Sleep came easy last night after traveling over a full day to get to Israel. Our wake-up call was at 6 AM, followed by breakfast, and boarding the bus at 7:30 AM.
Cana.  Enroute to the Valley of Wind and Doves, we drove past Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine.
As we drive the highways of Israel, we are surprised at the number of mosques.  We have seen them in every city which we have passed.  Also to our surprise is that Muslims make up about 50% of Israel.
Valley of Wind and Doves.  Our first stop was at the Valley of Wind and Doves, home of an ancient 22 mile road/trail between Nazareth and Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus would certainly have walked.  As part of Jewish custom, we broke bread and ate it sprinkled with salt.  At the Valley of Wind and Doves, we had our first of many Gospel readings, devotionals, and prayers. (Note:  This was the norm at all of our stops, and provided us an opportunity to “live” in Biblical times.)  It was a bit overwhelming to think that we possibly walked along the same path that Jesus may have taken in his early days and ministry, and perhaps even stepped in his footsteps. 
Magadala.  Departing the Valley of Wind and Doves, we drove past Magadala, home of Mary Magdelene, towards Ginnosar.
Ginnosar.   Next, we visited Nof Ginnosar, home of an Israeli National Museum, where we saw a 2000-year-old boat discovered in a 1986 drought.  Boat size and type, carbon dating, and types of wood used for construction and maintenance indicate that it is likely this boat would have sailed the Galilean Sea during Jesus’s time. After viewing the ancient boat, we boarded a tour boat and traveled across the Sea of Galilee and saw, from the water, where much of Jesus’ ministry took place:  including traditional sites where Jesus fed the 5000, met Simon Peter, Andrew, John, and James, where he had them cast their nets with results of an overwhelming of the nets, despite their just having cast the nets and coming up empty, and the Church of the Beatitudes commemorating Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Church of the Beatitudes.  After the boat ride we traveled to see these areas from land.  The first was the Church of the Beatitudes, which preserves the memory of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:7).  Interestingly, the Church of the Beatitudes was ordered built by Mussolini, even though he was an atheist.  This Catholic church is in the shape of an octagon—8 sides—to reflect the 8 beatitudes.



Church of the Multiplication of Bread.  This Catholic church is at Tabgha.  An altar inside this church is thought by some to be the altar where Jesus placed the 5 loaves and 2 fish, feeding the 5,000 men, beside women and children (Matthew 14:13-21).  (Note:  While the altar is in the Catholic church in Tabgha, Bethsaida is the geographical location thought to be where the crowds were fed.)
The miraculous feeding of five thousand people is described in Mark 6:30-44, just before Jesus walks on water. The Gospel account of the loaves and fishes does not specify where it took place; only that it was in a “remote place” (Mark 6:32,35) on the shores of Galilee.  According to Mark’s account, Jesus and his disciples had gone out in a boat to this remote place for some peace and quiet, but the crowds ran ahead “from all the towns” and met him when he landed. By then it was dinnertime and they were not in a village where food could easily be bought, so Jesus fed them all by miraculously multiplying his disciples’ five loaves and two fishes.
Church of the Primacy.  Next we visited a third Catholic Church, thought to be near the site where Jesus had breakfast with the apostles following his crucifixion and resurrection, and where Peter was asked three times by Jesus, “Do you love me?” and directed by Jesus to “Feed my lambs … Tend my sheep” (John 21:15-17).  (Note: we couldn’t help think of Randy’s sermon this past Sunday, which covered this very scripture.) 
In John 21, Jesus appears to his disciples for the third time after his resurrection on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The night before, Peter and several other disciples had sailed out on the lake to fish, but caught nothing. In the morning, a man appeared on the shore and called out to them to throw their net on the right side of the boat. Doing so, they caught so many fish they couldn’t drag the net back into the boat.  At this point Peter recognizes Jesus, and promptly jumps out of the boat to wade to shore to meet him. The other disciples follow in the boat, dragging the net behind them. When they land, Jesus has prepared a charcoal fire for the fish and provided bread, and they have breakfast together (John 21:9). This is believed to have taken place on the mensa Christi, a large rock incorporated in the chapel.  After breakfast, Jesus reinstated Peter (after his three-time denial of Jesus at the crucifixion) with the words “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-19).
Capernaum.  Our next stop was the ruins of Capernaum on the ancient Via Maris, road to the sea.  Capernaum is frequently mentioned in the Gospels and was Jesus’ main base during his Galilean ministry. It is referred to as Jesus’ “own city” (Matthew 4:12-17; 9:1; Mark 2:1) and a place where he lived (Matthew 1:13). He probably chose it simply because it was the home of his first converts, Peter and Andrew (Mark 1:21, 29).
Capernaum is home to an old synagogue; the ruins presently seen date to 300 to 400 A.D.  Kay read scripture inside the ruins.
Also of significance is that Capernaum is the site of Peter’s home, part of which is shown below the floor of the modern Catholic church built on the site, and where Peter’s mother-in-law was healed.  Capernaum was also the site where the sick man was passed from rooftop to rooftop and lowered into a room for Jesus to heal, because the crowds were too thick on the streets.
Many familiar Gospel events occurred in this village. Capernaum is where Jesus first began to preach after the Temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 1:12-17) and called Levi from his tax-collector’s booth (Mark 2:13-17). It was while teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum that he said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54)  Capernaum is where Jesus healed a centurion’s servant without even seeing him (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10), Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-30); the paralytic who was lowered through the roof (Mark 2:1-12), and many others who were brought to him (Matthew 8:16-17). And it was Capernaum that Jesus had set out from when he calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27).  Jesus was harsh with his adopted home when it proved unrepentent despite his many miracles (Matthew 11:23-24).
Yardenit.  We crossed the Jordan River near where it enters the Sea of Galilee, stopped for lunch, and made our last tour stop of the day, Yardenit, where the Jordan River leaves the Galilean Sea.  Yardenit is used by large numbers of “pilgrims” from all over the world for baptism or renewal of baptism.  All of our group had a service of renewal of our baptism, in the Jordan River.
We returned to our hotel in Tiberius for some time in the spa, dinner, and an early bedtime.

