January 12 - The Ohio State Buckeyes win the NCAA Football championship

     After coming down from the mountain we spent the night in a county park right on the ocean.  It wouldn't have been bad, except it was about twenty two feet from the end of the runway of the main Maui airport in Kahului.  Wow, some of those jets are loud!  Plus, the feral roosters ganged up for hourly choruses from famous Italian operas throughout the night.  And, some of our fellow campers exhibited a whole gamut of coughs: bronchial, smokers, whooping, and one old lady that sounded like she was cough/vomiting half the night.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.  At 3:30 am I was certain NASA had launched a Mars rocket only inches away from our tent. So I was glad that we had an AirBnb for the next night.
       After OSU beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl, an outcome that stunned everyone outside of the Buckeye State (and many within), I knew we'd have to find a venue to watch the championship game once we got to Hawaii. We found a fun little bar in Kihei to watch the game.

I may look like I'm hailing a cab, but actually I'm signalling We're Number One!

     Because the Oregon quarterback is from Hawaii I thought the crowd would be pretty hostile to an OSU fan.  But it turned out the fans were nearly equally divided.  It was a blast watching with such a happy bunch of people (we are in paradise after all).  At least, block O was happy.  Maybe the Ducks weren't quite as happy, but after the game was over we all parted with hugs and hearty pats on the back (lots of beer will do that for you).

     By the time we got to our AirBnb I was feeling cotton-headed.  It wasn't the IPA, of that I'm sure.  During the night I wondered how we could get two more nights in a bed, instead of sleeping in our tent, which had been our plan.  Maui is rather filled up, so I doubted I'd be able to find anything.  But after a night of blowing through forests of tissues, hopping up regularly to free my bladder of fever pee, and moaning through sinus and head pain, I was desperate to find something so I wouldn't have to sleep in the tent. The only thing that helped as I suffered through the night was replaying the game in my head.  I planned to do my best to find some place good to stay when I woke in the morning