Dr Savta’s web log

Cora: I jest don’t know. Seems pretty darned suspicious.
Ella: Why, Cora, you always are suspicious of somethin’
Cora: You are right. But this time I know I am right. Somethin’ funny’s goin’ on and I mean to find out what it is.
Ella: OK, what is it?
Cora: Well, yesterday this car stopped outside. Out of it came the two of ‘em. They was wearin’ them baseball hats that said “Beijing 2008″ with the Olympic symbol on them. The man had a long white beard. They both were wearin’ safari vests that were bulgin’ in the pockets. They asked for a room for two nights. They said they were from someplace out of the United States- Iran, maybe, maybe Iraq…one of them countries that starts with “I”… don’t remember, but they sure sounded like Americans.
Ella: OK, they sound a bit odd, but I don’t see why you’re so upset.
Cora: Well, here’s the thing… They brought into the motel suitcase after suitcase and bag after bag- I don’t know how all that stuff even fit into that room and now here’s the weirdest part… As soon as they got into that room, they put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the two of them ever since.
Ella: You mean they went out all day and haven’t come back yet?
Cora: No. I mean they haven’t opened that door even once in the last 24 hours. They’s in there. I don’t know what’s goin’ on in there, but the few times I walked by in the hall, I didn’t hear anything. No signs of life at all.
Ella: Well, maybe they just like watchin’ TV a lot.
Cora: Well, they might, but it turns out that after they checked in, I discovered that the TV in that room doesn’t work and I figured I would wait til they complained before I changed it. They never said a word.
Ella: Well what do you think they’re doin’ in there?
Cora: Darned if I know. They’re old folks, so there ain’t many possibilities. I just hope they’re not makin’ a bomb or waitin’ for instructions to hold people hostage or somethin’.
Ella: Well, did you check out their license plate?
Cora: Yeah, like they said, it’s a rental. The police ran the number and they were spotted in Dodge City yesterday. He was drivin’ funny, ducking down sometimes, takin’ his hat off once, and she was takin’ pictures from the car as they moved through. They never stopped.
Ella: So why don’t you knock on their door and see if you can find out anything from them?
Cora: I’m scared. You want to?
Ella: No thanks. I gotta go home now and wash my hair.
Cora: Well, thanks a lot. No doubt you’ll be sorry when you see them on America’s Most Wanted.

We started off this morning where??? Great Bend, Kansas. We drove along miles and miles and miles and miles of flat fields, filled with corn. We saw huge grain silos. We saw an windfarm in Spearville, Kansas, about 17 miles north of Dodge City. And yes, it is *that* Dodge City. The good and bad news about driving today was that because it is the 4th of July, there was very little traffic however, pretty much everything was closed. So as we breezed our way through Dodge City, there was really nowhere to stop. I did get a couple of pictures that will eventually make their way to my facebook picture album (but not today)…

However, one thing that was open was the Wizard of Oz site at Liberal Kansas. It was very very cute. Real Americana.

As we drove farther, we watched the landscape change as there were more and more livestock- mainly horses and cattle- and less and less farming. We saw the beginning of a desert landscape.

After driving for hours in the hot weather (outside temp went up to 95 Fahrenheit), we were tired and stopped here in Dalhart, Texas. It is going to be a long shabbat… nowhere to go, nothing to do… can’t even leave the room. Gives togetherness new meaning.

I’ll let you know how we make it through…

In the morning, we were treated to a tour of our friends’ garden which is filled with all sorts of plants as well as fruit trees and an extensive vegetable patch. It was all so green and fresh and the sun was shining and we were so very happy for these wonderful people and the beautiful life they have created for themselves.

We reluctantly left and headed southward from Omaha toward Kansas.

It is at a time like this that one gets in touch with the important things in life. The rest stops on Interstate 80 in Nebraska are clean and light and airy. I was impressed. So impressed, I took pictures of the ladies room. Now you may think I am odd (OK, if you know me, you KNOW that I am odd), but when I got into the car, we drove on for a while and I said to my husband, “weren’t they nice bathrooms!” and he said, “Yes, I was actually going to ask you to take a picture of them.” “Well,” I said, “you are aren’t going to believe this but…” I guess we must be the odd couple.

