Month: October 2015

In a couple of months I will begin my 20th year on the island of Maui.  Not unlike many others, I came here for a vacation and I ended up staying.  When I arrived I expected to find a tropical paradise, most folks do, and that it is…but what I didn’t expect is that it is also as country as anyplace in my home state of Tennessee.

On an island only a little larger than the county where I’m from, there exists most of the Earth’s climate zones, and a significant portion of the island looks like much of Tennessee.  Pastures and farmland and woodlands all resembling my home state, and folks in pickup trucks who wave when you pass.

But there are equally as many places here that satisfy the “tropical paradise” description of Maui.

Cowboys, farmers, and surfers all sharing this wonderful place.

People who are from here talk about “island (or rock) fever,” which means you feel like you have to go somewhere else and get away because the island is so isolated and, in many ways, quite rural.

I have never experienced that feeling.

Going on 20 years and I still have not seen anywhere close to all that Maui has to offer, and if I have 20 more I will still not have experienced all of the island’s beauty.