We left The Druze village and shrine and started heading south. Our next stop was
The Sea of Galilee
Now here's where I start having some problems with organized religion. The name of the Sea and city that bears the same name
from the Bible days was Galilee, the area of the city and sea were renamed after the Roman Emperor Tiberius.
I just could not fathom the ego it would take to change a city and sea thousands of years old and in the Bible, and name it after myself.
The Sea of Galilee is 650 below sea level, we came to the Mount of Beatitudes where it is said Jesus delivered the famous "Blessed Are": sermon.
The Italians Catholics built a shrine over the mount and you had to pay to get in here oberved many different religious
groups in this compound, singing, and praying. We left to go down to the Sea of Galilee.
I remember listening to my Daddy preach about Jesus and Peter and the other disciples in relation to this Sea. The most famous of
these is when during a horrific storm where Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat, the disciples worried they were going to sink...
woke Jesus up and Jesus stood, stretched his arms towards the raging sea and spoke these words "Peace Be Still"
(The song playing is by The Rev James Cleveland from an album of the same name my parents had in the 60's)
When I saw the sea I immediately understood how a raging, horrific storm could arise there,
We were told that these storms arrive very suddenly and the reason is because it sit low
between mountains which makes for a perfect wind tunnel.
We left the area and headed south towards home..we stopped at a friend's dairy of whom we've
known for several years, his dairy is part of a Kibbutz This is also Anava's home, many here in the
southern show circuit might remember her as she lived, worked and exhibited with us several
times and had a very successful run in the show ring.
Interesting information our friend told us about Jewish culture, he had 250 bulls and 250 milking cows,
when asked why so many bulls he told us that only bulls could be processed for human Jewish consumption,
gelded bulls (steers) were considered non-kosher, so when he send his bulls to market, every bull is
prayed over by a rabbi and they are slaughtered according to cusotms to ensure they are kosher.
When I read the link to kosher I understood just what kosher entails, very deep the customs and spiritual laws.
Jumping back, when we went to the wedding, I noticed a very long line of people getting coffee, it was explained to me
that meat and dairy could not be eaten together, so how they get around that is the use non-dairy creamers for the coffee.
This is why you will never find a cheeseburger in that country, cheese is dairy.
We stopped at a ice cream shop had some ice cream and then headed home..upon reaching home
Jennie and I packed and went down to sit with our guest and talk, our plane a commercial airline was to leave
Tel Aviv at midnight and then in Belgium where we were to get on the Israelis 747 cargo plane for the last leg back to the states.
When we got on the 747, we were shown where there were beds just behind us for 4 people,
crews would sleep there in between their duty flying. Jennie and I crawled into separate bunks and fell alseep.
We woke as we were in USA airspace fixing to land.
Landing at JFK was a great feeling, we called for a cab to take us to our truck and trailer when this very supped up and
tricked out car pulled up...Jennie did not want to get into this car, I explainied to her because it was like 4 am..
.a gypsy cab was dispatched. We either take this ride or wait until 7 am for a yellow cab.
Our driver was a Jamacian kid, he was quiet and a nice kid, when we got to the truck I tried to start it
but the key would not turn the motor over, I had the valet key, but I thought it was suppose to only
start the car but not unlock the glove box of trunk. I searched for my other set of keys but could not find them,
then I realized that the other set of keys were left back in Israel in our extra bag we left behind because it
was so heavy and it was to be brought over to the USA the following weekend and shipped from
NY as the shipping from Israel was cost prohibitive.
I called for a locksmith, he took our vin number and made a
new key for the truck. But the ley he made would not turn the motor over either, something to
do with the chip and the synchronization of the the trucks electrical system. he called his resource
people and they tried to help him but could not get it to work, he then said we would have to tow the
truck to the Ford dealer on MONDAY!, this was Saturday. Then he said let me call one more
friend of his, he was a computer expert.I sat in the back seat of the truck
talking to him, he hooked up a computer to the truck and no joke, within 60 seconds he had the truck
started and running!
We were now on the road home, saw and stopped at an International House of Pancakes, got us some
bacon, sausage and eggs, and pancakes!..Oh it was so good to be back on US soil again.
We arrived home and the kids all came over and we were so happy to see all our lil peoples and it is ture,
There's no place like home..ahhh to sleep in my own bed was soooo goood!
There is the story of our business trip and adventure of the place on earth Jennie and
I talked about on our first date of where each of us would like to go in our life time, and here
we did it together!
TO US?
God is a good God!