Today was our 42nd anniversary. Hard to believe. I can still feel the excitement I felt that day, the fears, the uncertainty, the butterflies in my stomach…. or maybe it’s just the kind of food we’ve been eating on the road…

We stopped at a Walmart on the way to pick up some food for dinner. As usual, we bought fresh vegetables and fruits and bagels and pretzels. This time we found some kosher imitation bologna (we haven’t eaten it yet, so I don’t know if it’s awful or truly disgusting). I think it’s tomorrow’s lunch.

While there, I saw this beautiful fresh orange juice for sale in the refrigeration department in two really lovely containers. I said to my husband, “Don’t worry; this will be coming to Israel soon.” Which is true. These days it only takes a year or two or three before the terrific things make it over to our stores. And then I realized: the US is “coming attractions” for Israel.

We are taking the direct route that mapquest had laid out for us which took us off the interstates in Nebraska and we will be on regular state roads now cutting diagonally across Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and Texas into New Mexico. The side roads are very interesting, but they don’t offer certain amenities like rest areas and cell phone reception. So today, when our children had planned a really sweet conference call for us in honor of our birthday, they were not able to reach us, nor was I able to reach them at the appointed time from my cell phone or from a dial phone that using two different dialing methods, swallowed a dollar each time. (On one call, I could hear my son and he couldn’t hear me. I was in the middle of a parking lot and so I screamed words one at a time at the top of my lungs — he should have been able to hear me without a telephone. He said that he could hear screaming, but no words. I gave up.)

But I digress…

We are in a town called “Great Bend, Kansas.” How many of you have been here?

Tomorrow… southwestward

Once again unable to sleep, I finally got up at about 4:30 and started reading and writing emails yesterday. We finally left Camp Dodge at about 9:30 and wound our way back to the interstate. At least we tried to. Coming out of Dodge, we got to a traffic light and like most people, waited for it to change. For a minute or two or three or four or five — all the while anticipating that it might change sometime in this millenium since the millenium is still fairly new… But finally, after what seemed like at least ten minutes, I jumped out of the car, pushed the cross button on the pole, and jumped back into the car just as presto! the light changed.

The drive to Omaha was uneventful and we found our friends’ house with no problems. Oh my! These are wonderful friends- people we’ve known since their children and ours were little. And it was a pleasure to see their lovely home- actually a rather remarkable one and to spend time with them.

If you’ve been keeping up with us, you know that we are going to be taking a cruise to Alaska. They just returned from Alaska with magnificent pictures and lots of tell us about the trip. Now we are even more excited and we know who to ask for pictures if we miss taking something that we like.

In addition, we found out that their granddaughter is attending Camp Sabra. Now that may not have significance for most people, but when we think of Camp Sabra, we think of our son Sam, who worked there a couple of years as the mashgiach (”Sam, the kosher man”.)

We saw a bit of Omaha (it’s a big city!!) and after our presentation, the sky was a magnificent orange/purple as we made our way back to their home.

Our friends have a cherry tree and after we got home, we had creamy vanilla ice cream topped by cherries she prepared. Ohmigosh! Heaven should be so good!

Iowa has very nice rest stops that have free wireless internet. Very impressive. From there, sitting outside in the shade by the side of the road, I was able to chat with one daughter via gmail and to see the pictures of another’s children. What a world!

Iowa (at least from Interstate 80) is very flat and is adorned by cornfields in every direction. We saw magnificent stretches of land, all verdant green, with silos and barns and big farmhouses for miles and miles and miles.

When we finally got to Des Moines, we got off the highway and headed in the direction of Camp Dodge (yes, I am ready for all of the Dodge jokes including the fact that tomorrow morning by 10 o’clock, we need to get out of Dodge!). This is a military installation of some sort (I think National Guard training, but I’m not sure) and we have been billeted (sounds like something that could be fatal) in a brick building in a small apartment. It has a fridge and microwave and sofa and recliner and best of all, a computer. Although I couldn’t get into the wireless network, the computer that is in place here has had no trouble.

