Exploring Hawai'i, O'ahu

I used to roadrace out at Hawaii Raceway Park in the early to mid 1980s. The track was pretty beatup at first but SCCA started racing cars there for a while and did some track improvements. There was a road course, a drag strip and a dirt track. Long gone now. But some good memories remain.

doc

Some Navy GI’s bought some axes and paint rollers and cleared the bushes and used the rollers and cheap white paint to layout a course on the air strip between bushes. We all had clunkers sport cars and no/little risk of flipping on an airstrip but a few ran over a few bushes. It was a blast to run the course...one car at a time against a stopwatch. (My Austin Healey 3000 under my Smugmug link below..under “Other” category.)

Lived there only 2 years but Hawaii had so many adventures available. Girlfriend, now wife worked for an AMC car dealership in Waikiki that at the time held the record speed for a stock car...dragster...wife and I both rode in it and was probably at the same drag strip you mentioned.

I dont blame the locals for trying to protect what they have....especially keeping all the other Islands like they are without expansion and commercializing them, like Oahu has been...

When you have $30-50 to your name in the military a free seat is a free seat. The Navy let me know about 2 weeks before if seats were available...This was a C-141 cargo plane...had 15-20 canvas seats attached to the fuselage the rest of the Space were caskets. Inside looks like a basketball gym. Can’t beat free flights.

Not much to update since everywhere is shut. I spent most of my free time snorkeling. Last weekend I swam around sharks cove. The fish there are incredible. I'll try my GoPro next time. I've seen a few sea turtles around Waimanalo beach.

View from the Pali Gap.



We are getting a lot of Lilikoi this year.



I'm surprised by the amount of Vanagons there are here. You'd think the salt air would rot them to the ground.


K-Bay




I'd love to get on this island, I believe Hawaiian Royalty used to live on there.

I was just listening to this podcast yesterday during a long drive. It's a Stuff You Should Know podcast episode. It's interesting and sad at the same time.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...ong-last-hawaiian-overthrow-episode-71868580/
Sorry to be the downer in the thread.

In your earlier post of beach area by Diamond Head was the street Golmer Pyle (of Andy Griffin/Mayberry show fame) lived with his partner for something like 20 years. Had a Macadamian Farm somewhere in Hawaii but lived on side of Diamond Head.

Anywhere around diamond head is astronomically expensive for a home. No way in hell worth it, but there are some really nice compounds on the hills of diamond.

All vehicles are way overpriced and the rain corrodes everything. I'd really like a 2018+ Fat Boy or a V Rod Muscle. It's cheaper to buy it on the mainland and pay to ship it. I'm just going to wait till I go back.

Lanikai this evening.

Last night at Bellows.




Today I was doing some exploring on the West Side.





Deep in the Waianae Valley.



Cactus in Hawaii?



I got as far as I could, the entire valley is a gated community/HOA




@sealsam you said your friend was from Makaha, this is where the GPS took me




Even without tourists it was very slow moving traffic in Waianae, while the vstrom was running fine it was cooking me. I'm trying to go somewhere new every weekend to beat the island fever.

I then headed south to the West Side Pillbox hike trail head aka Maili Point Hike.

As with every abandoned military structure, they attract morons with spray cans.


I've never seen a straight 6 mounted to a hillside.

Thanks Redoubt!

I know it ain't TN, but you're sure making the best of what you have, and displaying it beautifully.

I'll show the pics asap to my buddy Tony the ex-Makaha local, he still owns the property that his bro lives on. The brother Abe drives big rig's moving dirt around the island, probably can't miss him, when they have local big rig get together's Abe wins the trophy for most detailed trucks.

I sure hope another local, @Huladog, is keeping an eye on this thread!

Thanks again for taking the effort in making these post's, so many of us living vicariously through these pics.

No problem braddah.

There are a lot of big rigs here but the rig of choice by far are Toyota 4 Runners.

Don't get me wrong Hawaii is a nice place to live but I need more roads like Big Island. Now I've been on all of the main roads I am going searching out the small ones and see where it take me.

Huladog checking in after @sealsam woke me up.

Yep, the island can feel confining when compared to the Big Island but what I’ve found as I got older is to ignore riding to a destination or even worrying about riding the same routes and just enjoy the mechanical-ness of the “ride”.

Huh? Stop worrying about the destination or the scenery and enjoy the machine you happen to be riding, that you personalized, modified to suit you.

Aloha, and wave when you see me doodling along on my black Bonneville T-120 with a single bag on the left side!

I definitely wouldn't own a big bike on Oahu and would probably just have a Ninja 250 or smaller, and in reading through this thread I keep thinking that with a smaller bike I would do exactly what you're describing.

Kokohead head. Similar to Manitou Incline in Colorado Springs but this was a military observation post.

Sarah Connor is alive and well on Oahu. That looks like the comfiest scooter seat ever. Didn't some Honda Elites come with a built in stereo?

Some pics from this evening at the Maili pillbox.

What happened to the right side bag?

The bunked? Do you know if they were pre-Pearl Harbor Attack or after the attack. I’m pretty sure they were built after the Pearl Harbor attacks and I do know the Navy built most of them. When I was in Hawaii they were off limits.