MORE TRIP THE PLACES

Right. Now that my foot is pretty much on the road to recovery, I can get back to writing about the trip. It will take several posts to cover the places, but, I'll get it done at some point.
It was arranged that we would sleep at kibbutzim that were along the route we were taking. The first night was at Kibbutz Amiad. I was a bit apprehensive about staying there as that is where my beloved Land Rover's garage is and I really didn't want to run into it there. I didn't, but I did run straight into one of the garage managers who of course had to tell me that my Disco had been there recently. Oh, well, at least it's being well cared for.
When we got there, we were taken to the member's club which is a huge room with sofas, chairs and a coffee bar, with bathrooms just outside the front door in a corridor that leads to the main room. We Five were quite pleased with the accomodations, but the Titanic and her followers were not. They demanded separate rooms. My Communist stood firm and told her that arrangements had only been made for us. They left in a huff to find hotel rooms in Tiberius. I staked out a sofa and slept quite well in spite of dreams about my Land Rover. We were up and ready in good time to leave for Afula by vehicle as there were road works going on that made going on the scooters too dangerous. At one of the first service stations in Afula, we got back on out trusty scooters and rode through the city to a restaurant that had invited us for breakfast.

We were met by several local political types and served a very nice breakfast. After eating and listening to the politcal types we headed out and just as we got the the city limits, were greeted by The Tinic and her entourage. The police escort and My Communist told us to keep going, which we did. They decided on a show of strength and blocked the road with their vans and wheelies.

One of them was extremely abusive to My Communist and I ended up having words with her. They finally moved their vans and Baby Shmutznikim drove them so they could be with us on the road after agreeing to no more provocations. So far so good.
We stopped for a long break at a serivice station at the entrance to Um Al Fahem, one of the largest Arab cities in the country.

It was the perfect place for a rest, and after a light lunch, we continued towards our next kibbutz, Gan Shmuel.
There is a large shopping center at Gan Shmuel and My Communist lead us through it with his commentary and music blaring. People stopped and waved and yelled encouragement to us. This time we were given a children's house that is now used by teens. It had several bedrooms, a large meeting room, boys and girls bathroom and showers. Of course the room I ended up in had a Peace Now sticker that almost gave me nightmares even before I went to sleep.

We had a long meeting with everyone, including the two who would later be named Sheka and Teka, who promised to behave. As we needed a change in our police approved route, those two were sent to get it done first thing in the morning. They were less than happy to find out that we had a session with a TV crew at 0900 and demanded that we wait for them. They were told that they have to be on time, no waiting. A reporter from a radio station arrived and they made sure that they were interviewed. There was a rumor that more reporters were on the way so they hung around for hours. In the end the press delegation they were waiting for turned out to be Itzik, our very own photographer from Kiryat Shmonah who came to visit us. They left and we all went to bed at around 0230.
Breakfast at the kibbutz dining hall was very nice and took me back to my own kibbutz days.

After a wonderful kibbutz breakfast, we went out to meet the TV crew, and I had a mini temper tantrum at My Communist. He wanted me to speak, but I was in no shape to be coherent and even growled at him. 3 hours of sleep are just not enough after such a long crazy day.
Right. That's enough for now. There's a lot more to come, and I'll get to it in the next few days.