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I just wanted to let my out-of-town friends and family know that I’ve successfully made it back home now. I arrived just in time yesterday evening (Saturday) to make it to a friend’s daughter’s wedding. I was crashing by the end of the night, but today I am feeling pretty much back to normal.
My welcome back from Deanna and the girls was all that I expected it to be and more. It was such a good feeling to walk in and get hugs and kisses from all of them – totally made my entire trip. Destiny’s service this morning was a breath of fresh air, too; I’ve missed the worship.
Thanks for visiting my trip blog and supporting me while I was overseas. Many of your e-mails were such an encouragement to me while I was gone. If you are new to blogs and want to read this in order from start to finish, the easiest way would probably be to click through the days on the calendar to the left, starting on July 17th and working your way forward.
All of my Israel pics can be found online here. My YouTube clips can all be found in one place here. And you can see additional professional-quality pics from the 2007 Convention on the official Foursquare web site here.
May God bless you richly!
I was soooooo… anxious to get home I had my bags at the shuttle bus an hour before we were to leave, just as soon as the driver pulled up. The ride was quick, but the security process at Israel was not. I counted six different security stops before I was through to the terminal / gate areas. Whew! I was getting a little nervous, because it seems like they were stopping me for all of the “extra-length” measures along the way — again!
The flight itself was okay. I sat between two very quiet females who went directly to sleep. I caught the rest of the new Sandra Bullock movie (I forget the name of it) of which I saw the first part on the way. Not too bad, but a terrible ending in my opinion.
I got back through American customs with no issues and had to wait until 10:30 AM before I could check my luggage and get back into the terminal area. That was a LONG wait.
Once I got in, it wasn’t so bad as I connected to the Internet again (pretty cheaply this time) and was able to e-mail and work on the blog, pics, and video from the trip. I was able to go back to a lot of the older posts and update them with pics and video. I am still working on catching up with it all as I await my flight to Cincinnati — from Cincinnati, I will fly to Denver, getting there at about 10:00 PM.
(Wee early morning hours update — currently 3:33 AM in Cincinnati)
This is turning out to be the never-ending travel day. My flight from New York was waiting for take-off for five hours before they finally took us back to the gate to refuel the plane and allow us to get something to eat. A series of storms between New York and Cincinatti were causing the delays. Looooooong story short, my 4:25 PM departure FINALLY left at 12:30 AM. I arrived at Cincinatti close to 2:00 AM. They rescheduled my connection flight for the morning and I am now scheduled to be in Denver at around 10:00 AM on Saturday. Basically, I’ve been shuttling or flying since Thursday evening. Ugh! Not my favorite part of the trip.
I’m in the process of posting my still pics to a web gallery hosted by Picasa online. It looks like it is messing up my order; I will try and work on that if I have any time in the next few days. But anyhow, here’s the address: picasaweb.google.com/ShoupRock/IsraelTrip. I will keep adding pics as I take them each day (and as Internet is available).
Okay, yesterday and today — might as well be called one looooong day. My alarm went off at 3:45 AM on Tuesday morning and I departed with Sally and her friend, Barb, at 4:30 AM for the Denver airport. I got through check-in and security with little-to-no fanfare. It was pretty quite. I got on the plane — everything was looking to be running smoothly. That is, until I actually boarded the plane…
Once on the plane, we were stuck on the runway for no less than an hour and a half! The first “incident” was that our brakes supposedly had overheated going down what they called a “hill”. Ha-ha! I’ve got to laugh because “hill” was a bit of an over-exaggeration in my book. Much closer to a “slightly inclined, barely-there, slope”.
The next thing they told us is that they were having software glitches and that they were online with “tech support”. “Oh, great! Because tech support is usually very speedy!” (smile)
Anyhow, the wait was long, but we got in the air and thought that would be that. Turns out, it wasn’t. We were delayed two more times on that flight: once because of a bad weather re-route and a second time because of the sheer volume of planes coming in to the Washington D.C. Dulles Airport at the same time. Ugh! The only half-good thing about that initial trip was that we got to see the movie “Blades of Glory”, and I do mean “half-good”. There were some laugh-out-loud moments, but I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it! LOL.
If my first flight was delayed like it was, that could mean good news, right? …shorter connection wait between my connecting flight? Turns out that didn’t work out either. My flight to New York was also delayed for more than an hour. I was leaving Washington D.C. at the time I was supposed to be arriving in New York initially. Anyhow, all that to say that it was a long day leading up to my check-in at El-Al Airlines. Not a terrible day, just a long one.
