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Wow! It's been fun so far and we
have only been on the road about 10 months!
30,000, or so, postal miles later, we are excited to
have come back home to Puna. There hasn't been much
fanfare or paparazzi with our return but that's all
about to change. We hope.
Our purpose in returning home is to welcome a very important
guest...the Roaming
Gnome of Travelocity. Love him or hate him he has
become an iconic celebrity and introduced the world
to us...the fun loving traveling gnomes.
We aren't sure how long we will be home but the RG will
be visiting us for 2 weeks. We plan to show him all
over Hilo, Puna and Volcano and if all goes well even
create a video documentary of his visit for YouTube
and our MySpace!
Needless to say we are very excited...
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In the mean time we are waiting for
his flight to arrive. It's all very hush hush since
RG is such a rockstar. We won't know until almost the
minute he arrives that he has gotten here. Security
and all.
We traveled home via Fed Ex thanks to are most excellent
hosts in New Jersey and Tony picked us up at the mail
depot this morning.
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Del from Jersey had sent us the final
pictures and story from he and Fritz so Tony took us
all to Starbuck's for a dose of caffeine and to get
a little work done.
Tiki Jr. kept amping out about all the places they had
visited and finally getting to meet Tony.
Tikiyaki Sr. is arriving on the island on Tuesday for
the momentous event of RG's arrival. This will be the
first time that Tony, myself, Tikiyaki Sr. and Tiki
Jr. will all be in the same place at the same time.
Woohoo!
We have even gotten word that Su, the killer gal that
hosted our Oceanside, NY visit may arrive for a quick
day tour of Hilo on August 5th! Unbelievable...she misses
us that much!!!
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I felt a great sense of pride when
we finally got to Tony's place way back in the sticks.
Though I have only been Puna's gnome ambassador for
a short time I also feel the sense of peace that he
feels being in Puna.
The lush green of the Hapu'u ferns and Ohia trees was
captivating and I breathed a deep sigh of gratitude
to be home.
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Tony's wife has been working hard
on the property planting all kinds of flowers and pineapples.
Once a few years have gone by the place will be a vision
of paradise!
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I had only met his son briefly before
I left and was quite impressed with all of the things
he was learning like letters and numbers. He's not even
2 yet! He sure is a great kid.
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There are 4 cats that call this place
home. Above are Peele, in the front, and Alani, in the
back. The other 2 were of stalking lizards or something.
Peele loves to be photographed!
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They have 2 dogs, Ozzy & Abby.
Ozzy, pictured above, is named after that famous rockstar
legend guy and well Abby rhymes with Ozzy sort of. They
are Lab/Husky/Chow mutts.
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Tony wanted to take a few photos
of us before we settled in for a rest. Ole Tiki Jr was
so exhausted from all the amping out he was doing and
could barely stand or keep his eyes open.
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We nestled him in to the ferns and
let him sleep the rest of the day away. A serene sleep
that can only be achieved in the rainforest.
Tony and I spent the rest of the day discussing RG's
visit and trying to put together the itinerary that
Travelocity requested.
The RG's visit will be documented
on his myspace blog and on our website!
(Photos: Tony V./ Dialogue: Tony V.)
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