Mokihana's Garden

Okay, remember the fabulous lodge-like great room of Auntie’s place? Today we’re gonna see more of it.

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The Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics are pau. Before I started, I had set a very challenging goal for myself, namely to enter the “WIP Dancing” (Work-in-Progress) event, and finish up two blankets that had been languishing for years, as well as a shawl that I’d started right after my mom died but had never finished.

We couldn’t start till Opening Ceremonies. We had to be pau by Closing Ceremonies.

I am pleased to announce that I did it! I reached my goal! Here is one of my medals. (Bob, the dog, is the Ravelry mascot.)

After leaving Helena, we were back on the road with the big sky all around us. I thought of John Denver’s “Wild Montana Sky” duet with Emmy Lou Harris. I was loving every minute of this trip; it was such an adventure for a born and raised island girl. This is Highway 12 south, just north of Clasoil at Pioneer Fuel and Concrete.

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Ho, Part Eleven already and we’re not even to our destination yet! But we were about to see an awesome sight, just a few miles away, in the MacDonald Pass area.

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On a road trip like the one we were on, you can be just zooming along the highway enjoying the sights. Which is really pretty special when you’re driving through country you’ve never seen before.
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Just so you folks know… besides updating da blog, I’m also trying to complete some knitting stuff for the Ravelympics, which coincides, strangely enough, with the Winter Olympics.

The goal of the Ravelympics (from Ravelry, a knitting community) and The Knitting Olympics (both of which I’ve signed up for) is to sign up for knitting challenges that require a whole lotta effort in order to complete by the time Closing Ceremonies in the real Olympics ends. You might want to read Stephanie-Pearl McPhee’s blog post (second link) to find out more what it’s all about. She says it much better than I can.

I am in an “event” in which I am finishing up some projects that have been languishing while I did my normal thing of rabbit-tracking from one knitting project to another. I’m doing four of them!

So if I don’t update Da Mystery Road Trip Revealed as often as I’d like, that’s why. I will do my best to keep at it in both arenas.

I started out not so good. One of my projects is finishing a blanket with my handspun from some of my favorite sheep. It was languishing, waiting while I carded and spun some fleece from my very special ewe, ‘Ele‘ele, who died several years ago. The other night during Opening Ceremonies (we weren’t allowed to start our projects till then) I knit four very long rows with yarn from her, and hated it. I’d spun it too fine and with too much twist, and it felt horrible. Which meant that I had to spin up two more bobbins, then ply them together, then set the twist (soaking in hot water), then let it dry, which it’s doing now. I am so much happier with this skein and I’m glad I did it.

Part Ten will be tomorrow. Mahalo for understanding. Knitting? Writing? Or both?

You folks can cheer me on… the encouragement would be fabulous.

Before I start posting more photos, I want to tell you folks who are riding along with Nolemana, Kukui, Musubi, and me how much it means to me that you take time to read this humble little blog of mine. I don’t always know who you are, but I so appreciate all of you. When I first started this blog I had absolutely no knowledge of how to do one. I didn’t know how to upload photos, I felt kind of silly for even thinking that anyone besides me would read it. So mahalo nui loa, thank you very much, whoever you are, known and unknown, for tagging along on this amazing trip of a lifetime! Please feel free to share your comments; I love reading them. Read the rest of this entry »

Was all ready to post da next installment but Photobucket is all hamajang. Won’t let me link here. I’ll try again later. Sheesh.

K’den. It was now about 9:54 a.m. (I think I messed up the time on my previous posts… I forgot that we’re now in Mountain Time.) Here we were just East of St Regis, Montana. Still on the wrong side of the freeway, that was really the right side because we were told to drive there. Right?

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Oh my gosh, the photos in this post can’t show how excited I was when we took them. I felt like the people on the Starship Enterprise, going where no man I had never gone before. My dad’s wanderlust blood in my veins was pounding! I was so jazzed that I could hardly sit still… and I was driving! Read the rest of this entry »

Back in October 2008, Nolemana and I made a trip up to Hood River for apples. I wrote about it here.

Back then I couldn’t (or didn’t know how to) upload videos, but now Wordpress makes it easy.

I love my antique apple peeler! It has eight gears and works better than any modern peeler that I’ve tried. Tomorrow we get back on the road trip, but in the meantime, enjoy this short video. You can go back to the original post if you wanna see more photos of it and the horses who enjoyed the peels.

I’m so glad I was in my office when this hummingbird decided to take a bath! Equally glad that I caught it on video!

In looking back over my previous posts on this road trip, I realize that while I’ve shown a lot of photos and landmarks etc., I haven’t really talked much about my feelings about this advencha. I would like to change that. Read the rest of this entry »

Last time, I showed you the sight we would’ve been able to see from the hill above Lewiston, Idaho, if it hadn’t been dark. In gathering maps and info for this post, I discovered something else, that had I known about it, would’ve guaranteed that we’d gotten on the road much earlier so that we could’ve seen it.

What could that be, you ask? I’m gonna show you! Read the rest of this entry »

I had a couple of people say they really liked the maps I’ve been providing, so I thought I’d show where we’ve been so far. We’ve come so many miles that I can’t make it closer though. On this map, it doesn’t look very far!

We’d passed the main part of the downgrade though we were still going downhill. We had no idea what was up ahead of us, and we were in for a wonderful surprise. Read the rest of this entry »

I stay going to one writing workshop till Saturday night, and will update da blog when I get back.

Looking forward to da workshop! But Part 4 coming soon!

After leaving Dayton, we were out on the open highway again. All of us (Nolemana, Kukui, Musubi, and I) were thoroughly enjoying the trip. It was a real advencha, seeing parts of the country we’d never seen before; it was almost too much to take in. This was fifteen minutes north of Dayton.

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In the last post, Nolemana, Kukui, Musubi and I were driving along Columbia River Highway. To the side of us was Lake Wallula, which was formed when McNary Dam was built on the mighty Columbia River.

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K’den. On October 3, 2009, Nolemana and I left home for one of the most amazing and fabulous journeys of my life. It was a trip that yielded unbelievable joy, incredible reconnections with my ‘ohana, and sights that took my breath away. We spent seven days away from home and put many, many miles on my van. Ride shotgun with Nolemana and I and enjoy the ride! Read the rest of this entry »