 
Comments
by Rick & Christine....
"Mommy, are
we flying over a carnival?” asked the little blonde boy crammed into the
seat next to me. “No Jimmy, that’s the city.” His mother answered.
That’s right I’m back in the City of Angels, the city I was born and raised
in. The city I both love and hate equally. But it ain’t no
carnival Jimmy, it’s more like a zoo.
Fortunately we are only here
for a short visit. My mother is putting up
(and putting up with) Rick,
Wrigley and myself for two days, at which time she will drive us up to
beautiful Fresno California (Can you pick out the oxymoron in the previous
sentence? If you guessed “beautiful Fresno” you are correct!).
My mom (who we affectionately call “the bat”, but she likes it I swear.
In fact her house, the bat cave, is full of bat paraphernalia.) has a cat
named Kula so there is a lot of hissing, growling, scratching and barking
in the house.
But we’re just so happy that
Wrigley survived her airplane ordeal that we don’t mind a little inter-species
bickering. We gave Wrigley some doggie downers before leaving Maui
to alleviate the stress, but I was the one who needed some chemical help.
I was bundle of nerves. First I cried when the airport attendant
took away my precious doped up dog. Rick just rolled his eyes and
kept reassuring me with “she’s a DOG, she’ll be fine!”
Then I cried as Maui, my
lovely island home
disappeared beneath a bank
of clouds. My last visual of Maui was the gentle slopes of Haleakala
carpeted in variegating colors of green, brown and red. Waves of
sugar cane giving way to fields of pineapple jacketing the red Maui soil.
I began flashing back to the first time my mainland eyes took in Maui eight
years ago...
I had never even BEEN to
Hawaii before we up and moved there on a whim. So I really had no
idea of what to expect. I was astonished by the beauty of the landscape
(rugged verdant mountains rising out of a sapphire sea, white sandy beaches)
even from an altitude of thousands of feet. But even with all the
beauty spread below me I was still thinking, “We have no jobs and limited
funds. We don’t know anybody here. This was crazy!” When
suddenly I spied a giant logo painted on the roof of a warehouse sitting
in an ocean of sugarcane. It was an enormous C & H logo.
C & H represents California and Hawaii and I thought “California &
Hawaii. That’s me alright.” Just then Rick leaned over and
said “Look Babe, that’s our new home!” and my fears were allayed....
Fast forward eight years
and my reverie was ended when Rick leaned over and said “Stop crying over
Maui you sentimental wench!! We’re gonna have fun trucking and we
can always come back.” Once again my fears were soothed. Rick,
as usual, was right. No more looking over my shoulder and boo-hooing
for the Aloha state. I’ve said Aloha and Mahalo to all of my friends
and family in Hawaii and am now facing the future (which looks to be full
of excitement, amusement, some danger and a lot of inconvenience) with
an ear to ear grin.
I can’t wait to start trucking
school next week. I am not the smartest person (although my
brothers sometimes call me Ein-stine instead of Chri-stine). And
I’m certainly not a writer the likes of Hemingway, Thoreau or Twain.
But I hope you will enjoy reading what I write about the three of us on
the road.
Aloha,
Christine |
