WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15TH-THE LONG JOURNEY HOME

(THIS PAGE IS BEING WRITTEN ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH FOR THE REASON THAT I'VE BEEN EXHAUSTED SINCE ARRIVING HOME AT 2AM THURSDAY AFTER TAKING A TRAIN, A BUS, TWO FLIGHTS, A TRAIN, WALKING 3/4 OF A MILE, AND DRIVING 135 MILES)

I was up too early at 430am to make sure I had everything properly packed.  Breakfast isn't available at my hotel until 8am so I prepared for that by buying two pieces of pastry at my favorite Jerusalem bakery the night before.  I left my key at the unattended front desk and walked out into a chili morning yet to come.  I walked the 200 yards to the light rail station and waited for the first train at 530am.  The train arrived a little early and in 15 minutes I was at a bus stop outside of the Central Bus Station waiting for the 6am bus to Ben Gurion Airport.  There were about 25 people who also needed to get to the airport early.  My flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 1020am but getting checked in and through Israeli security can take a while.  They ask you to be at the airport three hours before your flight.  I waited in a short line to check in and get rid of my checked bag.  I went to the security line.  That took a bit of time and included the questions about "did you pack your bag" and "do you have any sharp objects in your carry on bags".  Israel, like many other countries, makes an effort to keep track of its visitors.  When you arrive you see a live immigration person who asks the purpose of your visit and examines your passport before giving you an entry visa.  They don't stamp it in your passport because there are a number of Arab/Muslim countries who will not let you visit if you have visited Israel as evidenced by a stamp in your passport.  When you leave, if you have a biometric passport ( a passport with a chip inside) you can go to a kiosk and slide your passport in and face the camera and an exit visa will be printed for you.  You will need this to place on a glass pane on an exit gate which will open for you to go to your gate.  I got through all of this in record time and I was at the gate for my 1020am flight at 810am.   I said my goodbyes to a bronze bust of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister

and found a seat near the gate and relaxed.  I enjoyed my breakfast pastry purchased the night before and worked on this blog a bit.  While waiting I noticed the strange accommodation the airport makes for smokers.  For a country with a lot of smart people, Israel has way too many smokers especially young people.  The airport has these transparent cages where smokers can enjoy their deadly habit without poisoning others, particularly me. 

  My first flight on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, Turkey was 20 minutes late leaving.  This was an improvement over my first flight 3 weeks ago from Miami to Istanbul which left 90 minutes late.  As before I was worried how this would affect my making my connecting flight from Istanbul to Miami.  The flight of 2 1/2 hours was okay and the Turkish food a little strange but mostly edible.  At the airport in Istanbul, even though we had been thoroughly inspected at the airport in Israel we were again inspected and made to take off our shoe and jackets, etc.  This only made my rush to make my connecting flight to Miami a bit more critical.  I hurriedly put my shoes on and headed through the very large airport to my flight to Miami.  I was almost the last to board but still took time getting settled in my seat and doing the same thing I do on every flight.  I use the anti-bacterial wipes from Dollar Tree stores to wipe down the seat back in front of me including the video screen and controls and the tray table.  Also the arm rests and the seat if its vinyl or leather.  Another practice to keep from getting sick from breathing the air exhaled by 300 strangers from all parts of the world is to buy the "Triple Antibiotic Ointment" also from Dollar Tree.  You take a generous amount of this stuff and wipe in inside your nostrils.  My doctor swears by this practice so I'm doing it every flight.  You can also wear a surgical mask but people will treat you like it you that's contagious.  By the way my doctor also said not to use Neosporin for this.  She said that Neosporin has an inhibiting agent and won't protect you nearly as well.  The flight was 12 hours and I slept while attempting to watch several movies.  The one movie I didn't sleep through was "Hidden Figures".  It's about three African-American women who were all gifted (meaning geniuses) mathematicians working in a segregated work environment at NASA in the early 1960's.  If you haven't seen this film it shows how much our country has changed for the better in the last 60 years and how the achievements of women like these three were not made public.  One of the woman was solely responsible for confirming some calculations critical to the last minute decision to launch or not to launch John Glenn into space as the first man to orbit the earth.  

