Friday, January 4, 2013

Promising the Sun


While vacationing in Hawaii my wife and I took a bus to the top of a volcano to watch the sunrise and then ride beach cruisers down the mountain. It began alpine-start style when they picked us up at 2:45 a.m. so that we might reach the summit with enough time to wait in the freezing cold for an hour before sunrise. Since I'm incapable of sleeping in cars or planes, I was the only person awake during our drive to the summit. On the way up, the driver looked at me in the rearview mirror and said, "Now, we can't guarantee that there'll be a sunrise, but we've been lucky all week." I laughed out loud because I assumed he was joking. I know travel companies are careful not to guarantee specific experiences since they sometimes fall short, but I also know that if the sun failed to rise the last thing I'd be worried about was getting a refund from him on my bus ride and bike trip. I understood what he meant about one minute to sunrise when a huge storm swept in and reduced visibility to 100 feet. Yes, the sun would rise today, but I would not see it.

No comments:

Post a Comment