Let the Adventures Begin!

Today I took a drive.

That's a simple enough statement. Or would be, if I were still in Montana. Here in Israel, where I don't have a car and where road accidents are a leading cause of death, such a simple statement reeks of mystery and adventure.

In anticipation of just such an adventure I rented a car. As it was my first car rental, that itself was a bit of an adventure. It was immediately followed by another adventure: my first time driving in Jerusalem. Things proceed without incident, and shortly after 1pm my friends and I were headed south.

We skirted Hebron to the east and then swung over towards Arad, encountering only slight opposition on the way. (In other words, not only were we stopped at the Israeli check point, they also made us take everything out of the car and put it through their x-ray machine while they examined our car. At least they didn't strip search us. I've never been searched like that at a check point. It was weird.) On our way we passed Biblical sites of importance such as Ziph, Karmel, and Ma'on. (See Joshua 15:55).

For the record, Arad in the spring time is a very different place from Arad in the fall. In the fall is appears to be a very hot, very dry, very desolate place. In spring, the hills are covered with a lush carpet of green grass and yellow and purple flowers.

From there we continued on, past Beer Sheva, past Avdat, taking a right just before Mitzpeh Ramon and climbing into the desert highlands. We were nearing the Egyptian border when we took another right, onto an ill-kept dirt road, filled with pointy stones, jutting from its surface. I have to admit, I feel pretty comfortable on dirt roads, but some of these Israeli dirt roads made me a bit nervous. Driving slowly and carefully we made out way to the parking lot and campsite of Borot Lotz.

We arrived just at the sun was beginning his final decent towards the horizon. As we stepped out of the car to explore before setting up camp, the chilly wind blew the fresh, sweet air over our faces. Indeed, it was almost a little too sweet, vaguely reminiscent of some barely remembered childhood medication. The threat of darkness and cold, however, kept us from more exploration and enjoyment of the scent. We quickly found a place to set up out tent and climbed in to get out of the chilling wind.

The rest of the evening was spent trying to stay warm, eating dinner, shivering, reading Perelandra to each other, and trying to catch a few hours of sleep.