Day 15: Things I'll Never Forget About Lori

Driving The Road To Hana

Anyone who's ever been to Maui knows about the famous "Road to Hana."

It's a long, almost unbelievably lush drive from the dry side of the island (where the big resorts are––we were staying at the Marriott for our Honeymoon,) over to the beautiful wet side of the island and the tiny town of Hana.

For some reason we put off doing the drive until the end of our trip (I suppose we were too busy having fun on the beach, and snuggling in our room,) and on the day we actually made the drive it was raining all over Maui.

Of course, the rain didn't make a damned bit of difference, seeing as how we were driving through rainforest anyway, and the rain that was coming down was warm and luscious.

We must have stopped at some 15 waterfalls along the drive---always stopping to take a picture---and they were all raging in torrents due to the rain.

The road to Hana is also known for its amazing number of bridges, and we stopped at most of these as well... Lori has always been in love with old bridges, and we took our time exploring these beauties as we made the long slow trek to Hana.

In Hana we saw the famous black sand beach, and took some photos of the graveyard there, and a funny cow that was chained up in a vacant lot right by the ocean. We walked along the ragged cliffs, and held hands, and did all kinds of exploring.

Since we were driving a Jeep 4x4 (a tradition we started on our honeymoon, and kept up EVERY time we visited Hawaii,) we decided to skip the warnings about washed out roads and such, and finished the drive by continuing to circumnavigate the island (HIGHLY UNRECOMMENDED BY THE RENTAL COMPANIES.)

The road was certainly a bit washed out in places, and we did a few minor river and creek crossings, but over all it was no big problem.

That sparsely inhabited back side of the island was a pleasure to drive through, and though we didn't know it then, as we drove along that coast we spent hours staring across the straight to the North Tip of The Big Island, where we would ultimately take three wonderful trips to Whale Crossing.

In fact later, whenever we visited Whale Crossing, we would stare back across that straight and reminisce about that wonderfully romantic day we circumnavigated Maui on our Honeymoon.

Unfortunately, due to the diagnosis of cancer that would come just a month later, those days on Maui were some of the few that Lori and I got to spend as true "Newlyweds."

Never before, and never again, would either of us be that completely happy, innocent, and filled with the possibilities of what our lives might hold.

It is a time I will cherish for as long as I exist, and into the hereafter as well.

In the five amazing years that we were married we did, however, learn to love each more passionately and deeply than either of us could have imagined in even those heady days of our Honeymoon.

I love you and miss you with all my heart, sweetpea.