Going to pack my bags and leave tonight…

Yep that’s right my wife of 20 years and I are celebrating our 20th Anniversary right here in Paradise, namely Maui!  We left the kids with the grandparents and set out on our adventure Thursday the 26th and will be flying back to the cold wet climate we call home April 3rd.

For those of you who have visited Maui, we have made a condo in Kihei our home away from home, thanks to the in-laws great gift to us of nine days in their World Mark time share Resort just a block up the street from the sandy beach and warm waters.  Kihei, for those who have never visited, is the once desert side of this island of 130,000 permanent dwellers (and who knows how many millions of yearly tourists).  It is green, yet spends most of the time in the 70’s and 80’s with a slight breeze.  The waters are crystal clear turquoise blue and warm; a minute after jumping in you can spend as long as you want without freezing your butt off.

As with anything, I’m always a little skeptical of somewhere we hear so much good about by all our friends who have made this trek before us, but after three days I finally admitted to my wife, I could come back again and again even with the kids in tow.

For a full report on some of the best places to visit and experience, I will do a part two of this article, but in this first part I can tell you we have driven much of the island in our rental car, a two-door Chevy Cobalt with no rear leg room (but that’s fine we are just two of us on this trip).  One of the most popular car rentals is the Mustang convertible as I figured every ten rental cars we see out and about is a convertible Mustang.  Yes, when the boys are away they prefer to play, as in playing “cool dude” in a “cool car.” Second must be the Charger.  The only problem with these muscle cars is the speed limit on 90% of the roads is 30 to 45mph with a brief stretch of 55 for about five miles on the main highway.  The roads are curvy and don’t leave room for muscling your way around, unless you want a ticket as the cops are pretty plentiful.  But this brings me to what many do, and that is to rent a Motorcycle for the day or the week.

Because I broke my foot on Labor Day and was on crutches/scooter until middle of December, I was unable to get out and get my Endorsement which I had planned on doing early fall.  Because of this, my wife and I opted to rent a couple of scooters and do our cruising around the Kihei area for the full day.  This was a blast, and my wife who had never been on a motorized two wheeler but the back of my bike back in the 90’s, she had a blast too.  We rented our bikes from Island Riders, walking distance from our condo for a total of $102.00 including tax for the two of us for 8 hours.  Island Riders also rents a number of styles and makes, so you have a great selection.  Harleys go for $135.00 for 8 hours, Buel/V-Rods $155.00 for 8 hours, BMW cruisers $175.00 for 8 hours and the Honda/Kawasaki 750’s go for $89.00 for 8 hours while our 50 cc scoots were $45.00 for 8 hours.

While out cruising the back roads of town, we came across South Maui Choppers a few miles down from our Condo and they offer two Arlen Ness bikes for rent, along with a few other custom bikes.  These guys have only been doing bike building for a few years but have gotten quite the rep, and when Arlen comes to Maui with his family during November, he leads a public ride which is organized by South Maui Choppers.  I also noted a HD Motorcycle Dealer/rental outfit in Kahului, just a couple miles from the airport; they also rent and sell all types of makes and styles.

So the next time we come back, you can bet I will be renting a Motorcycle and will travel some of the same roads we traveled in our Cobalt.  Hawaii has no Helmet Law which made it wonderful for me to cruise around on the scooter with the hair blowing in my face and yes I have quite the sun drenched face and body (a deep red you might say), which I hope will turn brown in the weeks ahead!  The few sport bikes I spotted were ridden by the locals who wore helmets; on the other hand the cruisers, as in H-D and other V-Twin bikes, 95% of these riders didn’t wear helmets.

One of the roads we drove was to the top of the Haleakala Crater, which is one switch back after another to the top. Up from behind I spotted a sport bike rider doing Knee-sliding as he cut the curves behind us.  When we pulled over to let him pass he turned around and headed back down.  I guess the whole reason he was on the road was to knee-slide, and I suspect he had a favorite spot to do this.

All toll, this has been a wonderful vacation which I would love to repeat, ala kids in tow.  Of course my in-laws have to get things lined up and we will have to fork out few C-notes in addition to airfare for five.  Guess I can always dream!

So until the next time, when I cover all the great things (including photo’s) to do while visiting Maui, Aloha.

Steve Johann