Hello you handful of lurkers. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and got to enjoy some time with your families.
It's early in the morning of New Year's Eve as I start writing this new post and the trip begins exactly 4 weeks from the 31st. Hard to believe we're that close to leaving but the calendar doesn't lie. My flight itinerary and some additional trip information arrived from EO Travel the day after Christmas. Although excited to see the flight details, I was disappointed that it didn't look like I'd be flying with the rest of the group from Harrison City. Everything I'd heard from Dad indicated they would be flying from Pittsburgh to New York to Israel. That meant we wouldn't see each other until we got to Israel since the Pastor has taken this same trip multiple times and had only mentioned an international departure from New York City.
I called EO that day thinking that my flights wouldn't be the same as Dad's. They indicated that it would cost additional money at this late date to change my itinerary but did say that the flights our group was taking arrived in Israel at roughly the same time, around 3:00PM. Not wanting to chance any travel problems with a late flight change, I opted to leave things as they were.
My flight plan takes me from Phoenix to Philadelphia to Israel. The return trip home is the same in reverse and I'm on US Air (which has recently merged with American) for all legs of the journey. So I was happy to have finalized flight and lodging details but was not pleased at all that I wouldn't see Dad until we got to the Tel-Aviv airport. Ultimately though, it was more important for him to have a "buddy" during the international flight than me and he'd be with his Pastor and other friends from church. I could deal with that.
However, I talked to Dad on the phone later that morning and found out that he, along with all the of the other folks from Harrison City, will also be flying out of Philadelphia. We were both very happy knowing we'd be each other's travel companion during the 11 hour flight to the Ben Gurion Airport. 2014 is getting off to an excellent start! What I can't figure out is why the person I spoke with at EO didn't let me know this when I called them. I identified myself, told them I was traveling with my father, and gave them his name. They had all the puzzle pieces and could have ended the conversation much more quickly than they did.
The international leg is non-stop, which is good and bad. Good from the standpoint of no additional plane disembarking or embarking in an unfamiliar airport and less likelihood of not meeting up with my luggage in Israel. Bad from the standpoint of being cooped up in an airplane for an 11-hour flight.
One of the other pieces of information I received in the packet from EO was a list of all the names and home towns of the people in our touring group. Of the 34 total, it looks like 17 are affiliated with the church in Harrison City although two of those, including myself and another gentleman from Alabama are meeting family or friends in Philadelphia. There are 12 from Lewisburg, PA, a town in the central part of the state located north of Harrisburg and south of Williamsport, the home of Little League Baseball. There are three others from Bellfonte, PA, Benton, PA, and Selinsgrove, PA that may be connected with the group from Lewisburg since those are all central PA cities and not too far from Lewisburg. Time will tell. The remaining two are from Silver Springs, FL. Besides Dad, the only other person I've met is Pastor John. I'm looking forward to making some new acquaintences.
Once we've landed, reclaimed luggage, and gotten our passports stamped going through Israeli customs, we'll board a bus and head north east from the airport to a hotel in the city of Tiberias, a 135KM drive (about 84 miles) that will take approximately 90 minutes according to Google Maps. Tiberias is located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and not far from Nazareth, destinations during our first few days. Having taken several international trips before, I'm thinking between the time change and most people's poor ability to sleep on an airplane that at least two thirds of my new traveling companions will be asleep within 10 minutes of leaving the airport. I'll try to take an actual count of sleepers, assuming that I'm not one of them. We'll be in Tiberias for two nights and then will head south to stay our remaining time at a hotel in Jerusalem.
That's about it for this post. Unless something more interesting comes up, next time I'll attach a few pictures and links to make sure I'm clear on how to do it while we're in country. You know why, right? Because pics or it didn't happen!
Happy New Year!
Tim
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