Travel the World Stories

WestWalker · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 307 Location: West Coast

Given the discussion in another thread about travel stories I thought I would give it a go. I don't think the travel stories have to be Gluten related. Just interesting stories from your travels through the world. I'll start with this one and hopefully others will join me in writing about their journeys....

I was in Israel with two other friends (and that particular trip has many stories but I'll stick to this short one) and as usuall, I was driving and trying to drive in a loop instead of returning the same way we had come. We had driven through the Golen Heights along the Syrian border. We drove through a bombed out Muslim city now deserted and were following the map which indicated there was a road that went back down into central Israel. We turned as indicated on the map. In a short distance, we passed a military outpost and a guard tower. However, no one seemed to be around. We (I) kept driving and the road turned from pavement to a narrow one lane dirt road where the grass grows up in the middle. We passed a bombed military vehicle on the side. And then, we saw them. Signs posted saying "You are in a mine field." I think my heart started to beat faster and my palms got a little sweaty. My two companions were more nervous than I was.

We could not turn the vehicle around because a mine could be along the narrow road. We kept going afraid to turn around, backup, or stop. And now, the road completely ended. Ok, this was definitely NOT indicated on the map. In fact, the map shows it as paved and open! Great! Are there mines buried in the road and we just happened NOT to have hit them coming but if I back all the way up the road, will I hit one?! And why was the road not closed! if it was a mine field?! I've driven to so many places where you see things that look interesting but don't appear alarming -- like "You are now in a mine field."

Well, as you know, I was not blown up (otherwise, I would not be writing on this forum) and my friends survived as well...though there was a puddle in the floorboard in the backseat...he never did admit to why or how that puddle got there. I backed up the whole way not chancing to turn the car around which would have put me in the grass field and maybe on top a mine. Once we reached the pavement again, we just stopped and let the shaking supside while giving a big Thanks to the Big Guy looking over us.

Living in the North America where you can take a leasurely drive on paved or dirt without worrying about mines may have made me naive about driving in Israel following a perfectly good map (so I thought). I learned my lesson. Don't drive into mine fields -- even though you don't know it is a mine field!

There were many other times in Israel on this trip where my heart beat fast and my palms got a little sweaty, like when the Palestinians were calling for Hamas to come get us, but thankfully, I survived all those incidents. So what good stories do you have to tell?

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8783 Location: WI, USA