Kapua, beautiful work on that schedule of events. Sound great to me.
The reasons for him going around the back side of the island could have been simply that he'd just killed someone and wanted to zone out and drive without having to be super-vigilant about the treacherous Hana Hwy, where you constantly have to slow down, speed up, and take the curves. I love to take drives, it's a huge stress reliever, and judging by mentions I've seen about Steven going on drives, he might also like to decompress by driving & turning the music up. He might've just known it would be a more easy, relaxing drive than going on the Hana Hwy. I would do it for that reason even if it took longer.
Regarding cell phone tower reception, here's a map supposedly showing the cell towers in Hawaii. The blue dots are AT&T which seems to be what is under review. I put an arrow near the one that could be turned East to give reception to E. Maui(?) and an arrow near one that could be servicing all of upcountry Haleakala, thus indicating he was back in his "home area" when he entered within its range. If this tower that I've arrowed (or another one of them) provided reception to the whole upcountry & Haiku area, then it might be as simple as him being in the region of, say, Ulupalakua when he connected with that tower on his drive home - nowhere near his actual home but just within the signal zone of his "home tower." I've just used this map as a possibility so we can visualize the reception issue, it's not meant to be precise at all.
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