And here we go!

Our Adventure Begins!

I've checked in with the airline and I've made it through security in the Phoenix airport.  I'm typing this while waiting in the gate area for US Airways flight 421 to Philadelphia.  My suitcase is hopefully making its way to a cozy spot in the belly of the same flight.   I've got nearly two hours before departing.  I walked right up to a kiosk to get my boarding pass and somehow, I got TSA Pre-Check which seems to be a quicker way through the security line, although there weren't too many queued up in the regular line.  Pre-Check meant I didn't have to take off my shoes or belt or even take the netbook out of my backpack.  It seems that the length of wait in line for boarding passes and baggage check, as well as security are directly proportional to the amount of time (or lack thereof) budgeted when getting to the airport. 

Located directly across from gate A21 is a familiar site for readers from the Phoenix area.  Four Peaks Brewery, located in nearby Tempe has spot in the airport to grab a great local beer and some food.  I'll very likely be stopping by once I'm done with this post.

Weather here in desert southwest is very pleasant and typical for this time of year, clear and in the low 60s.  The same can't be said for my interim destination of Philadelphia or the Pittsburgh area where my Dad and other soon-to-be traveling companions from the Harrison City Community United Methodist Church will begin their trip.  Today, the Pittsburgh area is starting their morning with bone-chilling below zero temperatures and only expected to "warm" to single digits.  Just thinking about cold like that causes this thin blooded Arizonan to shiver.

Fortunately, although they got some snow over the weekend, no additional precipitation is forecast for today.  Cold is one thing when you're flying.  Aircraft are designed to operate in the cold when they're flying through the skies above 30,000 feet.  Cold and snow together just make for a bad combination.  Other than school kids hoping for a snow day, I can't think of too many people who get out of bed on a winter morning thinking "boy, I sure do hope the temperature doesn't get above 10 degrees and we get a foot and a half of snow."  However, I've lived in Arizona now for almost 25 years.  It's certainly possible that there are folks that think that way.  Here are the statewide PA temperatures for Tuesday morning:

As you can tell by the above picture, weather in Philadelphia will only be slightly better than in Pittsburgh with only about 10 or so additional degrees of warmth (if you can call it that).  Barring any delays, we leave Philly at 9:10PM on US Airways flight 796 and are scheduled to arrive in Tel-Aviv at 3:10PM Wednesday afternoon.  It's a non-stop, 11 hour flight.  Good that we don't have to change planes, wander around an unfamiliar airport, and potentially lose our luggage during baggage transfer.  Bad that we're stuck in a metal tube for 11 hours.  But at least we get to eat that awesome airplane food.  Oh, wait...

The weather in Israel when we land will be very similar to Arizona this time of year (here's a link if you're interested in details), and is forecast to be in mid to upper 60s and clear (AKA sunny) the rest of this week.  It should be cause for celebration by the PA residents who left home with cloudy skies and below zero or single digit temperatures.  I don't know if anyone will actually do a happy dance but it wouldn't surprise me.

Once through baggage claim and Israeli customs, we'll meet the other half of our group who are flying in from New York, board a bus and head northeast to Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, where we'll be for the first few days.

For all you reading on the east coast, stay warm!  For my Arizona family and friends, like me, I'm sure you're glad you don't have to deal with cold like that.


I expect this to be the last post about something other than actually seeing the sites.  Thanks for sticking it out this long.  The next post, along with actually talking about our first day touring and lots of pictures, will include an update on our trip over (assuming anything worth mentioning occurs) and a tally on the hearty souls in our group who didn't fall asleep on the bus trip to Tiberias, assuming of course that I'm not one of them.

Until next time,
Tim