JERUSALEM JOURNAL: DAY 11– WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2010
It is 3:45 PM and I am sitting in my hotel room at Eilat, where we pulled in last night after our trip through the Negev and the Aravah wilderness area. Early in December I hurt my back, and as a result, I have been having some difficulty with respect to my activities on this trip. This morning, forty of the 42 in our group left to climb Mt. Sinai. I decided that it would not be prudent to do so, therefore, two of us have remained back at the hotel to rest up. Sinai would have been nice, but not at the expense of further injury. After I went up and did my laundry at a local Laundromat, the two of us had coffee, talked, and took a walk down to the city area where we exchanged the rest of our American currency for shekels, bought postcards, and I had my watchband repaired (one of the pins had popped out several days ago).
I found out that I am not the only person who has been concerned by the pace of the walks. In fact, if I had not spent time with her, it is quite possible that she might have decided to return home, because she feels so stressed. And this is not her first trip with Talbot. She says that pace has increased every year, and that it has been Todd, rather than the Rigsbys, who have been setting the pace.
The hotel here is wonderful, as compared with the hotel where we stayed two nights ago in Beersheva. At Beersheva, the room was so small, I could not move my chair back at the desk without bumping into my roommate’s bed. It was actually a youth hostel, although I must say that the food was very tasty. Here in Eilat, however, the room is a bit bigger (still twin beds), and we even have a couch in the corner of the room. We are on the sixth floor, and the view is spectacular of the harbor, and we can watch the airplanes taking off from the airport. The food, however, is adequate, but not as good as the other places that we have been--- especially the breakfasts. And yet, the people here are very helpful and accommodating, from the clerk at the desk to the Laundromat owner and his wife, who talked with me while I was doing my clothes. He is a reservist in the Israeli Army, and I was able to find out a little bit about the situation here in Israel and their views of the American Government, especially the present administration.
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