MORE PLACES AFTER A BURN UPDATE

I actually allowed myself to think that the burn was getting better. After two hospitalizations and two solid months on Antibiotics it should be, right? Well, it was just starting to, slightly. Then, I took it to the surgeon, and he said it was getting better and to stop taking the antibiotics and treat it with a topical antibiotic. So, I did. I should have known. By the following Sunday it was worse. The clerk said to go back on the antibiotics. I did, and today it was much worse. Those five days sure did set it back. Oh, well, It will start getting better again by Wednesday when the surgeon will be here again. It will still be worse than it was when he last saw it. Now, on to more pleasant things.

The next Kibbutz we stayed at was Givat Haim. They gave us a whole building that is used as a senior's day center. It had two huge rooms, and smaller ones off to one side of the one that was set up pretty much like a meeting room. The bathrooms and shower were at the back. They even have special parking area out side for the old dear's scooters.

My feet were just starting to burn.

If you look behind the lady (forgot her name) you can see that there is a leather arm chair there. I slept in it that night with both feet on the matching foot stool. That was one of our very late nights as the heads of one the major gimp organizations came for a meeting; or was that a shouting match?
The lady in the doorway told us how My Communist got the place for us to stay there. According to her, he just called and announced that he's bring The Five to sleep there that night, and hung up. No one says "No" to My Communist (except me) so we had lovely accomodations.
We were back on the road in good time. We were supposed to go to Netanya, but, when we got to the intersection where we were supposed to turn right to go to Netanya, Teka and Sheka decided that we simply must go to Kfar Yona. That was not on our Police approved list of places to go. Teka and Sheka don't care about minor details like that, and decided to force the issue by creating a two gimp traffic jam.

We made it clear that we would only go there if the Police said ok. I don't know what My Communist said to the cops, but, suddenly we had permission. I'm ever so glad we went. That is a horrible place to live. The disabled there were so proud that The Five came to see them that I am still ashamed that I didn't want to.
Next stop, Netanya where everyone went to lunch except me. I had another major temper tantrum (Can't remember what about) and sat lunch out under a shade tree with Moshe.
That night we stayed at Kibbutz Ma'abarot where again, we were given a large building with several rooms and it was arranged that we could use their 'old folks' home for showers.I was sitting outside with my feet up, smoking and generally minding my own business, when My Communist handed me his phone and said that someone wanted to talk to me. Right. It was my old pal Benny from the big demonstrations in 1999 and 2002! We had one of our usual silly conversations and I gave the phone back. I think My Communist was a little surprised that I know Benny. We had another meeting with the heads of disabled organizations. It was loud and long. The spokesman for one of largest organizations and I found ourselves talking with Kibbutz teenagers who wanted to learn about what we were doing and other gimp issues. That was wonderful. They seemed very interested and had tons of questions. Yoav and I were quite chuffed that we had such a good session with them. The big shots finished shouting at each other at around 0230 or so and we went to sleep at around 0300.
Moving right along, the next day we went through Ra'anana and Herzlia, where we were given mementos by the vice mayor and met some hot shot actor that I'd never heard of. From Herzliya we went to Tel Aviv. Downtown Tel Aviv. The heart of Tel Aviv.I don't much like Tel Aviv, but when I realized that we were there I started crying. We did it! We got to Tel Aviv! No question now that we'll get to Jerusalem.

We were met by a fairly large group of Gimps. As we have a reputation (gimps in general) for being trouble makers, the Police were there in force. Not just the regular Blue Police, but the Gray riot Police as well.
Good thing too. Sheka and Teka have yet to see a street they don't want to lie down on and stop traffic.

You can see the riot cops in gray on the traffic island under the signal. We were very well behaved and didn't even let the more outspoken demonstrators get to us. We were there to make a statement, not cause trouble.
Right, from there we went to Kibbutz Nahshon where we had a sort of kibbutz style motel room. That was just fine. We were visited by the MK who is pretty much a one man gimp lobbyist in Knesset, and that night the big shots descended on us once again. A very late night. We delayed our planned departure set for the next morning in favor of a huge meeting of the the big shots. As expected, nothing really came of it.
Our next stop was Ramla. I was having trouble stopping in the sunlight and speeding off for shade at every opportunity. The escort cop wanted us all to go someplace else and I was rude in the extreme to him. They found a nice falafel place for lunch and I found a tree across the street to calm down under. I was in a fairly big rage over the cop and shade issue. Hezi's wife came over to try and reason with me ( first time she'd been exposed to my daily tantrum) and I barked at her. When I'd calmed down, I rejoined every one and apologized to Yaeli, and the cop! From Ramle we got on the trucks and cars and went to Kibbutz Na'n where we were to stay Friday Starurday and Sunday. Again we had a large building to ourselves. By this time my foot was really giving me trouble. I couldn't even walk on it. I did manage to get my scooter into the room and used it all weekend. Our hostess, Rotem, decided that something had to be done, and took me to their "old folks' home, where Inbal, the manager took me under her wing. I still go all teary when I remember how gently she showered me. I felt like a baby being bathed by her mother. Then, she had the nurse treat and bandage my left foot. I still had trouble getting the sandal on, so the scooter went with me everywhere. The loo situation was hysterically funny. There were two very narrow toilet rooms in 'our' building, and I'm too big to get in them, never mind use them. Not a problem. There was a very nice one in the synagogue building, so, everytime I had to go, I just rode the scooter right up to the door and took two steps in and two steps out. On the Friday night they wanted us to talk with the kibbutz members after dinner. Not surprisingly, I wasn't in very good shape for that type of thing and ended up growling at My Communist yet again. Um, an average of two and half hours sleep, a burnt up foot and you want me to talk and make sense? Not likely. I did make up some sleep on Saturday and Sunday. Good thing, too. The Five were starting to show cracks in our solidarity. Some of us were not happy campers and said they were going home. Two days away from the finish line? It was great to be able to rest up for three days before continuing, but, it also cost us.
We left Na'an sadly and headed towards Latrun. It felt like the longest ride we'd done, but it wasn't. There were two restaurants there, but one wasn't kosher. We were starving. After a photo session, some of us decided to eat at the non kosher restaurant anyway. From there we went to our last kibbutz, Nahshon were, for once no major meeting of organization heads was planned. A couple of them did show up, but we had already had our daily strategy meeting, so, we pretty much ignored them and we did not let them in on our plans. We were supposed to ride as far as the steep winding hills that go up to Jerusalem, switch over to vehicles, then enter the city from just outside. My Communist came up with a plan designed to thwart the plans of the Jerusalem demonstrators. We has decided that after we got into Jerusalem, we would first go to the demonstration of disabled kids parents at the Prime Ministers office, then, go their tent. We almost made it work. We got back on the scooters at a blocked off unused spur just off the hiway and headed for Jerusalem proper. It didn't ttake long for Sheka and Teka to find us and we rode into the city with and escort of about 100 gimps on wheels.

We made it!

And so did our truck!I might have gotten the order of some of the events and kibbutzim mixed up. It was a very emotional trip, after all. And I've had those burned foot issues.
Would I do it again? Damn right I would. Are we going to fllow up now that we're home? You betcha.