Day One of Riding -- What a Yom HaAtzmaut!

Thanks to the training I had with Richard Wharton at the Dallas Cycling Center at the Aaron Family JCC, it was not so bad. I am a little bit concerned about tomorrow's length (68 miles) and the hills (mountains) on Friday.

We rode through Tel Aviv, Yafo, by Rishon L'tzion and through farms, moshavim (settlements) and regular Israeli neighborhoods. By mid-afternoon, we got to the beach in Ashkelon. Ashkelon is a racially diverse, working class city and its beach reflected that -- rather than the buffed and polished Tel Aviv beaches. And there was beauty in being off of a tour bus and interacting with Israeli life.

We saw families having Yom HaAtzmaut barbecues in honor of Israel's independence, with parks packed shoulder to shoulder with families of all races and backgrounds grilling meat, playing music, and having fun with one another. Often times when we would ride by, people would shout out "Chag Sameach! Chag Sameach!". One woman who I spoke with in Hebrew at a red light couldn't believe what we were doing, saying to us over and over "Kol HaKavod" (loosely -- "More power to you!", and elbowing her husband so he could hear what we were doing.

One rider on the trip had been in a cab coming to the hotel, and in his broken Hebrew and the driver's broken English they managed to communicate the purpose of this bicycle trip from Tel Aviv to Eilat. The driver reached into his glove compartment and gave the man a miniature book of Psalms in Hebrew to keep on his key chain for protection.

There was something truly sacred about spending Yom HaAtzmaut in Tel Aviv at the place where Israel declared itself a state, on that Jewish date.