Moped, white knuckles, and a loaf of bread

Moped, white knuckles, and a loaf of bread

When you go on vacation, people who have been there already have a list of things that you must do. I appreciate that, I don’t want to leave and find out I missed a great opportunity to see or do something special. This list can include some “off the wall” stuff too, those are the adventures that we like to squeeze in.

Before leaving California, a friend had told us about this remote place that makes the best banana bread.  The place was called Julie’s; I saw a picture of The Famous Julia’s Banana Bread Treehouse and thought it was different. Once we got to Maui, this same place was mentioned in passing several times. I asked each of them if the banana bread was good. Without exception, each of them said, “it’s okay”. Not a strong endorsement.

Have you ever rented a Moped? I hadn’t until today. I thought that it would be fun to cruise around and check out the locate sites. While renting the moped from Eagle Cycle, the banana bread came up again. He said it was “okay”. The clerk said it was 90 minutes, of winding roads with a cliff on one side and a rock face on the other. Hairpin turns keep the speeds down and an occasional turnout to let cars pass. 

For a guy who has never ridden one of these little scoopers, this sounded like fun. How hard could it be?

With a little practice in the parking lot and side streets, I was “king of the road”. The scoopers can be driven on the bike lane, switch helps when you start out on Highway 30. It wasn’t long before the road matched the description from the rental office. The views were spectacular, but I did not dare look away from this road. We did pull off several times to take in the beauty.

There is not much on this sectional of the island – no stores, gas stations, and no homes for miles. As we approached our destination, we took one last break. A group of fellow mopedians stopped and suggested that we go to get banana bread. I said that is where we are 

going. She said Julia’s was “okay” but there was a better place right next door. The woman point to where we were going and explained that from here to there is a single lane road. What? Yes, curvy, hilly, cliffs and rocks for the next mile or so.

We finally got there in this beautiful valley with a handful of homes in the town of. I met the nicest people there. They grow their own fruit (bananas, coconuts, sugar cane and more) and produce the finest breads, pies, coconut chips and things that I’ve never had before. It was incredibly good. We never got to Julia’s, but the next door neighbor had some of the tastiest food around.

I may not ever know who had the best banana bread, but the fun I had today is immeasurable. It reminded me that it's often the journey and not the destination that counts.

Enjoy this day!