Photos of this trip may be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/IsraelAndJordan2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIL-g8GBjtb-Lw&feat=directlink

More Flying.  We continued flying through the night, and neither of us slept much—perhaps a couple of hours each. Both of us had window seats, and had not sat together on any of the three legs of the flight. Having a window seat made it difficult to get up and stretch our legs and use the restroom as frequently as good health would dictate.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at approximately 12:45 PM, and had no trouble de-boarding, picking up our luggage, and going through Israeli customs.

Caesarea Maritima.  Our guide met us at the airport where we boarded the bus, and had enough time to visit Caesarea Maritima.  Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great in the time period 25-13 B.C., and was one of King Herod’s most complete architectural projects and likely the first and largest man-made harbor in the Mediterranean Sea, complete with lighthouse.  It was the capital of the Judean Province, and was the residence of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilatus.  It included a large aqueduct, a hippodrome where chariot races and other events occurred, and a coliseum-type theater.  Affluent residents lived here and the area contained numerous shops and public places.  It was here that Cornelius was the first Gentile convert to Christianity and was where Paul, as a prisoner for 2 years, boarded the ship for his trial in Rome (Acts 10).  Caesarea Maritima became the center of early Christianity in Palestine after the Jewish revolt in the first century, fell to Muslim control in the 6th century, the Crusaders in the 11th century, back to the Muslims, and lay in ruins until modern times.
Enroute to Tiberius.  After touring Caesarea Maritima, we made the hour and a half road trip to Tiberius on the the Sea of Galilee, our home for the next three days and nights. Along the way we crossed through the Jesereel Valley, and saw the area where prophets predicted Armageddon to occur (Revelation 16:14-21).  We arrived at our hotel, the Gai Beach Hotel, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in new Tiberius about 7:30 PM.  (Note:  the Sea of Galilee is freshwater, is 700 feet below sea level, and has a maximum depth of about 150 feet; its circumference is about 32 miles.)
Our big challenge of the evening was finding out how the converter worked for Israeli electricity. Luckily, both the CPAP machine and laptop computer will work off of the higher voltage current in Israel, using only an adapter for the plug.

Photos of this trip may be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/IsraelAndJordan2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIL-g8GBjtb-Lw&feat=directlink

It rained all last evening, and we awoke to rain this morning, getting up before five o’clock. Since we had not eaten dinner last night, we went down to the breakfast bar for some rather stale eggs, good coffee, and assorted other items. We caught the shuttle to the airport at 7:45 AM and had no problem getting our electronic tickets and checking baggage, except that Kay was unable to get credit at this time for the mileage because the name on her Delta account was slightly different than her passport name. Even a phone call did not resolve the problem; now we remember why we quit flying Delta.

At the airport we met most of the other people who would be taking the same tour. As is always the case in Arkansas, either Kay or I knew the person or knew someone who knew the person.
A Day of Flying. We flew from Little Rock to Atlanta, from Atlanta to New York, and departed New York’s JFK airport at about 8:00 PM for Tel Aviv, Israel. There is a seven hour difference in time between New York and Israel; Israel is seven hours ahead, thus making it about three o’clock in the morning, Israel time, when we departed New York.The flight appeared to be full and included a large number of young Jewish man, several with families, that had been to New York to celebrate Passover.

