Up at 2 AM to go to Haleakala Bike Tours.  We were fitted for our bikes and Bill and I got those stupid motocross helmets with the chin piece attached.  Maureen and Duane had their own helmets so were spared wearing those goofy things.  I felt like a twelve year old and thought I should be on a BMX bike not a mountain bike.  We rode up the mountain in a van with just the four of us, another couple from South Carolina and our driver/guide.  Must confess I was wondering what the heck we were doing.  The last time I did this trip was about 35 years ago with three girl friends and the visibility was so poor at the top I vowed I would never do it again.  Today quite the opposite.  The views at the top were fabulous, the sunrise was beautiful and the ride down was fantastic!   We reached the top around 4:45 AM and had to wait almost an hour and a half for the sunrise.  We all opted to snooze and luckily Maureen woke up just as the sky was starting to get light.  Even our driver was sawing logs.  I would have been quite ticked if we had all slept through the sunrise.  Fortunately that didn't happen and we found our way up to the view point along with quite the crowd of people!  It was quite chilly up there but once the sun started to rise things started to warm up a little.  While we were watching I overheard a conversation behind me.  A couple of Canadian girls chatting up a couple of Americans.  The American exclaimed that he knew all about the dietary preferences of Canadians.  He had heard we all LOVE poutine!  At that point I turned around and said Canadians don't love poutine....poutine is from Quebec!  Every so often things come out of my mouth and even I have to pause and wonder if I really said what I said.  This was one of those occasions for sure!   The girl gave me the dirtiest look and said "Well Quebec is part of Canada!"  I said yes, I knew that but poutine was not a Canadian delicacy.  I thought I was going to get lynched!

We enjoyed the sunrise and snapped lots of photos then headed back to the van for a bit of a tour of the area up at the top.  Our guide was entertaining and informative and we enjoyed him tremendously.  We finally were taken to our bikes and set free on the ride down the volcano!  Fun, fun, fun and what a great way to get a feel for the countryside.  You get such a different perspective from a bike than you do from a car.  Not much of an aerobic workout as you basically go downhill for 23 miles!  There were only a couple of short stretches where we had to peddle uphill and then back to the downhill cruise.    We stopped for breakfast at a place called Higher Ground continued on and were done by 11:30!  Headed home and stopped to view some fabulous surf along the way.  Went down to the beach for a bit but the sand was blowing so wandered back up to the pool in the complex.  We have just finished supper and are all in fade mode and it is only 8 PM.  Don't think any of us will make ten o'clock tonight.  Tomorrow we have a quieter, more laid back day planned.  A little snorkelling, a little beach and maybe a little shopping.  Will be nice!

Getting ready to start the ride down the volcano!