We even are able to do our laundry here! Our suitcases seem to be sighing with relief. They are so dramatic. It hasn’t been that long…

We have no immediate plans although Iowa is full of historical sights and all sorts of arts. There are barns that have been painted with quilts on them and beautiful folk art objects. We passed by (in Illinois) the birthplace of Ronald Reagan and in Iowa, of Herbert Hoover. If we had the time, we could probably spend a week just seeing the sights around Des Moines. This is a big country with lots to see!

So tomorrow, it’s on to Omaha where we try once again to entice people to travel with us to China and to Vietnam/Cambodia!

We began the day in Ohio and progressed through Indiana and now are staying at a motel in Illinois.

A few observations:
1. The US is a big country.
2. The rest stops in Ohio are the nicest so far.
3. You can find cut up salad vegetables in most of the supermarkets.
4. If you put tuna and dressing on top, it almost tastes like a meal.
5. The price of coke on the road is outrageous.
6. Americans are very patient people–

This afternoon, traffic came to a standstill for close to a half hour on the interstate. When we finally started moving, we crawled along at about 5 miles an hour. Nobody honked their horns. Nobody tried driving around on the shoulders. Nobody got angry. People looked across at the people in the cars next to them and compared notes. No one knew what the hold up was. We all waited. We all finally started moving.

More…
Every motel we’ve stayed at has “breakfast” in the morning. Most have fresh natural orange juice and coffee (some have cakes/donuts we can’t eat.) The one we stayed at this morning had hard boiled eggs and corn flakes. This is a welcome innovation since we last were in the States.

So tomorrow, we move on through Illinois, heading for Iowa.

This morning we woke up somewhere near Harrisburg and had juice and coffee and got on the road. While my husband drove I began reading him Fannie Flagg’s book, “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven.” I had really enjoyed “Friend Green Tomatoes” and “Welcome to the World, Baby Girl,” having read parts of them to my husband out of sheer delight. I realized that with all of the driving, we might not find music we liked and I didn’t really want to invest in books on CD or carry CDs with us. As it is, we are weighted down with clothing and equipment. So this seems like a nice solution to “what are we going to do with all that time in the car.”

The weather was very spotty. We drove between sunny spots and absolute deluges. On at least three occasions the rainfall was so heavy we could barely see in front of us, and then a few miles later, there was the sun again.

We finally arrived in at place outside of Sandusky, Ohio. The motel is nice and has free wireless. I have even been able to download some of the daf yomi lessons that still weren’t available when we left Israel.

While my husband was studying, I drove to a shopping center and entered a Walmart-type store. I bought some salad vegetables for dinner as well as some sodas (that are exhorbitant on the road) and some other items we needed. As I reached the checkout counter, I heard the clerk, a young man with long wavy dark hair highlighted in red, telling the person in front of my how frightened he had been. When I started to check out, I asked him what had happened to make him frightened. He told me his story:

About a week ago, at about midnight, he was working in the store (which is open 24 hours.) A man walked over to him at the checkout counter carrying an AK47. The man asked him if they had any shells for the AK47 and did they do background checks. The clerk responded, “Are you $*&#ing kidding?” The man told him he was not. He just wanted to know if they had shells for his weapon and if they did background checks. The clerk called his supervisor. He said that there was a man with an AK47 asking those questions. His supervisor asked him if he was kidding. He said, “No.” The supervisor must have had the ability to see the clerk because she told him to stop looking around. It was not wise to get the customer upset. She told him to tell the customer that they were checking. In a short while, the supervisor called him back and told him to tell the man they were still checking, but in the meantime, he needed to see some ID. She told the clerk to try to memorize as much as he could of the ID. Finally she called back and told him to tell the customer that they couldn’t do it, but that another store (which he named) could. As the man left the store, the clerk saw his supervisor nod to someone and suddenly the police swooped in and tackled the customer.

