In early morning darkness I got up on the H1 instead of staying in the 2nd from rt. Lane for Nimitz, then had to drive through the airport to Lagoon Drive. If you keep right at the end of the mainland arrivals, you go toward Rental Car Return to get to Nimitz local business road, which leads to Lagoon.
No one else was riding their bike yet at 5:20 am when I
started out… nor was anyone exercising.
It was so dark I could see the constellation Orion above the Ko’olau
Mountains. Seemed a bit early to see it
– further north it starts showing up in September if you look at night, but I
don’t know that I’d looked up at the sky that early in the morning in early
August…perhaps it is the 20 degrees latitude of Honolulu.
I wanted to ride the hour that Dorian suggested I do, but
was afraid of going all the way back to Ke’ehi Lagoon Park because it was so
dark, so I turned in to the loop around a parking lot behind the FedEx building
a few times and circled back to the cul de sac parking lot at the end of Lagoon
where I’d parked.
Around 5:45 it felt light enough that I thought the few
vehicles coming down Lagoon would have a good chance to see me as well as my
blinking red rear light, so I did a lap, and almost another to make my hour.
The first lap I hear two “reports” like a car backfiring,
--or was it gun shots?-- and saw a light duty white truck with amber flashing
light on top driving inside the secured airport area…. First fantasy was that
there was a sniper shooting at the lone cyclist. Then I looked up and saw a number of egrets
taking off and flying away from the airport.
Four shots in quick succession, more birds alarmed. I concluded that somehow the truck was
generating the noise to protect planes from bird strikes.
In the dark I could see the lighted superstructures of 3 large
ships lined up and thought they were tankers because they did not have containers
piled high – perhaps a mile apart each--pointing toward Honolulu Harbor – were
they waiting for harbor workers to come to work to go further? It’s now 4 hours later and I see two of them
from my office window—the third one is likely behind a skyscraper blocking my
view.[1]
I took it easy riding during the first 10 minutes then tried
to turn on a little steam. Still did not
kill myself! Got the chain onto the
larger wheel that put me in the highest gear most of the time. I have biked here only after work in the
past, when there is almost always a stiff headwind coming out of the
mountainous spine of the island. There
was a gentle headwind, hardly enough to do battle with this morning. The trades are now gentle and the landward convection
winds of the afternoon needs the work of the sun to get going. So to get a real workout I must come in the
afternoon. This evening I’ll dine with
visitor from the mainland instead: Aloha Friday eve! We are likely to have
supper at Café Julia, named after Julia Morgan, who designed the YWCA on
Richards Street here in 1927, also the Hearst Castle in San Simeon California
during the same era. The chef used to
work at Kobe’s Steak House, so I am likely to have beef tonight.
The Blood Bank of Hawaii called me to ask if I’d give blood
since a newborn is in need of my O+ blood, now in short supply. How could I say no to that? I am going before work tomorrow.
Continuing on, as the sun progressed toward peeking over the
mountains, I saw the sky lighten and one straight and narrow pink stratus
cloud. There were thick clouds over the
mountains, so the sun had to take its time.
The Ke’ehi Lagoon water began to glow silver; I made out one fisherman
seated alongside the water with two rod and reels planted as I pumped silently
by.
A car’s alarm started going off in the FedEx customer lot,
and I got a little nervous, but it was apparently the owner of the car who
stood calmly by and stopped it from its too loud honking.
Next to FedEx building, at the end of a drive, I looked up
under the humongous nose of a FedEx Cargo plane, glowing stark white in the
darkness, likely being unloaded for the day’s deliveries. A photo would have not done this sight
justice even if I stopped riding to try.
My last lap going toward the mountains, sunlight streaked in
rays from behind big white clouds, and I stopped to try to capture this
sight. The clouds did vaguely resemble
those behind Waikiki as painted by French artist Jules Tavernier in the 19th
century, on a note card I recently sent my mother Anna Margaret Fooshee
Alexander.
[1]
One may have been the tanker Overseas Kythnos, registered in the Marshall
Islands, origin “Off Port Anchorage” http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=538004017
One was likely the Thor Commander, a general cargo ship flying Antigua
& Barbuda flag, arriving from Mexico. http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=305749000
Another in port now (but its superstructure doesn’t look like one I saw
this morning the Horizon Spirit
The JRS Corvus, last in Yokahama, a container ship due late this
afternoon—will be able to tell if its photo is accurate—its hull is bright red!
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=210751000
Being an island, we need much of what we consume shipped in, the heavy storables mostly by ship…
Being an island, we need much of what we consume shipped in, the heavy storables mostly by ship…
Constant stream of them.
All but the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America cruise ships are in
Alaska for the summer and will be back here in October.
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