Houston, We Have a Problem

That's the message I keep getting when trying to upload my photos. Every hotel I've been at so far (I've lost count, but I think it's been 4 hotels in 5 days or something like that), the internet connection keeps timing out. So by the time I get 5 percent through a photo upload, the connection times out, and the photo doesn't make it. This is SO FRUSTRATING.

So I'm going to have to resort to text only. Too bad, because I'm not so good at writing, and I was so hoping to be uploading photos as the main chronicle of this trip. The places we've been and the things we've done have been absolutely incredible, and my means of communication is by photos. I was only going to write simple explanations of the places we've been as an adjunct to the images.

That said, and the fact that I'm limited to text, here goes.

Have you seen the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?" That's the one where Sean Connery plays father to Harrison Ford, and they're trying to find the Holy Grail. Remember when they get the grail and they run out of that place and it's this huge temple-looking thing that's carved into a mountain? We were there.

Know the place in the Bible, in 1 Samuel 23 where David is being pursued by Saul and he's in a cave and cuts off a corner of Saul's robe as he was tempted to kill him but he doesn't? We were there just today.

Know the place in Exodus where God tells Moses to speak to the rock so that water would come out, but instead Moses strikes the rock twice with his staff? Water comes out anyway, but God tells Moses that because of his disobedience he will die without entering the Promised Land? We were there.

We've floated in the Dead Sea (you gotta try that). We went to Masada, where the Jews held one last stand against the Romans in 73 AD. We went snorkeling in the Red Sea. We went to Be'er Sheva, where Abraham made a pact with Abimilech. We went to Mamshit (Memphis), a major Nabatean station on the ancient spice route.

Now we are in Jerusalem for five days, at an outstanding hotel (except for their internet service). Tomorrow we're going to Bethlehem, to an underground tunnel system being dug by archaeologists, and a couple other places of major significance like the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.

I have to end now, but I'll keep trying to post photos if I can.

- Larry