Red sand and a cheeseburger

This day was to start with some adventure. We had made reservations for this ATV ride in the western mountains of Hawaii. As the security brief said, it was a guided tour, not a thrill ride. We tried our best to add some thrill to the rocky and bouncy track where we drive our Yamaha Rhinos.

It required a 9 am start from home to make it to the starting point at 10:30. It was a long but pretty drive, the same area where we had come for the luau. Since we got there are little early, I had a tall portion of shave ice to kill time, it was delicious. The rental company provided us with shoes for free and we refused to get rental clothes. This wasn't a smart idea since the red sand doesn't come off the clothes as easily as we thought. But we started with a 20 minute ride to the starting point. They give safety instructions, fitted us with gear, including helmets, goggles and bandannas to keep sand out of our noses.

The ride was a lot of fun, few flat trails but a lot of real rocky ones. We stopped in the middle for a break where we were treated to pineapple, passion fruit and lot of other local fare cut right in front of our eyes. There were also a lot of other plans to see and photograph. There was a beautiful view of a canyon which echoed back anything you shout at it.

The ride back was similarly adventurous. Bumpy but quite same, never really got on the real edge. There was a puddle that we drive through, though. It left us covered in mud that wouldn't wash off the clothes. Later we found you could buy t-shirts dyed using the same red sand.

After washing up a little we started the drive back and made our planned stop at a cheeseburger shop in a small shopping area. It was designed like a small oceanside town with shops for beachwear, art and some good food. The Cheeseburger in Paradise had a great view, even better burger (I got the one with a pineapple in it) and very appropriate beer for a warm day. A couple of hours there and we started driving back, the sun was scorching today. By the time we got home, we were quite tired and didn't feel like going out much. The ladies cooked a huge dinner for the night and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing. Once it was late evening, we did walk over to a nearby strip mall to buy some souvenirs.