Photos of this trip may be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/IsraelAndJordan2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIL-g8GBjtb-Lw&feat=directlink

Kay began packing earlier in the week and had everything ready to go by Friday, while I delayed packing until yesterday, Saturday, the day before we were to leave for Little Rock. We both packed rather conservatively, getting everything into two relatively small suitcases plus our carry-ons. People who had traveled to this part of the world told us to dress very casually and not take too many clothes.

We attended both the Cross Roads service and the traditional service this morning, singing in both, and Kay sang the special during communion. We opted for lunch at KFC, then drove home to finish preparations for leaving. We left the house shortly after 2 PM, driving south to Little Rock. At Cabot US Highway 67/167 was closed because of high water. We finally made it to the hotel in Little Rock about 5:30 PM, where we plan to leave the car during the duration of our trip.

It’s going to be a great day today, as we’re heading towards home.

We awoke relatively early and after a cup of coffee, began final preparations for our trip. After hooking up our toad (towed vehicle), the Honda, we departed the campground at 7:20 AM. It has been a good week, but we are glad to escape all the excitement, rich Cajun foods, rain, and bad roads. The morning began with overcast skies and an increasing northwest wind. As we proceeded north we had a couple of options for stopping for the evening. One was to drive 365 miles to the US Army Corps of Engineers Park, Maumelle, in Little Rock, or continue driving just over 500 miles to home. We didn’t make the decision early on, leaving our options open. But as we got closer to home, the more we wanted to be there. As it turned out we made two fuel stops and arrived home shortly after 5 PM.  It’s so good to be home.

Today is Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, in southern Louisiana. This is one of the area’s most celebrated holidays and few businesses are open. The day is filled with parades, while the evening is reserved for coronation ceremonies. Having been to large parades in New Orleans, I opted to stay in the motorhome today while Kay attended a morning parade. We already have tons of beads, but a few more will see us through the year! The parades today are the best of the Mardi Gras season, and Kay saw some of the best floats greater Southwestern Louisiana has to offer.

She gave away most of the beads she collected today and the morning parade was enough for her. For me, a little bit of Mardi Gras goes a long way. We spent the afternoon putting things away and getting ready to leave for home tomorrow.

The Ozark Ridge Runners had a short meeting at 4:00 PM and discussed the evening’s activities, future rallies, and assorted other minutiae.  The meeting reminded me of those we had at work and now I know once again why I retired.

At Kay’s insistence we attended the coronation ceremony for the greater Southwestern Louisiana Mardi Gras King, Queen, and court. We sat in the balcony with the rest of the ne’er-do-wells while the other “subjects" sat on the main floor in their evening gowns and tuxedos. The coronation was replete with jeweled costumes, crowns, and other paraphernalia of pseudo-royalty. It was definitely a site to behold.

We arrived back at the motorhome at about 9:30 PM, and finished preparations for an early departure tomorrow morning. We’re both ready to return home and some semblance of normality.

Once again, we were up too early, at least for us, to visit a crawfish farm north of Crowley.  The purpose of our trip was to tour the farm, learn about crawfish farming and rice farming, and eat lunch.  We go a true-to-life Cajun storyteller that presented an overview of crawfish and rice farming, and told story after story about his life, marriages, and hobby of collecting toy tractors and farm implements.  He constructed a building specifically for the purpose of serving Cajun food, telling stories, and showing his huge collection of farm toys; one room was devoted specifically to John Deer toys.

Lunch consisted of chicken and sausage gumbo, potato salad, and dump cake.  The gumbo was okay, the potato salad very bland, and the dump cake good.

We briefly saw a crawfish farm boat after lunch, then returned to the campground for the remainder of the day.

What a wild and wacky day.  We drove to Point Church with friends and fellow RVers Jim and Cheryl to see the “Going Out”.  This is a reenactment of an old Acadian cultural event where riders would go out to farms in the area collecting chickens, vegetables, rice, money, and whatever else they could get for bringing back to town to make a gumbo.  Often, they would have to chase the chickens in order to catch them.  The modern “Going Out” began in Point Church in 1961, celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.  We arrived for the 8 AM “Going Out” and never in my life have I seen so many riders in costume on horseback; nearly all had already started drinking beer, and the riders were followed by several wagons containing cases of beer, with some water and a few soft drinks.  You had to be there to really appreciate (I use this word lightly) the weirdness of this event.

