Here are Ron and I standing on an overlook on the western outskirts of Jerusalem, on a short bike ride with another rider, Michael, on Friday morning, to stretch out the legs after our flight in from JFK the day before!

WOL – Wheels of Love – is a benefit bicycle ride in it’s 6th year raising funds for Alyn Hospital – the only pediatric rehabilitation hospital in Jerusalem, 100% privately funded. You can check out Alyn and the ride [here]. The ride starts in Jerusalem this Sunday morning, and we’ll be cycling 260 miles (me) or 400 miles (Ron) to Eilat, on the Red Sea.

Ron and I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday afternoon, after a somewhat hectic day on Tuesday, getting packed, and transporting our 2 dogs and 1 unhappy cat down to Durham NC where they are staying with Shanthi (our daughter, for those who don’t know her). It was great to see her new house, and meet her new animals – very handsome dog Ace, two rambunctious kittens, Ruby and Perl, and our old feline friend Keelin.

We had intended to leave Rockville at around 6pm, so that we’d arrive in Durham around 11pm. But, it was more like 9:30pm when we were finally on the road, and, with a break for the dogs to have a bit of a walk half-way, and then some navigational errors on my part once we got in Durham proper, we arrived at about 3am!!! Shanthi was waiting up for us, which was very generous of her!! Thankfully, all the dogs and cats seemed to be settling in OK, by the time we left for the airport the next day at 1:30pm. All in all, it was a little stressful!

The plane was crowded, but we were seated next to a very nice Israeli woman who lives on Long Island, and was traveling to Tel Aviv with her 16-month-old son who was remarkably well-behaved. We had a moment in the middle of the flight when an older gentleman was informed that his luggage was misdirected and he totally lost it, yelling and storming around, and generally creating a scene – and waking up our infant neighbor, who was very distraught by all the commotion. We wondered why the flight crew felt that they had to tell this guy the bad news when we were in the middle of the flight and no one could do anything about it!!