We arrived at Ben Gurion Airport at 3 p.m. on Thursday, November 20, 1997. The Airport was busy and slow and we slogged thru customs and baggage in an hour. The most difficult part of the Israel experience is the plane ride to and from. It is an exercise in survival and once again we survived.

Israel Travelers : (above, back left) Jim Davison, Steve Achord, Thorn Lear, Tom Brimmer. (above, front left) Tom Krimsier, Brian Sanders, and Clay Corvin (right).

We walked out of customs and our friend, Tom Brimmer, was waiting on us. He was a real blessing. We didn’t have to hassle with Hertz because Tom had set everything up. We went straight to our Toyota Van and within 15 minutes were out of the airport and headed for our lodging at Dor Holiday Village. The traffic was worse than Atlanta. We were still enroute an hour and a half later. The total distance was only 45 miles and it took us nearly two hours.

Dor Holiday Village provided clean, comfortable cottages. I unloaded, and hurried to fix a pot of coffee. Thorn had carried the coffeepot and bag all the way from New Orleans and I was grateful as I sat on the patio looking at the Mediterranean Sea and sipped dark roast Café New Orleans.

The King of Dor was an ally of King Jabin (Joshua 11:2). The area was a stronghold of the Phoenicians and later the Philistines. Now, it is a beautiful beach resort area and farming community. The geese made quite a racket and a loud smell.

We ate our evening meal at a neighboring kibbutz. The food was good and plentiful. Thorn, Brian and Jim were impressed with the fresh vegetables and all of us enjoyed the hearty soup.

Brian being the ever kind and well-intentioned gadfly that he is, struck up a conversation with some elderly Italians at a table next to ours. We had a delightful visit with them. The next evening, ran into them at Nof Ginosar and then several other times during our trip.

(Ramiri and Jim retired engineers from Milan Italy. Brian is in the center)

Tom Brimmer and I are the coffee drinkers. As a matter of fact, Tom Krimsier chided us about our massive coffee drinking, but several days later, Tom was reduced to searching for coffee several times during the day. He wasn’t addicted to caffeine though by his own admission. Those things that we are most used to are the very things that we miss. These kinds of "away from home adventures" tend to increase one’s gratitude for family, work and routine.

I have found that little things, like one’s own pillow and our wonderful New Orleans roasted coffee make travel much more enjoyable.

Maybe I am just aging.

Friday morning coffee and on the road. What a day Friday would be.

LITTLE THINGS

Forgetting how it really is, little things make a difference.

Tom Krimsier in a typical picture taking pose. One of the things that you learn after your first trip to Israel is that if you don’t take the shot, you won’t have the shot when you get home. This is Tom’s second trip and he used all of his film and then some. What sweet memories those pictures that we take make.

The morning was beautiful and I enjoyed the beauty of the beach and the Mediterranean Sea for a moment before we hit the road for our first full day in Israel.