Down that Red Dirt Road

We didn't pick blackberries, have a beer or wreck a car, but I was still humming that Brooks and Dunn song the whole day because we were driving down a red dirt road. Thursday was our adventure day. We took a ferry to Lanai where we rented a jeep for the day.

Now that I've been on the roads of Lanai, I'm not sure what the hoopla is for the Road to Hana.  If you've been to DisneyLand, the best way I can describe the ride was a cross between Star Tours and Indiana Jones. The road was mostly dirt, in some places was washed out, others had large boulders in the road, and a lot of it was washboard quality.  Inside the jeep we were bobbing all over the place. Mom was driving, and I was holding fiercely to the handle on the dashboard just to keep from flying around the jeep. Good thing we had a hardtop or we might have bounced right out of the car!

For the first part of our day we headed to the Garden of the Gods.  This is a strange place with rocks scattered willy nilly. They are volcanic for sure, but like nothing we have seen before on the islands.  Seen Galaxy Quest? It looks like the "Gorignak" portion was filmed here.  There were also some little plants that were trying to survive the harsh conditions, and even I was impressed with them.

From the Garden of the Gods we continued our drive to Polihua Beach. This is where the road took a turn for the worse. On the map from the jeep people, they wrote "bumpy". But on other places they had written, "caution", "closed" and "4wd" so this seemed somewhat benign.  It was a 4wd road if there ever was one!  I think the fastest we drove was about 7mph -- and that seemed fast!! I had an anti-nausea patch on, and actually had a ball! There was lots of laughter and screaming. Since I'm not really a swearer, I was making up Hawaiian words to yell, which just added to the chaos.

Polihua Beach is beautiful. We were the only ones there, so it seemed even more tropical and remote. Okay, to be honest, we were the only ones anywhere we went outside of Lanai City.  We had swimsuits in the car, but even from the shore we could tell the current was extremely strong, so we passed on swimming (safety first!).

After Polihua Beach we had a little time to venture down to Shipwreck Beach. Luckily the road was paved most of the way which was a real treat! As you might have imagined, Shipwreck Beach has been the site of many a shipwrecks. Most notably is an oil tanker from the 40s that was grounded on the reef. It's also the spot where trade winds blow through -- there is a lot of debris washed up on the beach.

This was also a site of a fun remote picture. Even though you can turn your iPhone camera around and take a picture, we love the setting up of a remote picture, the running, and general hilarity.  Mom always sets the pictures up and then dashes over to where I'm waiting. This time there was lots of rocks in the way, and 10 seconds wasn't long enough!

Also at Shipwreck beach we saw some turtles having some lunch. They were right close to the shore, munching on -- you know, whatever turtles eat.  It seemed like hard work because they would get tossed around in the surf and nearly come ashore and then be dragged out a little further and paddle back.

Lanai certainly felt like a remote destination. We both commented on what it might look like 20 years from now.  Dole (Pineapple) no longer owns it and the new owner has already lengthened the runway to allow for jets. It seems like development might be just around the corner.

We left Lanai at sunset, exhausted from the ride, and SO dirty!

Friday is definitely a pool day.