Upon picking up my baggage from the D.C. flight, I took the airbus over to the El-Al Terminal. It was a little tricky to find as there were so many international airlines — the place is HUGE! I knew something was weird right away when I was checking in because the female attendant that was helping me was escorting me around personally to the computer terminals and security check-points. When I got to the baggage security area, I was told that I had to leave ALL my bags with them (checked and carry-on) and come back at midnight to claim them again.
This surprised me at first because nobody had told me that this flight had also been delayed. My 11:50 PM departure had now become a 1:20 AM departure. I was worried about them taking my carry-on and checked back with them a couple of times just to make sure I understood them correctly. Apparently I had — both times they told me to leave and not come back until midnight. Even when I showed up at ten minutes to midnight, I had to wait ten more minutes. (smile)
It turned out that I was one of a group of five that had been selected out of our plane (which seats somewhere around 400) for random extra-senstivie security treatment. Five of us were individually frisked, dusted down, asked questions, and escorted around until just before departure. Supposedly, it all started when I told them I didn’t know anyone in the group, and they found that suspicious.
When we finally did get to the regular security check that everybody else has to go through, they escorted us right to the front of the line and then cleared seats for us to all sit together (with our security escorts) at the gate. It was kind of a bizar experience, to say the least. Our escorts followed us all the way to the plane to make sure that we had no interaction with others up until boarding.
Now, I am traveling at about 660 mph at 65,000 ft. altitude at about 3:20 AM EST time going to a destination about 5,700 miles away. The trip from New York to Tel Aviv is supposed to take about 10 hours and I am going to arrive at the hotel there at the Israel time for dinner and an evening hotel check in. There is a computer display that continuously updates our flight data as we go — pretty cool.
The plane itself is AMAZING and I’ve already met some great people. I am sitting with some Foursquare pastors, Gordon and Jodi, from Idaho that have family and friends in South Dakota. In fact, one of their daughters is staying with grandparents in Sioux Falls right now. The El Al staff has already served us a great “breakfast”: chicken and mixed fried rice, a fresh italian salad, a breakfast roll with a generous amount of humus dip, some vegetable crackers, and a lemon-cake dessert.
Here’s a quick view inside the plane…
They just turned out the lights now so I think I’ll try and get some sleep. I’m feeling pretty beat…
Whew! About seven hours later and we are getting served a second breakfast: I chose a fresh fruit salad, yogurt and granola, a bagel with butter and honey, and orange juice. I slept “pretty good” on and off through out the “night”, if you can call it that. The stewardesses had us shut all of the window covers so that it would be dark for the traveling Americans to sleep.
There are little TV screens and remotes attached to each seat back in front of us. I could’ve stayed up and watched movies or sitcoms all night in my choice of French or English. I did catch a little bit of that new Ice Cube movie where he and his family bought a fix’r'upper out in the country. I was too tired to watch anything else.
I am feeling slightly awake now. We should arrive in Tel Aviv in less than two hours. By that time I will have been traveling for about thirty hours straight, not counting my 6-hour drive down to Denver the evening before…
Okay! I’m in Tel Aviv and very tired. The arrival was pretty grand; the airport itself was pretty impressive. Everything was HUGE and looked very modern. Right away, we were greeted from people with Inspiration Cruises with signs that said “Foursquare”. I got my checked bag with no problems and they proceeded to take us to the hotel immediately. The tour guide for my bus is definitely my style; very friendly, fun, and witty. I think it will be a fun week! Here’s a pic of me on the bus…
The meal at the hotel was absolutely incredible (scary that I’m already running out of words to describe things in a grandiose way and I’m only on the first day). There was lamb, fish, chicken, beef, lets of great veggies (cooked dishes and salads), a whole variety of great breads, and an enormous dessert table in the center. I took a picture of it, because it just looked so good to me at the moment.
I very quickly ran over to the Mediterranean Ocean, just to say that I’d been there and then ran back to the hotel to get a shower and get to bed. It is now 10:30 PM local time and we’ve got a 6:00 AM wake up time and a 7:30 AM departure so I’m gonna hit the sack.
Here I am before bed…
Here’s a view from my hotel room…
Well, I have left Rapid City and have arrived at my first stop on the trip: the Telford’s apartment in Greeley, CO. Amy’s parents, and her two brothers’ families are letting me stay the night and driving me to the airport first thing in the morning. We’re leaving at 4:30 am — ugh! I’ll update you as I go along, wherever and whenever I get Internet access and the time to post.
