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Picture of the Day

Thursday
August 23, 2012

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Hitch-hiking has been more of a challenge than expected but it has its rewards. I met a lot of people today. I just said yes to anyone who offered a ride, even if it was just a tenth of a mile. After a long wait, first up was Paulie who used to live where I live now. Then Theo took me an even shorter distance. I hoofed it a mile to the park entrance and was almost instantly picked up by "Billy" visiting from Switzerland. Leaving Hamoa, I overhead a father and son speaking Czech so I chimed in. We spoke, I walked on, then they pulled up and asked if I'd join them on their drive. Bohužel, I was going the other way. But I told him not to be surprised if he met more Czechs--they were all around.
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After a quick lift with an affianced couple here for their wedding weekend, I bought some groceries at Hasegawa's ("Has-to-gouge-ya") and then put my thumb out for the 13-mile haul home to Kipahulu. Another hitcher, rather eccentric, pulled me in her wake to the Ono Farm Stand where she introduced me--"What's your name?"--and we helped Nick load the van. A self-described OCD'er, he fit everything so precisely there was room to set up a folding chair in back--a first! It was brick-oven pizza night in Kipahulu so we spilled out there and I was introduced to a dozen locals, all of them charming, including Petra, who I wild-ass-guessed might be Czech. Sure enough, she was born in Brno, which seemed to confirm what I told the father and son earlier.