Day Two: To Tel Aviv

Up early (6:30) and out the door
Breakfast in the dining hall-always an adventure
Slept cold and hungry-not good
My left knee was hurting because of the clipless keeping it locked into some odd position while biking (Not to mention the repeated motion of biking all day) I went to have Zvi fix the clip on my shoe and he re did all the cables on my bike-he decided the whole system was junk...and he was right. This of course happened just as it was time to leave for the day. So, I was leaving late
Karen, Claire and Mickey all waited for me (It turns out everyone was waiting for all of us at the gate, but I did not know this). I felt so loved and supported to have all these people waiting for me.

My sunglasses broke as I was waiting for my bike repair and Karen, Dalya's assistant, not the biker, gave me hers for the morning :) She was really sweet about it since she did not want to but knew riding without them would be killer for me...how kind of her!

By lunchtime, I was spent! I barely had any energy for anything. I did not even want to run the mixers at lunch but did so anyway with Ross
We had people stand in 2 concentric circles and talk for a minute and then rotate and meet the next person. Looking at the video of it after, it was so fun. People really seemed to enjoy.

I got my avocado and crackers for lunch! Yifat, who had all the food, was so good to me!! She took great care to make sure I could eat at all the meals.

In the afternoon I had a little more energy but not a lot
Coming into Tel Aviv, I rode with Karen quite a bit
We talked about kashrut, what we were thankful to Gd for (like legs that work so they could be sore), then we hit the dunes and had to carry our bikes up steep, sand hills which was funny. I mean, here we are riding4reform...except we were shlepping4reform instead...I am glad we all still had our sense of humor because carrying a bike up a sand dune is tiring!

Karen and I took Orly (Orly is blind and rides tandem) to go to the bathroom and I felt I was becoming better friends with her and a person she was coming to trust and turn to which felt good. Plus, guiding a blind person through shrubbery while trying not to fall in the shrubbery is an interesting challenge I was not expecting to face on this trip!! :)!

We then rode into Tel Aviv and I was dragging. I had some gu which was gross and I spit it out. That stuff is just scary! It is this stuff the consistency of icing which you suck out of a small packet. It is full of carbs and sugar and all kinds of ingredients which I cannot pronounce, let alone spell. Who knows what is in it, but it is nothing natural and I like all natural.

I hung out with Guy (who is 17) who was so funny. He said his ass had fallen off and I told him I would carry it the rest of the way for him! He was fun and riding with him made the time a little easier

We rode past the US consulate and up the familiar streets of Tel Aviv

Ross tried to get on one of the buses which was funny

It was exciting to be in the city

When we came to our hotel at 5:30 or so, we were all beat! It felt so good to get in that shower! I took a very long, very hot shower and watched as the water ran with mud and I thought back to my hiking days...

Rachel Crossley, Ross, Daniel and Brian went down to the beach to go swimming in the Med and I thought they were nuts! Plus, the cold water would have destroyed my tired muscles.

It was good to be off the bike

I got BenGay form Matt for my right knee which was beginning to be troublesome...(ominous, foreshadowing music here...)

Dinner was delicious!
I sang my Amoeba song to Brian, Josh and Karen. They asked me to sing to Howie from his gamad which was really fun and silly-When I stood in front if him and serenaded him, I forgot all the words eventhough I had just sung the song a minute before.

People were gamad/anaking quite a bit which was great!
There was an evening program which I skipped. I think Dalya was frustrated by that, but I was just too tired

Neil, Claire, Ross, Karen and I went for a walk to the beach
I got “caught” in the revolving door because I was too tired to push it any further and it ran out of momentum

We did not quite make it to the sea because we did not want to climb down and, then later, back up the stairs. But we saw the water and it was pretty!

Neil bought a magnum bar on the way back

We were at the part of the beach where I went on my first Israel trip and where I have been many times since. It was cool to connect to all those moments and add this one as well.

People were doing capoeira there and eating dinner. I made a little scene about not wanting to go down the stairs by shouting and resisting Ross and Neil who wanted to go down. (I did not mind going down, it was the up that I wanted to avoid!)

I laughed alot
Back to the room and then to bed