The true grit, multiple skills and dogged determination that brought the pioneers over the Oregon Trail and Hawaiian seafarers across the Pacific are not dead. I witnessed shining examples of these virtues on my flights to the Big-Big Island en route to a family reunion in Kansas and a research stop in San Francisco.

Today's true heroes of adventure, however, do not travel in covered wagons and double-hull voyaging canoes.

Picture Honolulu International Airport at 7 a.m. The line waiting to check bags through the agriculture station extended halfway across the terminal.

My eye fell upon a willowy lady — blue-jeans-chic, features unspoiled by makeup. She could have been a fashion model. But she was the wife of someone who looked to me like a Marine officer in civilian clothes. At least, he had lots of muscles and a Marine crewcut.

Two very active, mop-headed female urchins, ages about 5 and 8, completed the family. They were standing by a mountain of luggage. I mean, it looked like Mauna Kea without snow.

The Marine seemed confused by this challenge. He let his slender wife wrestle their enormous bags onto the conveyor. She did it as easily as a western-bound frontier wife loaded a Conestoga.

By the time she had the bags taken care of, the girls were romping at the other end of the terminal. The mother went in chase. I didn't notice any scolding, just calm capability. Pretty soon she passed by with the girls in tow on their way to a bathroom. She seemed a tad frazzled when they boarded the plane, but there wasn't a whimper out of her.

Leaving Los Angeles, another mother got on the plane at the last minute. She carried a 6-month-old girl and led another, about 4. Meanwhile, she lugged two carry-ons and a stroller for which there was no room in the luggage compartments.

A flight attendant who looked to be six months' pregnant came to the rescue. The mother got her 4-year-old settled and gave her a coloring book. Then she popped a bottle into the mouth of her baby, who was squalling.

After the feeding, the mother had to get toys from a carry-on in the upper compartment and put the bag back. She reminded me of an Energizer battery advertisement. The baby flaked out in her lap and she got about a half-hour of rest before the next feeding. She needed a napkin to wipe the baby's fingers so the flight attendant, who was rushing up and down the aisle with lunch, passed her one on the fly like an Olympic relay team.

On my way to the bathroom, I asked the mother, "Do you do this often?"

She answered, "Too often."

I said, "You're doing a great job. I'm in awe."

She answered, "Thanks."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.