WELCOME TO THE U.S.A.

U.S. Immigration official: What was the purpose of your visit to Iran?

Mark: Tourism.

U.S. Immigration official: I beg your pardon sir?

I excepted plenty of attention from U.S. immigration officials when I arrived into the Hawaiian islands, U.S.A. I had passport stamps for Iran plus 3 other countries that has borders with Afghanistan. But I had everything in order to increase my chances of getting through U.S. immigration. I had exit flights booked, photocopies of receipts of hotels booked and car rental within Hawaii, photocopies of recent bank statements, a copy of a letter from my previous employer saying I had a job to return to in Ireland. And so after plenty of questions, the understandably inquisitive, but polite U.S. immigration official granted me a 90 day visa to cross the U.S. with. Its worth mentioning that when I visited an outdoor store, later that day, to purchase a part for my stove than needed replacing, I'd seen more guns on my first few hours in Hawaii than the entire 21 days I spent in Iran. And when I decided to pick up a bottle of wine in a liquor store, I was asked, (for the first time in about 15 years) for proof of age identification. 'HAVE A NICE DAY'. Considering you are questioning if I'm over 21 years of age, I certainly will 'HAVE A NICE DAY'.
Now, let me tell ye about Hawaii. I'm sorry but there is no easy way to talk about Hawaii, without unintentionally (or otherwise) making any one, just green with envy. I'm real sorry. It just can't be helped. Its Paradise. And so if you feel this next paragraph is not going to help your PCBS (Post-Christmas-Blues-Syndrome), then just skip it and pick up that credit card bill instead. Its more likely to cheer you up.

It was December 22nd. The beach was full and the waves were big and the sun was beaming down. But there was no sunshine in Ireland. Genevieve's plane was stuck in Heathrow due to heavy snow. But 24 hours late, she arrived in these islands that label themselves Paradise. During our 2 week stay here, we toured 3 of the Hawaiian Islands - O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island. There was fun times on beautiful black sanded beaches as we were battling against some of the world's biggest waves. 3 days hiking through a National Park that is home to the worlds most active volcano. There was big, big portions of food and plenty of cocktails with fat chunks of pineapple and generous portions of alcohol. Although we camped for 3 nights, we did manage to do an occasional splurge. Using my credit card and Genevieve's wisdom, we managed a 4 night stay in a 4 star beach front golf resort. (Not my usual choice of accommodation, but if you check out http://www.hotwire.com/, ye can see how such hotels can be picked up reasonably cheaply.) We even rented out bicycles and free wheeled down from the lunar like landscape of the Haleakala Volcano. The fact that Genevieve managed to overtake me on the final hill is proof that my left knee is finally shot. There was whale watching tours on board multi-million dollar speed boats and catamaranas we gazed out at humpback whales doing the full breach in the Pacific. We went snorkelling a few times in calm secluded bays that were full of so many colourful fish, you'd swear you were snorkelling in a giant aquarium. And even on Christmas Day the priest performing the service had a multi coloured Hawaiian shirt visible through his vestments. This is Hawaii. It seemed a hundred million miles away from some of the regions I had pedalled through only a few months previously and these tropical islands are so full of pineapples, you could pick one up in the supermarket for cheaper than an apple. Again it seemed a hundred million miles from where my final destination is- Ireland. When I get emails from home about Ireland, I hear they are no longer measuring rainfall in inches. They are measuring it in feet and even metres. And it seems the only it stops raining, is when it starts snowing. As a tourist, Hawaii is about as good as it gets. Date of departure was the 4th of January. It seemed like we had only just arrived. Not easy saying 'Goodbye', I reckon it will take me about 4 months to cycle across the United States.