PINE NUTS – Surf Bum to Ski Bum
May 30, 2025 | McAvoy Lane
Forty years or so ago, I found myself staring up at the West Maui Mountains from Kahului, where I had been hosting a morning radio show for the previous ten years. I had a panoramic view of those lush green mountains, boasting a single bright red African Tulip tree cradled in her verdant mists. And directly above that African Tulip stood a white cross that some devoted artisan had placed so perfectly up there on high…
I adored the Valley Island and her lovely people, but I also knew I could not live my life out on that idyllic Island. So I made a solemn vow to leave the Valley Island when that African Tulip touched that white cross. It didn’t take long, a couple months maybe, before the two joined together in one prophetic God-Wink for this restless Maui Boy…
I had no idea where I would be going, but as good fortune would have it, I did have a girlfriend at the Lake of the Sky, Lake Tahoe, so I thought I might start there, and find out what providence might have to offer this drifter…
How could I possibly have imagined that 40 years henceforth I would be portraying Mark Twain at Tahoe, and repeating his prophetic words…
“If there is any happier life than the life we led on our timber ranch for those three weeks in 1861, it must be the sort of life which I have not read about in books. We did not see another human being during those three weeks. We heard nothing but the sound of the waves, the sighing of the pine, and now and then the far-off thunder of an avalanche. The eye suffered but one grief, that it but must close sometimes in sleep. It was a veritable habitation with the gods. No, if Lake Tahoe does not cure whatever ails you, I’ll bury you at my own expense.”
As providence would dictate, my visits to schools as Mark Twain would take him and me to Virginia City, the nation’s capital, Europe, Russia, and back to the Sandwich Islands, as Hawaii was known fondly to so many away back in 1866…
Upon my return to Maui as Mark Twain, I carried the strangest feelings along with me, for I was older by 108 years, and as many years wiser. Yet I was able to wash the white spray out of my hair and go for a run atop the old Waikamoi Flume with a few of my old jogging pals…
So it is, today, now in my 41st year of idyllic life here at Tahoe, that I lift a glass to those deep green West Maui mountains, that bright red African Tulip tree, and yes, the beautiful white cross, that sent this restive Maui Boy across the Pacific Ocean to worship with gratitude and respect, God’s Masterpiece of the Creation, The Lake of the Sky, Lake Tahoe…
Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO
