Day 21

Nov. 26, 2017
Woke up at 7am
Today started like any old day. Only this time I was immediately greeted by the neighbor’s dogs (all 9 of them). As soon as I leave the confines of my tent they are all huddled about 30 yards from me barking like crazy. After about 6 days of this, I have just about had enough. I decided to start throwing rocks. Don’t worry not at them, but at the trees near them. This usually scares them off. Well, they retreat into their own property and continue to bark from there, but it’s good enough for me to continue my morning. I will try to get some video of this so everyone can see what my morning routines have become.

Later in the day, I decided it was time to go do laundry. So I loaded up the van and headed for the laundromat. Only 3 miles into the drive the engine stalls and the wheels start to lock up. So I quickly pull over and put on my hazards. Luckily it was early and not a whole lot of traffic was on the road, as I needed to go from the far left lane to the shoulder.  I contacted the owner of the vehicle Monty. He tells me that he has a mechanic in Hilo that can take a look at the van. He also tells me that he is having a tow truck come by to pick up the van and take to the shop. As I am not from the island I do not have any means of getting back home from this. Also, since he was aware of the van issues and did not tell me about any of them until after I got the van, I felt it was his duty to get me a ride back. It was the least he could do. I would have walked but it was about 3 miles in the rain and I had a van of about 1000lbs of tools in there. After asking me to leave the keys in the van for the tow truck guy, I reminded him that I have a large number of valuables in this van and I would not like to leave them in an unlocked van by the side of the road.

He does end up finding me a ride (with coercion) and I get all my things back to the site. After lugging all the tools up the muddy driveway I cover everything up with plastic and went back into the tent. He calls me a bit later and says he has a replacement car for me. It is in Hilo(13 miles away) at the same place his van is being worked on. This car will only be temporary as I need to drop it off to another person who has rented it for the week once I have used it for a couple of days. After this, I will get another van or the same van back. He won’t know more until the mechanic has a chance to take a look at the old van. Without explaining to me how I will get back from delivering this car to some other renter, I asked the question on how I would even get to this temporary car in Hilo in the first place. Let’s just say his response was less than helpful. He stated that it is Hawaii and I can always hitch hike if need be. To which I replied that I had paid him a good deal of money for a van that has continuously broken down. But not only that, I also needed to catch my own ride there and then be a delivery service to the next individual who may or may not be able to give me a ride to the next location to get the third vehicle. When I picked up the van that first day it turned into a 3-hour ordeal in which I was left with a quarter tank of gas when complete. So I was pretty much at my limit for playing errand boy by this time.

I definitely will not be using this guy ever again as this van is a poor excuse for a vehicle. I know I am not paying ridiculously high prices, and if I don’t like it then I could just go to a car rental location, but that doesn’t mean giving someone a broken down lemon and expecting them to take care of everything for you is ok.
He told me about the coolant leak, tire leak, passenger window not working nor the ac properly working two hours after getting the vehicle. Which seems to me that he was aware of the problems but chose to rent it out to me anyway. He acts very cool and laid back, like breath deep and what not, but he is a snake in the grass. He is just as corporate as McDonalds or Verizon.

One week before the van rental I was gonna have to cut my time here short as the wife was having some pregnancy issues.  So I messaged him and he told me that I would lose the entire $250 deposit if he could not find a renter for that week. Not even AVIS or Enterprise do that. It was a family emergency and I had reserved the van for the month so I am sure he would be able to get another person to rent the van easily as these are in high demand over here. I even offered to find another renter for my reservation but he still insisted that I would lose the deposit for a van I never received. Luckily I didn’t have to leave, but this was the first red flag I should have paid attention to.

So if you ever on the big island and you need a car, DO NOT use Monty. I can let you know of some cool people to help you out but it will definitely not be him. I have changed his name for privacy reasons, but if you ever need to know who this person is, message me I will be happy to tell.