I am in pain! Yesterday was Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) where, here in Israel, everything shuts down. No public transportation, no businesses open, and no cars allowed on the roads. All Jews from the ultra-religious to the conservative, sometimes religious spend that day in the synagogue, fasting and praying for their sins to be forgiven. All the rest of the country takes advantage of the day off and the empty roads to bring out the bikes, scooters, wagons, etc and play in the street. If you've ever wanted to lay down in the middle of the highway - this is the day to do it! Unable to drive to Haifa and bike back, Darren and I decided to bike to Haifa and back - a total of 151km (almost 90mi).

Going up wasn't too bad. We were fresh, the weather was cool (because it was the crack of dawn!), and we had plenty of water. The way back took a little longer. We were tired, the sun had risen and was shining in all its brilliant intensity, we were fighting a head wind, and we ran out of water. At one of our breaks, we stopped in the shade of an overpass, and Darren decided to ask one of the kids biking nearby if they would refill our water at their house. Before Darren even mentioned paying him, this cute 11 year old boy whipped off his backpack and took out his water bottle to fill ours. He had to run back home to get more in order to fill them completely, but when he had finished, Darren gave the kid 100 shekels (about $25). It was cute to see the kid's eyes practically pop out of his head when he saw the money, especially since he would have so willingly given us water for free.

Another twenty km down the road from our water break, Darren's derailer broke leaving him stuck in his 2:7 gear before the hilly section with no way to gear down. I would have felt horrible shifting up and down while he was stuck in a hard gear, so I sympathy shifted and left myself in my 2:7 gear as well. My bike was a mountain bike which has smaller gears, so I think I still had it easier with the hills.

So I'm toast! And to add insult to injury, I forgot my sunscreen (since we left at the crack of dawn) and so I literally am toast! Good thing I'd been running around outside with my family for the past two weeks. But even that base tan didn't protect me completely. Pretty soon I'll be molting out of this skin like an overgrown lizard! I now have a greater respect for Mr Hill, Dad, and the Injerds who just recently did a full 100 mile ride. Ours wasn't that long, and it was hard enough!