabell)( He owns the Chart House at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, Honolulu,Hawaii I do, Hi Joey. My 2nd day at manpower was at Berkley, this is Virginia, across from the Navy Shipyard at Norfolk, Virginia. Somehow I and nine other manpower emps are wiping oil on a barge. Somehow I am the boss. I guess you could call me boss wipe but not to my face. I didn't like it very much except that we were on the Elizebeth sp River, not only leading to the Cheasepeke Bay and the Atlantic but the inter-coastal waterway that goes all the way to Florida inland and up to Philedelphia sp. Bob, the assistant Port Captain asked me and one other if we would consider getting our Merchant Mariners Document because we had a job. I became a Tankerman, class "B" and blew my friend Tom away. I not only made my company money, Sea Horse Marine, I made a lot of money and loved my job. Transfering product and processing at our plant, boarding super-tankers, tug-boat, barge for days in the Bay! The company out of New York sent me to New Orleans and my friend Authur Cook to Beaumont, Texas. I lasted 17 days in New Orleans. I went there to trouble shoot. I found out what was wrong. The Mississippi River and some other things. It was time to go home. Hawaii. I will tell you this I liked my port captain in Virginia. We were clean. Lucky was a retired Coastie. We kept the river clean. The port captain in Louisianna sp also was a retired coastie. His twenty year career he busted people for what he was doing. This guy looked me square in the eye as he told me to pump interface which is oil and water into the river which runs to the Carribean. He said it was O.K. because every factory on the Mississippi had a pollution allotment so it's what is being done. See the weird thing about that is that pollution is killing the habitat that also protects the mainland from tidal surge or waves, hurricane induced. Plus the Bayous, like the everglades is a very rich spawning, growing pool for virtually tons of living its. So I wrote my letter, got it done. He got fired but not before I quit. Believe this! He actually said to me I couldn't quit! He asked me if I knew what I was leaving? Like without this job and the money I was making I would be a fool to leave it! He was right in a way. I never worked again using my "Z" card. I sat in my union hall in San Francisco for two weeks SIU. I was a tankerman not a steward. I didn't want to work on the love boat. The Constitution was doing Hawaii in seven days at that time. No dice. However I went back to Kauai and that is another story!!!