Today is supposed to be “only” 50 miles. If you recall, Jackie did 40 yesterday and I did 70. The challenge of yesterday for me was the heat and the wind more than big hills toward the end of the ride. Technically, we weren’t “in” the desert yet, so today was going to be our entree.
Here is the route today with the elevation. Those bumps are the hills.
Those first two hills had us yelling at the world. I walked up part of the second one–I mean, we are talking about a climb of 1.5 kilometers and then another steep 1.5 k climb over five miles. In other words, we were dying. In my defense, it turned out I had a slow leek from the get go. By the time I got to the last big hill before lunch it was just a little bump but it almost killed me to complete it (that little blip at mile 25). Then I heard flap flap flap and realized my tire was flat. The Israel Ride has amazing mechanics and they scooped me up, gave me a ride for 3 kilometers while they fixed my tire and then let me off 7 kilometers before lunch. (Yes, I defintely thought about getting a ride the whole way there.)
Jackie had a similar experience on one of the big hills. She paused on the hill to walk her bike, and then when she got back on and started riding, she struggled to get up the hill. One of the mechanics joined her on the hill, looped a bike tube around her bike and ran her up the hill. He kept asking her if she wanted to just get in the van and get “sagged” up the hill, but she was steadfast in her commitment to ride. He was impressed with her “determination and perseverance.” So am I!
And now we are sweating our way through the desert. It is quiet and stunning and cruel.
As Jackie likes to point out, she always looks happy and I look like I am ready to bite someone’s head off. But look at us both leading a pack!
When we finally made it to the lunch stop, instead of food, we were first guided through a lovely walkway surrounded by stone layers dotted with ibex leading to David Ben Gurion’s grave.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine my grandfather knew David Ben Gurion. This is a capsule of what our guide shared with us about him.
Ben Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister, and considered the father of modern Israel. He was a worker, then a labor leader, then a politician. Our guide read one of his speeches from 1944 when the reality of what had happened to Jews during the Holocaust was starting to surface. This was 4 years before the etablishment of Israel, and he was imagining how to develop a Jewish state that noone really thought possible. I haven’t found the exact link, but it involves the idea that Jews in the diaspora are remnants of the Jewish people in each of these countries, and a homeland in Israel is the way to reunite them and enable the Jewish people to survive.
Chat GPT produced this paragraph:
“We who have returned to the land of our fathers are not merely a remnant of an ancient people — we are its renewal. The ingathering of exiles is not an act of refuge alone, but the fulfillment of a historic mission. Every immigrant who comes to Israel carries with him the hope of generations that refused to vanish in exile. To our brothers and sisters in the diaspora, we say: the destiny of the Jewish people is not to remain scattered and dependent on the goodwill of others, but to stand again as a free nation in our own homeland. The gates of Israel are open to every Jew who wishes to take part in this great rebirth.”
Ben Gurion also chose to have his grave at this site, near the Kibbutz Sde Boker. He had been driving through the desert, saw an encampment of tents and basic buildings, and asked who was living there. When he heard about the kibbutz that had been recently founded in 1952 by pioneering families, he stopped to visit and then asked them if he could become a member. With a one vote margin they approved, and he left politics to live on the kibbutz. See the full story here: https://www.touristisrael.com/sde-boker/5947/
When he was in his 60s (younger than many folks on our ride), he was so frustrated with the labor party who had replaced him that he went back into politics, but he remained a member of the kibbutz.
After lunch began the very long, hot climb up to our final rest for the night. Along the way, I thought this sign was funny. They should have said cyclists, beware the hills!
Our final rest stop in the desert was about 8 miles from our hotel. This was my vision of a mirage (its our “shade” in the desert).
No joke, under this tent are all of us crammed together–two riders had heatstroke, quickened pulses, and raised temperatures. And guess what? They rode on!
Someone’s final joke of the day, aside from that crazy incline all the way up at the end, was 100 final meters into our hotel. I know it doesn’t look like much, but trust me, it was hard!
And what do the Chicago Boss Girls do when they get to the hotel? Bathing suits, pool, sauna and a bit of wine before we join the group for Shabbat services Friday night at the hotel. (And yes, we both now have a ferocious bike shorts tan)
Shabbat Shalom, Y’all!
Love, Jackie and Sarah
P.S. Beneath this chill exterior, I am freaking out. I volunteered to read one of the 7 Torah portions on Saturay morning, and I have been practicing like crazy to try to remember how to chant. I haven’t done this since my Bat Mitzvah at age 12. And 2 days ago, the organizer also asked if I wanted to be the second Gabbai, keeping people on track during their readings by following along. With a very loose understanding of what that meant, I agreed. He had said the magic words-it would be nice to have a woman to do that. Tonight (Friday) Bill explained I was supposed to have printed out all 7 portions and be ready to let people know when they reach the end of each sentence and follow along to help them find their place if lost. For those who don’t know, the Torah itself doesn’t actually have musical notes, punctuation or even periods at the end of sentences. Looking at my blank stare, he offered to find someone else to replace me, but it was too late on Friday night. So after our crazy ride, the heat, and the service, I am still prepping my own portion, replaying and chanting along to the recorded version, printing out everyone else’s sections at our desert hotel and hoping I can figure out in the next few hours what to do tomorrow morning. And my cheerleader Jackie just keeps saying, You sound great! You got this! Such a lovely human being.
I asked Jackie to please help me remember in the future — look before I leap. Stop agreeing to things before considering what they actual entail and really think through my commitments. She is very good at that. 🙂 We’ll see how it goes tomorrow! Luckily, tomorrow is Saturday (Shabbat) so we stay in the same hotel for two nights and don’t have a bike ride!
A better future 
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