Musings From My Many Cramp Breaks…Huahine

I’ve taken to cycling the beautiful island of Huahine. There are two reasons for this. 1) I feel introverted and 2) in French Francs, renting a motorized scooter is not cheap. So, I picked up a mountain bike in the morn with intentions of touring the island, finding an isolated beach and writing all day. Somewhere around kilometer 5, Ego kicked in and I decided to go a full loop round the island. Around kilometer 10, I became familiar with the poor condition of my bike legs. What follows are a collection of musings from cramp breaks.

HUAHINE AIRPORT (5km)
I’m writing this from the airport in Huahine where a single plane waits to lift off, and a single bartender waits to serve, and a single bike waits for my sore ass to muscle on. When you travel alone you think on things from a completely different angle. Like a part of the brain not present in social dialogue is allowed to engage. I like the way I can think when I’m alone. It’s nice to have someone. It’s nice to be single.



CHURCH (15km)
I find it interesting my eagerness to pull over at this little church on the coastline. It’s front doors are held shut with a single cinder block and some wood. In the states, I try my hardest to find a good excuse to stay away from church, but once again I’m drawn to its doors. Perhaps it’s just logical…my legs are tired…and, if the natives are hostile, the chance of a beat-down seems lessened near the Virgin Mary. As no one on the planet knows exactly where I am right now, the wisest things inside me say not to force entry on this one. Despite staggering and steady scientific discovery uncovering mysteries we used to resign to God, spirituality seems no more extinct, no more banished from our philanthropy books than it ever was. Answers are beautiful, but mysteries are necessary, I think. That, however, is no excuse to be dumb.



HALFWAY UP A MOUNTAIN (24km)
I want friends who are excited about sharing each other’s lives with one another. I don’t want acquaintances that I call friends who are just scared to be alone. I have both and there’s a big difference that becomes more apparent the older I get.

WHEN MY WATER RAN OUT (38km)
The stories I will learn to reveal
Like waiting words made into verse
A secret only I can understand
I will try to show them my face

I will learn to tell these stories and time will teach me how to speak them
Each one coming out as another passes by

Why do my legs feel like ham? What's with my new friend, a floating green dot in the right side of my vision?





BACK AT THE BAR (50km)
You know when water tastes unnaturally delicious? It turns out that tropical rum drinks taste just as good when you're dehydrated. I extinguished two in about 60 seconds, then resigned to throwing money airplanes in the direction of the bartender in return for prompt service and to not use my legs. She understood.




Just before I was going to pass out on the transport back to the ship tender, I ran into some of the entertainers from the ship who FORCED me to drink free Mai Tais with them. I like the pics when no one is ready. Look how excited everyone is to have their image snapped.



While waiting for the 30 minute transport from the main city back to the tender, we met Mark from Lubbock, Texas who told us that Huahine means “the weenie hole”. Mark is a 60 year-old tattooed hipster with a full head of long thin blonde hair and who owns the souvenir shop next to our dropoff/pickup point. He has a beautiful 30 year-old Hauhine wife whom he met on the island 10 years ago. In the 80’s, Mark designed all the diesel energy distribution facilities for Hotel Bora Bora and has lived in and around the French Polynesian islands ever since as a consultant. He loves music and he thinks the greatest song ever written is “Great Balls of Fire”. He tried for two years to move back and live in America with his wife, but she couldn’t take the culture. We bought postcards of Hotel Bora Bora to thank him for the stories he gave us and for the new appreciation I have for Jerry Lee Lewis.

I biked around a whole island today. A man’s satisfaction comes through small victories.