Driving in Hawaii - Part I

I think I've put more miles on our van in the 3 months we've lived here than I did in six month's time in Idaho. Everything is so bloody far away, but a lot of that is due to the fact that we chose to live in the "country". That's "country" with 50,000 people and no farms, but hey, if that's what they want to call it, I can too.

The funny thing is that it seems like everywhere I want to go is about 30-35 minutes away. Tom's office? 30 minutes. Hawaii Kai (East side of island)? 30 minutes. Leeward side? 30-35 minutes. I guess there is something to be said about being centrally located.

Today, for instance, I went to Wal-Mart and Costco. They are both about 30 minutes away. I had never gone to both stores on the same trip, so I got some directions off Mapquest to help me get from Wal-Mart to Costco. I had a pretty good idea how to get to Costco since it's right off the interstate, but I didn't want to do too much guessing.

I looked at the directions that Mapquest gave me and none of the first three streets mentioned were anywhere around Wal-Mart. I don't know what the folks behind Mapquest were smoking when they designed the maps for Oahu, but it wasn't something you can buy at 7-11 (well, maybe in the parking lot). It ended up I didn't need the stupid directions anyway because the interstate access was off one of the main roads I took.

That wasn't the first time Mapquest screwed up directions for us. The first time I tried getting to this particular Wal-Mart I got the directions off the site. Now you can see Wal-Mart and Sam's Club right off the interstate, so you'd think you'd just take the exit closest to them. Well, not according to Mapquest. It was telling me to get off two exits past the exit I thought I should take. I read those directions and tossed them on the floor (along with wrappers, umbrella, wet wipes and magazines) because I knew there was no way they could be right. I managed to find my way to the store after a couple of U-turns. Driving in any new city isn't easy, but I happen to think they designed the streets around here like this to send us mainlanders screaming all the way back home.

On the mainland, if you take a wrong exit off the interstate, you don't sweat it too much because you know you can just get back on and keep going. Here, just because you get off the interstate, doesn't mean you'll be able to get back on. They have off-ramps but then there won't be any on-ramps at the same place. Then you have to drive around on side streets trying to figure out how the hell to get back on the interstate.

This explains why when we first moved here Tom told me you have to make sure you not only get directions to where you're going, but also for you to get back home. For example, a few weekends ago we were on some wild-goose chase, got in an area we weren't familiar with and got off the interstate. I told Tom, "Look on the other side! There's no way to get back on. Now what are we going to do?" After meandering through a residential area and stopping for gas (but not asking for directions), we finally found our way back on.

I think I'm finally learning the ropes around here. I give myself at least 35 minutes to get where I'm going, and I base a lot of my decisions on where to shop on how easy it is to get off and back on the interstate. Hey, if it makes my life easier, it makes me happy!