After a smooth walk, light rail, and two plane hops Connie and I were on the Big Island of Hawaii. The folks from Lost Campers picked us up, briefed us on our awesome van, then we hit the road towards our first campground. In route to Ho'okena Beach Park we stopped for some supplies and a bit of traditional Hawaiian food for dinner at Ka'aloa's Super J's. The promise of laulau was met in this roadside food stop just along side the main highway. Outside under a covered carport at sunset during a light and brief evening rain, a man prepped luau leaves for the next day while inside our hostess made up our plates. The laulau itself was simple with the leaves tasting almost like the meat of an artichoke leaf wrapping the tender, juicy pork inside. We tried some cabbage dish as a bit of a "why not?" but didn't find it nearly as tasty.

With our bellies were full, we headed down the now dark highway. The road down to Ho'okena was a dark, narrow, and windy one that descends from about 1000' to sea level. I'm mostly glad I didn't scrape our van on the stone walls just off the edge of each side of the curvy path. We backed into our spot, checked in and had a nice chat with the park manager for that night, then popped up the roof-top tent to settle in for the night with the sound of waves crashing on the darkened beach just feet from us.