The Parade of Nations last night … coming up this morning.

First, a few words from Big Island locals.  “We love Ironman” is the general chant among the locals – at least in public.  In private we each lament a little about the hassle of hosting the Ironman event.   It’s a give and take for sure.

After the event the local community is left with an aftermath of trash, a sheer layer of sunscreen on the ocean water, broken bike parts including tires, left by the side of the road, cheering signs posted to everything, painted roads, restaurants and grocery stores out of food, yada, yada, yada.  The Ironman organization does a fairly respectable job in cleaning the town up.  The notion of “you bring it in, you take it out” needs more work tho.

There are rules and there is Aloha.  Our visiting Iron people are not very well informed about the rules of the roads and safety issues.  We saw one commercial from the Ironman organization outling the rules of the road, no one else we know has seen it tho.  Accidents are happening once again.  The Queens Highway is no place to ride 3 across in the shoulder. Those dozens of alters along the highway?  Those are monuments to people who have lost their life in an accident.  And Alii Drive is not the actual race track until Saturday.  Hard to tell right now – 3 days out – there are dozens of speed racers abusing their rights along this beautiful little street, making it practically unusable by walking  tourists and locals.

Staying in the Aloha spirit while you’re here is greatly appreciated, and sort of expected.  It is another beautiful day on the Big Island.  The ocean and dolphins are here to play and keep you safe off shore, the winds are cooperating, there’s late afternoon cloud cover to keep the sun off your backs and we know that within the few hours someone here in Hawaii has shared “Aloha” with you.

Aloha!