After the riders and wagons left, we departed for Eunice for the boucherie, or slaughtering of a hog.  Of course, the hog had already been slaughtered, and 3 butchers were on standby to cut it up, and several booths in the area stood by to use ALL the parts.  There were two pots cooking fresh cracklin’s, one pot making backbone stew, another making pork steak sandwiches, a booth selling head cheese, and another making boudin.  We sampled everything but the boudin, and we didn’t sample it because it wasn’t ready.  After seeing some of this stuff made, I’ll have a hard time eating it again!   While in Eunice, we toured the Cajun’ music museum, the old depot museum, and the National Park Service’s Jean Lafitte Acadian Cultural Center.

Following the boucherie, we returned to Church Point to see the riders come back into town with their chickens; really, they come into town in the form of a Mardi Gras parade.  The parade came into town after 2 PM; remember, these folks had been parading all day since 8 AM, and it was wild.  I have never seen such a spectacle in my life.  Horse after horse, and float after float came by.

We returned to the campground to freshen up and then we were off again, this time to meet Kay’s friend, Donna, and her husband at Pat’s at Henderson for dinner, Cajun music, and dancing.  Pat’s is, in my opinion, the best Cajun restaurant in the area, and we were not disappointed.  Kay and I had etouffee and fried crawfish, and the two dishes were wonderful.  The music was great as well; we were able to hear two of the area’s best bands.  The large dance floor was packed, and dancing was much like bumper bodies.  We did not know how to do the Cajun 2-Step because it’s really a 3-Step, but they played some waltzes, some Texas 2-step, and some Swing.  We tired pretty early and returned home about 9 PM, too tired to even watch the news.

If you don’t like the weather in southern Louisiana, wait a few minutes and it will change.  Well, it hasn’t changed as it’s still raining, and we had a lot planned for today.  Our first stop was Martin’s Accordion Factory about 9 AM.  Martin’s makes the small Cajun’ accordian, more properly called melodian, so popular with Cajun’ and Zydeco musicians.  We were under the impression the tour would be a “factory” tour, but were surprised to be entertained with a 1 1/2 hour Cajun music concert, and it was awesome!  Mr. Martin played the steel guitar, his daughter played the guitar, and his grandson played the melodian and sang.  The quality of the music just blew us away.

During the course of the concert, we learned that Martin’s is a regular stop on the Elderhostel, now Roads Scholars, tour, and that’s a big deal.  Also during the concert, a couple walked into the shop for repair of a melodian, and Kay immediately recognized her as an old friend and fellow educator from Pulaski County. She joined Mr. Martin and his daughter in a couple of songs; she is very talented.  She and Kay conversed and made plans for later in the weekend.  It is truly a small world.

After the concert we had planned to go to the flea market, but the rain thankfully discouraged us.  Severe storms occurred throughout the area, and even a tornado touched down just west of us.  We departed the campground for the Saturday night Mardi Gras parade at 4:30 PM with scattered rain.  As evening approached the rain finally subsided just in time for the parade.  We were stationed near the start, and caught lots of beads.  It’s amazing what “old” people will do for beads.  Until tomorrow, let the good times roll.

The only planned activity today is a Mardi Gras Parade in Lafayette, freeing us for some personal activities. Knowing this, earlier in the week we phoned friends Joey and Robin in Metairie to arrange a lunch date for today.  We departed Lafayette with clear skies and sun, but enroute to Baton Rouge experienced a drenching rain—no umbrella, no raincoats.  Just west of the Mississippi River bridge, traffic slowed to a creep, and we experienced our first major traffic jam since leaving central Arkansas over 6 years ago.  It took us over 30 minutes to cross the bridge and exit off Interstate 10.  As luck would have it, Joey and Robin were caught in west bound traffic, and arrived at our restaurant just before we did.  The restaurant, Chimes, is on the edge of the LSU (geaux Tigers) campus, and is quite popular.  The nearest parking was a couple hundred yards away, and the rain was pouring; Kay and I both got soaking wet, meeting Joey, who did have an umbrella, near the restaurant.  It was so good renewing our friendship after 30 years and occasional conversations.  (Joey was kind enough to phone every few days with encouragement during my recent convalescence, and it was greatly appreciated.)  We had a great lunch, and conversed about trips, kids, and life during retirement.  Life is definitely too short for such infrequent visits.

We arrived back in Lafayette about 5 minutes too late to catch the convoy to the parade, but Kay opted to go solo.  She met some local folks, conversed about RV trips, stood with them, and had an overall great time, collecting lots of beads, while I enjoyed some quiet time in the RV.