Day 8 And 9 Negev Desert and Eilat

many of the people we've been traveling with parted way with us today. We aren't sad to se them go. :) except for the Indiana family that adopted us! All that was left was Gretchen and I, Tom, Anne, the Kims and the very strange Toronto couple. The man, Sam was driving me nuts today thankfully it was our last day with him! We joined up with another group who had been doing the Jewish heritage tour. Oh my. We stopped at the hotel and this obviously Jewish woman started yelling and complaining from the get go. Whining she was standing the the rain too long, it was cold and that we'd taken their seats in the front of the bus. Jackie the tour guide had been with them all week and in the first 10 minutes she hollered through the bus that we'd taken their seats. Tom said loudly " and we thought it couldn't get worse"has this woman made Andrea, this loud annoying Jewish woman we'd been with all week seem sweet and quiet! One thing positive about this group was that they were on time to things- no stragglers, no Betty Ann holding us up.

We visited the Israeli Air Force museum at Hatzerim. Mrs. Kim, Anne and I took this opportunity to take a nap on the bus. We were working on 4 hours of sleep due to the Midnight Mass excursion.

We got to have lunch at an authentic Bedouin tent and ride a camel. We didn't get to ride them far but it was my first time. It was two camels tied together and two people on a camel. The annoying Toronto couple were on the front camel and Mrs. Kim and I were on the second. Mr. Kim was videotaping of course. Thank goodness they were tied together. Our camel did NOT want to cooperate- she would have taken off if she could have and Mrs. Kim and I would have had to ride off together in the sunset! The camel was so bad the guy stopped using her and I got a great pictue of her climbing a fence and escaping. She was DONE!! Ha! There is a south African family in our group with two boys that are very... Whiny and cowardly so were some of the adults I. Their group. Wouldn't get on the camel and whined about walking short distances.

We visited Ben Gurion's hut and grave which had an amazing view of the Zin valley. We stopped briefly at Mitzpeh Ramon to see the Ramon crater. I personally though the site by Ben Gurion's grave was more impressive.

Next was a two hour drive through the Negev Desert. Beautiful and we saw groups of kids camping out there and tons of military camps and excercise fields where they were doing night training maneuvers. The Israel Army is pretty impressive.

We stopped at an ice-cream store for a bathroom break. There was a boy quoting the Torah and others with him. Not sure but think a Bar Mitvah was happening at the reststop!

Got to Eilat and were exhausting. Long fairly boring day. We drove around Eilat while Jackie pointed out some things. We dropped off the others and of course, Tom, Gretchen and I were the last dropped off in a hotel far away from everything. We are C class travelers.

Day 9
Most everyone went on a dat trip to Petra. Gretchen and I had a free day to read, nap and walk. We went to McDonalds. Mrs. Kim says it's the US embassy!!! Ha! We just wanted beef! Mr. And Mrs Kim did not tell us their first names because they said it is hard for westerners to
pronounce. Yesterday I heard mr. Kim looking for her calling out "Mrs. Kim" cracked me up.

Our hotel is ok but there are a lot of loud Jewish families with loud children. And the Internet that you have to pay for does not work in your room just in the lobby. Sigh.
The red sea is beautiful though :)