Attachment 2710
This has been my 5th time to Hawaii, but first time to the Big Island and Hilo. It was an experience to remember, I'm sure for the rest of my life. To the extent I'm able to talk about things, I will.
In Cali, I am driving to the airport and BOOM!... My tire blows out, sort of. I hear a pop, pop, pop.. with every revolution of the tire. I pull off the road and see a tire shred about a 1/4 inch wide, and a foot long. I look further and see that the string will eventually travel around the tire and really cause mayhem. I'm like can this tire go another 80 miles? Probably not. Pull into a gas station and hit up AAA. At this point, I'm counting on missing the flight. AAA comes pretty darn fast and I'm back on the road. I call Hawaiian air and they are saying to resched is gonna cost 200 plus the flight difference. I was like, "nah, I'll just head to lax and see what I can do."
I missed my flight, but fortunately they put me on the next flight(2 hrs later) but still in time to catch my connection in Honolulu, and like that, I'm in Hilo. JD picks me up and I'm thinking we're gonna grab a bite. He was like, "Did you bring your gi?" I was like yeah. He was like I'm gonna go teach, you can watch. I was like, "nah I'm game to train." So this was the first time I fly and land and go straight to training. Jet leg? hahahaha! Maybe, but I held my own. My first experience rolling with a Penn brother was enlightening.
After training we get to the Penn household and I get to meet Reagan-great person, funny as funk!!! We get to eating, drinks etc. BJ comes over from his own pad and I'm like oh shoot, hide the ish!! lol. that's all. They ask if I wanna go running in the morning with BJ and a couple others. Running? I haven't "ran" for like 5 years, but I didn't wanna chump out. So I'm like f-it let's go. As 6:30am we're up and running: BJ, JD, 2 of their neighbors and me. And we run, run and run. It never stopped. We ran across a bay and kept running. I felt I've seen this whole scenario before like on a road to the ufc video. We're running and people are honking and throwing shakas, people out of their houses are yelling BJ!, or Hey CHAMP!!! I was like, where the funk am I? this is surreal as funk.
We finally make it back after what seemed like 8 miles, all on my tippy toes because Reagan said it's better for your hips and knees, and believe me my knees are jacked from the few minutes I tried to not run on my toes. The whole time I thought to myself, if I punk out after mile 1 they'll think I'm chump change. So I kept up. We all drink some island veges and fruit juice with ginger. Very refreshing. Afterwards, Reagan takes me to a mineral pond which is pretty much ice water. I think the locals call it Sober Pond. At this point, I can't walk, I got blisters on all toes and I'm aching pretty freakin badly. That pond woke me the funk up though. Reagan's pit bull looking pup jumps in and swims around like it's nothing, and then turns toward us. Reagan says watch out he has long, sharp nails. So as Peh-eh' comes toward you, you just gotta divert his paddling elsewhere and he continues along.
That night we get to the gym, and BJ is teaching nogi and I get to roll with BJ and Reagan. They are all super talented. I do the best I can to show em what 10pjj is all about. It's all love.
Wed, Thurs, and Friday are the same. I got to teach 2 of those days. Wouldn't trade those experiences for the world. Saturday came along and I go with JD's family to a beach about an hour and a half away on the other side of the island. I swear, the Penn family is known throughout. I think like 5 or 6 people were like hey JD what's up man! A couple fellas were like, "Hey aren't you JD, Bj's brother?".. It was a trip.
All in all, it was a great experience. I'm probably heading back over pretty soon for BJ's camp. He'll be fighting Edgar pretty soon. While out there, I'm gonna try to bounce around to the other islands this time though. Gotta visit some folks out there, while I'm there. Currently, I'm peeling off the last of the blistered skin, but since the visual of Hilo came up and the experiences, still vivid in my mind, are abundant, I had to take this opportunity to "JUST WRITE."
-slick