I arrived in Miami at 8pm local time which was 3am to me having become acclimated to the time in Israel.  As a "trusted traveler" with Global Entry (which I highly recommend) I didn't have to stand in the long lines to be questioned by a Customs Agent.  Instead I went to a kiosk, slid my passport in, placed my right fingers on a glass that verified who I was, and faced the camera, answered a few questions on the screen and took the receipt with my picture on it and headed out.  I had answered "yes" to the question "Are you bringing any of the following into the US:  seeds, plants, food, etc".  I had in my carry on luggage about 6 pounds of halva.  For those of you who have never tasted halva, a Middle Eastern sweet made from crushed sesame seeds.  When I attempted to turn in the receipt the inspector asked me what food I had.  I explained that i had halva that I had purchased in Israel.  He had no clue what halva is and as I started to explain how it's made, he told me to "get going".  I guess he didn't see me or the halva as a threat to the internal security of the US.

I went to the baggage carousel and because of my easy entry via Global Entry status (it cost $100 for five years and is well worth it) I was one of the first people waiting for the checked luggage.  It was good that I wasn't in a big hurry because it was around 830pm and I had missed the 750pm trirail train to Hollywood, Florida where my car was stored.  The next, and last train for the evening, wasn't leaving until 940pm.  My checked bag was almost the last one to the carousel and I walked leisurely to the train in the airport that takes you from terminal to terminal and makes it final stop at the trirail station.  I found a bench next to the trirail train and waited.  Another prospective passenger for the trirail train going North sat down on the bench.  She was returning from a trip to Ireland (I didn't get a picture but this woman was so stereotypically Irish, bright red hair, green eyes, and an Irish accent that hasn't faded even after 20 years in America).  She insisted on telling me her belief that the Clinton Foundation was just a tool for money laundering disguised as charitable contributions.  While it may be true I was exhausted and didn't need to participate in that discussion.  The train left at 940pm (I woke up in Jerusalem some 24 hours earlier) and I got off at the Sheridan Street station at 1020pm in Hollywood, Florida just 3/4 mile from my car.  I saw two taxis in the distance in the parking lot and walked to them only to discover that they were empty and just parked there.  I didn't want to call my friend Rick because of the late hour so I walked to his place of business where he had moved my car outside and left the key hidden for me.  While walking I realized that I had probably walked farther than 3/4 mile at the Miami airport so this walk wasn't so tough.  I got in my car having not driven in almost a month and started the 135 mile drive home at almost 11pm.  Once I got away from the metro Fort Lauderdale area and onto "Alligator Alley" I-75 heading across the state I realized how tired I was.  Driving was difficult so I stopped at a rest stop, reclined the seat all the way, and went to sleep.  I woke up about an hour later and felt better about driving.  I arrived home at 2am, dragged my luggage into the house, and promptly went to sleep in the bed I had missed for almost a month.  Since then I've been sleepy including fighting off sleep last night (Shabbat) in my Synagogue.  

I'm now getting ready for a two week trip Monday to visit my Sister Phyllis in Sonoma, California for Thanksgiving.  My flight is again out of Miami (the fares are much cheaper than from Fort Myers) at 11am.  I'll drive to Miami on Sunday and stay in a hotel so I don't have to get up super early to drive across the State to make my flight.  My friend Rick Lucci will again store my car and Sunday afternoon he's throwing a party for his dad's 88th birthday.  I met them in 1988 in St.Croix and did some legal work for them over the years during which time we've become good friends.

This is the end of my blog.  I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  It takes some effort but its definitely worthwhile.  I've looked back at my blog from the trip my Sister and I took in 2015 to New York, London, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova and Israel.  I find it enjoyable to be reminded of some things on the trip that I enjoyed but my memory of them has faded.

My trip went well.  Nothing went wrong and I'm happy to be home again, even for a short while.  I'm "signing off" now.

Shalom leitraot,

Vic