Like most every American, I’m really ticked off about this federal government shutdown. It’s an embarrassment to the country and an unnecessary hardship on hundreds of thousands..perhaps millions..of people caught in the middle. But to be perfectly honest, I haven’t been directly affected by it at all until now; and I’m not going to get much sympathy from you good folks when I tell you how.
You see, Linda and I leave Wednesday hosting another Keloland/Holiday Vacations tour; this time to Hawaii. We have had the pleasure of visiting the Islands twice before and are looking forward to traveling with a group of nearly 40 others from the Keloland viewing area who signed up to go with us. For a lot of those people, this has been a life long dream; one they’ve spent years saving up for.
Oh, most everything about this paradise that is our 50th state will be the same. When we arrive, lovely brown skinned Hawaiian ladies in grass skirts will still meet us at the airport with a smile, an Aloha greeting and a lovely wreath of local fragrant flowers to place around our necks. There will be gentle ukulele music in the background as we check in to our high rise Honolulu hotel with a balcony facing Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head off to our left. We’ll enjoy an umbrella beverage as we gaze down on the emerald Pacific waters with waves carrying surfers to shore.
But, thanks to those jackasses in Washington D.C., (pick a party to blame) our scheduled trip to Pearl Harbor and the Battleship Arizona National Memorial along with a tour of the National Memorial Cemetery honoring Americans who fought in the Pacific, won’t be happening much to the disappointment of many in our group who I know really wanted to experience it.
Tourists returning to buses after learning that the USS Arizona Memorial is closed because of the government shutdown.
I really feel bad for them and also for Holiday Vacations, who really are stand-up folks, and have so many tours across the country that involve National Parks and monuments who are now left scrambling to come up with satisfying alternatives. It sounds like they’ve arranged for us to tour the famous battleship Missouri which is docked at Pearl Harbor. It was on that ship that the Japanese surrendered to General Douglas Macarthur ending World War II. That’s certainly some consolation and should be very interesting. Still, it’s just a damn shame. But, you know, it has been our experience after hosting so many of these tours that there is truly such a thing as “South Dakota nice” among the people who travel with us; a “go with the flow” attitude which I envy. Anyway, maybe those blockheads in Washington will come to their senses in the next couple days and end this stalemate that, according to the latest CBS poll, 72 of Americans are fed up with. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. My nose, yes.
Anyway, as usual, I’ll post a few photos and share some stories of our Polynesian adventure right here on the blog over the next week and a half. I hope you can travel along with us next time.
The shutdown will surely be over by then won’t it?
