It’s a Small World

The morning started in Elah Valley where David slew Goliath. Well, actually it started stuck in traffic for two hours. That’s fairly entertaining! Always lots to look at cause there’s just so many people. Traffic jams in the West Bank are noisy affairs with much honking, shoving, and driving the wrong way down one ways just to cut in line ahead. In Israel they are quite quiet, but always have fascinating Jews speeding by on the sidewalk, hair locks swinging, pushing prams and almost always walking at an incredible clip!

Elah Valley- Thanks to a spring in the middle of the road we had to walk a fair ways to reach the top of the Israelite hill. There were masses of wildflowers and the sun was shining brilliantly. We explored around and I sunned myself on a rock like a fat lizard while the guys hiked down into the actual valley. We were the only ones around so that was peaceful…

After battling more miles of traffic we ended up at Tel Aviv Marina where we had arranged with a guy to take a sailboat out for the afternoon. That was fun, getting to know new ways of docking, a different bouyage system and most of all to be on the Mediterranean! We cruised here and there and sailed past Joppa/Jaffa and thought about Jonah and Simon the Tanner. The water was gorgeous and we could see big ole jellyfish blobbing around.

Waze led us home the craziest way. I have never dealt with such a ridiculous navigation app! It even sings dippy songs and makes nonsensical comments that either make you roaring mad or laugh. I did a bit of both. But coming from the prairie we are not built to deal with endless traffic. Well, I’m not anyway and by the time we got to a grocery store to stock up on our dwindling supplies I was ready to crawl into bed and never wake up.

Fortunately the store was interesting and that made up for some of the suffering;). I quite like buying groceries by appealing packaging and price instead of by name and ingredient. Faced with a whole wall of unreadable cheese you naturally grab the one that’s A: cheap and B: has a pic of an attractive almond tree in bloom on it. This does not always turn out so well but that’s interesting too. It happens at restaurants too. I was given some stuff that looked just like vanilla pudding and of course the server couldn’t tell me what it was in English. I took a nice hearty bite only to find it was pure garlic pudding. So strong it burned like horseradish. About then the server came parading out of the kitchen with an actual garlic so if I had waited….

Bed was not to be early that night in spite of how we felt. The instant we walked into our apartment, our arms heavily laden with groceries and whatever we had quick grabbed for supper, there was a polite knocking at the door. It was a Canadian from 3rd floor come to pay a social call. We seated him at the table with a cuppa and proceeded to chatter and heat our Ramon noodles, or instant mashed potatoes, or dig into our hummus depending who we were. He was quite young and was on a Spiritual Pilgrimage. Certainly different but it takes all kinds to make the world go round.

P. S.

Ok, so I never got that sent yesterday due to Peter staying till all hours. Now I’m in bed in Eilat, which is right on the Red Sea. We wound our way over here, stopping to hike at several places and peer down Abrahams well at Beer-Sheba. Weather was gorgeous and sunny. Israel’s Air Force was an almost constant rumble overhead and we could here the firing practice occasionally. The desert is not quiet. We found a new hike at Ada’s Canyon which, as one review said, is not for fatties. Some pretty tight squiggling and scrambling at places.

Sunset found us at Princess beach watching the exotic fish swim under the pier. There were hundreds of brilliant fish but I didn’t see the eel that Heath did.

Our Supper was kicked back, literally, in a Bedouin restaurant. I’m quite sure the kitchen wasn’t USDA approved but the food was good and company pleasant. The whole sea side of the tent was open to the outdoors so you could watch the lights of ships and Jordan as you lounged on the low couches. I almost fell asleep it was all so cozy and comfortable. If I did a DNA test I’m almost positive I’d have a high Bedouin content. How I love that laid back life. We told the owner that we’d be back and he said “we have no door, you are always welcome “ which quite literally was true.

We have an apartment rented for two nights in Eilat so we’ll see what all we get accomplished. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, and you all know what that does to a desert! Shuts everything down, for sure the hiking trails. The other day we went the day after a big rain and we saw a car that hadn’t faired too well when the floods crossed the road. That thing was totaled.

And so goodnight until next time…