In the spirit of adventure and frugality (seeing that my oh-so-lucrative writing career doesn't exactly pave the way to the Hilton just yet - well maybe it does, as you'll learn later), we decided that it might be kicky to sleep in the car every other night for our recent trip around the Big Island of Hawaii. To us, it justified the cost of renting a car for the week, as well as the environmental impact of driving after two months of living off-the-grid on a farm with none such extravagances. Don't ask - it made sense to us at the time.

(In our defense, and much to my surprise, we discovered that many hostel/frugal travelers employ the same car-sleeping strategy).

FIRST STOP: HILO

After taking care of some business and errands on our first day, we found ourselves looking for a place (I mean - parking spot) to turn in for some rest. "Ooh! Let's sleep in the Rainbow Falls parking lot (near Hilo), so we can wake up to see the falls at sunrise! I hear the morning rainbows are legendary," I said enthusiastically. Seemed like a good idea. Really, it did.

But after two hours of trying to sleep and being disturbed by truckload after truckload of local "kids" pulling in to drink, smoke, and do donuts, we realized we had chosen a pretty poor snoozing spot. Off to the next parking spot.

An uneventful six hours later, we were bleary-eyed and bushy-tailed (and a little smelly), but no worse for wear and ready to kick it into high gear for the day.

JUMPING OFF 12-TON BRIDGE

"You have to take the 4-mile scenic drive on your way out of the city," a guy at the local hostel told us. He gave us a few further tips on small hiking trails to take from this road for awesome views, as well as the low-down on 12-ton bridge.

"Just past the Botanical Gardens - don't bother (our kind of guy) - you'll see a white-washed bridge with a 12-ton sign: that's 12-ton bridge".

No. Couldn't be. "Okay, what next?" I asked, wondering what the punch line was.

"Next? Jump off it!"

Hmmm. This could get interesting.

We arrived at 12-ton bridge, already awed by the spectacular scenery and impressed with our advice received so far. But when we took a look over the rails of the bridge ready to jump, we paused.

"How many feet do you think that is?" I asked Kelly, trying to mask the slight tremor in my voice.

"Ummm," he said, trying to do the same, "Maybe…25 feet?"

Right.

"Is that a rock I see just below the surface of the water?" was my next question.

"Yep."

Right.

Needless to say, instead of jumping off (we decided that's how dumb tourists die), we scrambled down the wet slippery rocks to play in the waterfall down below. In retrospect, our choice of rocks to scramble down was even more treacherous than the jump would have been, but our spiffy rock-climbing skills saved the day. The other side was practically wheelchair accessible, of course.

The waterfall ran through an old lava tube, and although the water was chilly, it was a fun frolic and a great way to cool off. Before we left, some local Hawaiians came by to play, and they indeed jumped off the bridge. Seeing where exactly they jumped from and how they landed in the water, we figured we had no excuse not to jump in ourselves.

So we left.

To read the rest of this Hawaii adventure, click here!