The poor clerk was still upset. How could I tell him what his story awakened in me? Should I tell him that where I live many times people with weapons succeeded in hurting innocents? Should I tell him about our heroes who have sacrificed their lives when homicidal people attempted to hurt others? Or should I tell him about the time I walked into a Jerusalem supermarket with my son and they were very careful to search my purse but thought nothing of allowing my son in with his M16?

I acknowledged his feelings and aside from that, I said nothing.

Tomorrow, it’s on the road again.

Thanks for being so patient! Warning: this posting is not funny.

Friday we went back for felafel to the restaurant formerly known as “Mama’s.” That is: last week, it was known as “Mama’s” and this week it was open, serving the same food with the same man at the counter, and now called “Chickpeas.” The felafel still was very good.

We walked to the area of Independence Hall and went into the Liberty Bell’s new home. It actually was very nice with some relevant photos and narrative and the bell was still there (only about one half the size I remember it being.) I’m guessing it was my memory that was faulty since shrinking the bell might have been noticed by others.

We had been told that Constitution Center was worth seeing and it was. The exhibits were engaging and sometimes clever. The building itself was very attractive.

We bought some more food for shabbat and then went back to my sister’s apartment to prepare for shabbat.

In the evening, we went to a little synagogue, about 2 blocks from her house. In the morning, we walked one block farther away and found an old synagogue, Bnai Abraham, that was beautiful. It was a very large building and the synagogue was absolutely charming. It probably could seat about 300 people, maybe more and is freshly renovated and painted tastefully. It most reminded me of the synagogue we had visited in St. Petersburg, Russia or a couple we had seen in Prague. We were told that its builders had been immigrants from Russia. After the service (which was very nice) there was a lovely sit-down kiddush and the people were friendly and welcoming.

After a very restful and pleasant shabbat, we said goodbye to my sister and set off westward. Now we are at a motel just off the Pennsyvania Turnpike at about Harrisburg.

We spent the day in Philadelphia with my sister after a brief skype visit with the family in the morning…

One of the places we went was Border’s where the selection of English language books was nothing less than spectacular!

But by far, the best part of the day was meeting our grandson for the first time. This fabulous child is ours by marriage (his father married my daughter) and although I had imagined he would be a nice child, I could never have pictured him as bright and clever and friendly and charming as he is. And now, since he calls me savta, I officially count him among my grandchildren.

Here we are together

We are excited that he will be visiting Israel in August and that we will get to spend more time with him then.

We ended our trip to Newburgh, saying goodbye to our friends, and went on in the direction of New Rochelle. We stopped at West Point where we found some things that we were looking for in the PX. One of them was a new camera. Although I really have enjoyed my digital camera, it is a couple of years old and it was time to upgrade. We got a really great camera that I have yet to take out of the box and figure out— we’ve just been moving too fast.

We went on to New Rochelle and met my friend Sandy at a restaurant for dinner. What can I say? Sandy is wonderful- warm and gracious and kind and caring. When we got to her home, we set up our show quickly as she prepared a feast for the guests. The people she had invited were delightful and they made the evening very special.

Over Sandy’s fireplace is the most exquisite picture of her five gorgeous grandchildren. It made me so happy to see what pleasure she derives from them.

After breakfast, Sandy packed us a lunch and of we drove to Philadelphia.

Once in Philadelphia, we went into tourist mode, meeting my sister for a picnic lunch and ultimately riding the duck. What a hoot! (Actually, what a quack!) We had a great time riding through the streets of the city listening to really bad duck puns and finally splashing into the Delaware River! What an adventure! We all were given plastic duck bills that make a quacking sound when you blow into them. We all participated in a quacking symphony as we quacked to the chicken song and then to the Blue Danube Waltz. We really enjoy being tourists and the duck ride was just what we needed after days of being serious adults.

Tomorrow, we stay in Philadelphia and continue being tourists. I will try very hard not to quack too much.