First Day of our Tour

Wow. What a day! Funny, but I can remember thinking early this morning, about all the high hopes I had for the day ahead…..

As everyone in the family knows, I travel a lot for business. What you might not know is that I am listed on what is known as the “No Fly” list by the FAA. Basically it means that some bad guy out there has a similar name as mine, so my name is flagged everytime I travel. It permits the airlines to hassle me for a few extra minutes prior to every flight, until they finally see I am not the person they are wanting. Happens frequently, and I’ve adjusted to what has been a mild inconvenience. Until today that is.

We spent the night in Jordan and, after visiting Mt. Nebo (God spoke to Moses here and showed him all of Israel, Dead Sea, Jordan Valley, and its glory ) we took the 1 ½ hour drive to the border crossing at Israel (after a 30 minute delay for repairs to the poor old bus when the clutch went out). I guess the guy holding the assault rifle at the entry should have been my warning of the mess that would soon ensue. Everyone in the tour group went thru security checkpoints, including all bags, etc. Bill Gutshall was almost stripped down to underwear by time he got thru the sensors! Upon presenting passports, everyone got thru without anymore hitches, except for 1 person, ME. Yep, you guessed it. This country boy from North MO apparently is a potential threat to the security of the nation. They detained me for 30 minutes. I was asked several questions, what was your fathers name, where do I live, have I ever been to Spain, where is your wife, etc. Finally, after they realized that I was certainly no threat (I think it was my menacing posture, or possibly the look of fear in my eyes) they permitted me to proceed and re-join the herd. Honestly, I was spooked. The area was full of people, mostly Jordanians, that had been waiting for longer than me, for approvals to proceed in the country. I knew if I was not permitted entry to the country, I would have a nearly impossible task of returning to Amman Jordan alone to fly home. For Israel’s benefit, they must take their security seriously in this time of war. However, for a few moments there, I was really really homesick and simply didn’t want to be here anymore.

Our day proceeded with a stop in the oldest city in the world, Jericho. Most people don’t know this, but Jericho is controlled by the Palestinians (yep, their buddies are the ones in the newspaper, Gaza Strip, etc.). Therefore, security was tight, both entering and leaving the city (as if I had not already seen enough automatic weapons for 1 day). We were permitted in to tour the city; got to see the 2000 year old sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed into and saw the remaining 8000 years old walls of Jericho. The local folks have figured out the art of peddling their goods to the tourists, I’ll tell ya.
Afterwards, we continued on, stopping briefly at Bat Shean and saw the ruins of the Roman Amphitheater. Mercifully, we then proceeded to our hotel, which sits right on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Was pretty much dark here when we arrived, but I plan to investigate things in the morning prior to our day.

Maybe not exactly what I had in mind when the day started early this morning, but we are here, alive, and after catching up on some much needed rest (jetlag has hit us all) then we should be ready for an exciting day tomorrow. Probably one of the highlights of the the day was the fact that my rented cellphone works (now that we are in Israel). Somehow knowing that Missouri is just a phone call away makes things seem better.

I’m enclosing a link to my map, showing just where were traveled today. Photo’s are another story. As we are discovering, Internet access is a bit of a premium here, and service is iffy at times. I have uploaded a few to my facebook if you want to look there. Hopefully it works and everyone can enjoy a few scenes of what we are experiencing. Take care, will post another exciting day tomorrow.

Dave



Link to where we have been.... http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=113407999173617109556.00045f8c6eb780013dbc3&z=10