Friday, October 5, 2012

Kona: October 5

Enjoying life here in Kona--our house is phenomenal!  Judy and i are having a great time exploring the island and relaxing in this paradise.  Our first full day we spent the morning unpacking and dealling unsuccessfully with my bike.  As i mentioned before, the binding mechanism on the seatpost failed and the local mechanics declared it dead.  Over the last couple of days they've been in contact with all sorts of BMC folkd including the president and the ultimate conclusion was that there were no parts to repair it any where in the world.

I've been riding a rental Shiv the last few days but unfortunately, there are no rentals available for the race anywhere on the island.  I was beginning to get my head wrapped around buying a cheap tri bike to get myself around the 112 miles.  However, against all odds, the locals (with a 12-pack of beer I dropped off) stayed after hours and brainstormed and low and behold they fixed it.  They found some close enough bolts and nuts and did a little machinging and I'm back in business!

Wednesday, judy and I spent the day driving out and touring the Volcanoes national Park--very cool.   We did a coffee tasting on the way.   Yesterday, we hung around the house and around dinner time our good bud Sparty rolled in.  We had a wonderful time hanging around and we enjoyed a nice meal hanging at our place.

Today, Sparty and I swam down at the Pier and then we rode up the road and did the ride up to and back from Hawi.  The wind was very mild--say 10-20 mph and ride up and down was no big deal--such a contrast to 2010!  It would be awesome if we could get something like that this year.

In any event, my taper is going well.  I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I swam the last three days--what a treat to swim here--I feel really good in the water!  I rode the last three days as well and now I have my bike back so I'm good to go.  Here are a couple of picks from our trip so far:

Sparty and I at Hawi:


Judy and I doing our coffee tasting:


The view from our house:


Sparty and Judy:


Sparty, Randy and the BMC twins....


 I may be slow like my friend the Honu but I'm still having fun!


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