Heading Home!

Our traffic adventures in Israel were relatively uneventful.  No major traffic jams, no crashes, far fewer people in a rush and not one complete (okay maybe one) idiot like I see many times a day in the USA.  That’s not to say that everyone was polite and unhurried, there was plenty of the usual rush hour grind, but it just didn’t seem to be the madness I see in the Chicago suburbs, anyway.

The only auto related issue we had was that our tour van’s air conditioning broke a couple hours from Eilat in the Negev desert.  Well that and Jon thowing up the first day.  As for the air conditioning, it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds, even the kids didn’t complain (much).  Things like this happen, so no big deal at all.  In fact, our tour guide, David, was excellent, as was the transportation and driving.  If you are going to Israel, definitely give KIDS’  Israel Adventures a call if you need a guide.  Dave is originally from California (Los Angeles) and speaks perfect English.  He also has all the local connections of a licensed guide who has been in the biz for 15+ years.

We actually booked our whole tour with Authentic Israel and they happened to pair us with David as a subcontracted guide.  I can recommend them also.  They were a bit pricey, but good service.  David wasn’t our scheduled driver back to Jerusalem today, even if his A/C hadn’t broken.  So, our tour company sent another driver for the 5+ hour final leg of or tour.  This time, it was an older Mercedes Vito minivan.  While it seated 8, two rear seats lacked a head restraint and all rear seats lacked a shoulder belt.  There was a newer Evenflo high back booster, but I didn’t have the heart to reject it on the basis of a lap-only belt;-)  The ride was a bit bouncy, but on the plus side, the A/C was nice and cold!  Our kids liked Dave’s van best of all of them, though!

It’s back to the USA traffic for us.  I leave still wondering how high motor vehicle traffic ranks as a cause of death in Israel and the West Bank or how their rates compare to ours on a per million vehicle miles travelled basis.  Can we help them, or can they help us?  Or maybe a little of both?