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First things first, if you recall, the end of yesterday was a very fun downhill. Like 5K of a downhill. So…today, Chicago Boss Girls chose to get bussed to the top of the hill to start the final day. Here is the picture of the day, and then I need to explain a few more…

Second to last day of the ride. 63 miles. We’ve been resting for a whole day so maybe it won’t be so bad. The most exciting part of today is that we are riding to the Arava Institute to spend the night at Kibbutz Keturah where it is housed. We were offered the option to…

Today is Shabbat, so no ride today. Lots of text today, not many photos. You have been warned. Our schedule is: Jackie enjoyed yoga led by a crew member. An aside: I am not sure we ever mentioned that the 30 people supporting our 110 person bike riding group are almost entirely alumni of the…

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…

Today was the longest ride of the trip. 68 miles. Although we had a choice-ride 40 miles and then Bear Witness at the Nova Site, or ride 68 miles. Jackie Bore Witness, but I rode all 68 miles because I had been to the Nova site and the Kibbutz KFar Aza in the spring of…

Short post today, since most of what we did was ride, eat, sweat, and sleep. Speaking of sleep, one element of this ride I hadn’t expected was the pleasure and challenge of sharing a room with a relative stranger in one’s mid 50s. Last night, around 11:30pm, just as I finished the blog, Jackie sat…

Today was full of hope and expectation, interspersed with a few concerns and doubts about the huge downhill at mile 6 tomorrow, and late-night news about renewed fighting. There are three different riding groups among the 110 participants. Chicago Boss Girls (you can also find us on instagram) is in the second group, TZOFIM. You…

Setting the stage. Today is the last full day before we start prepping for the ride. We were invited to participate in an “East-West” guided tour of East Jerusalem. If you have read prior blog posts from 2024, my first time to Israel was bearing witness to communities in Israel impacted by the October 7th…

Here are some photos from our flight over as we prepare for our bike trip fundraiser supporting the Arava Institute. The first two are actually of our last training ride in Chicago. As promised, you will be seeing more of Jackie, my new collaborator and my roommate on the trip. Getting the bikes to the…

Overall purpose of our trip:  To see a fuller picture, to understand the complexity of the story, and to have hope. We met with Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, executive director of the Arava Institute.   On our way to the meeting, the news broke that the team of investigators had just been nominated for a Nobel…