Wednesday.........We left Sunday morning for Dor. Don and Ron took turns driving and navigating and I curled up in the back seat with four pillows, watched the scenery, and listened to Don and Ron's discussions about which road to take and where to make the next turn.
"Where do we turn off of this road?"
"At the fold in the map."
"OK."
I kept looking for a line across the road where the fold in the map would be, then..........
"How much further?"
"About this much" Holding his thumb and finger about an inch apart.
"This much?" Also holding his thumb and finger about an inch apart.
"yes"
"OK"
No need for the radio to be on in the car, their conversations were great entertainment, from time to time I got the giggles listening to them. Only once did we have to stop and ask directions, and that was shortly before arriving at our destination.
At the Pardes Hanna Agricultural School, the grounds were nicely landscaped (I guess you should expect that at an agricultural school). After some fussing around we were assigned our rooms. They are set up for four to a room but since Don and I are married, they found an empty room in another building for us. Wow! The room they gave us has an attached bathroom! We told Ron about our luxurious accommodations and invited him to join us. When Ron saw that staying with us meant that he would not have to go down the hall to the bathroom, he gladly moved in with us.
So that you can all feel sorry for us, I will give you our daily schedule:
4:15 am Wake up, get coffee and a snack
4:35 am Board busses for Tel Dor
5:00 am Excavation begins
7:00 am Peanut butter break (10 minutes)
9:00 am Breakfast (in the field), daily swim (optional)
10:00 am Excavation continues
11:30 am 20 minute break for fruit
1:00 pm Excavation ends
1:15 pm Travel back to school for lunch
4:30 pm Pottery reading, stratigraphy sessions and lectures
7:00 pm Dinner Evenings and weekends are free
Half way through the first day of digging I was thinking "Is this worth it?" My back hurt, my legs ached, the dust up my nose had given me a headache, and the heat was smothering. After "breakfast" I spent the rest of the day sitting with the recorder under a tarp.......even that was miserably hot...........can I do this? Do I want to do this? When the alarm rang at 4:00 am Tuesday morning, I said "Go with out me, I'm sick" I slept in Tuesday morning until about 8:00 when the maids came in to clean. The rest of the morning I slept and read, then around 1:00 pm I went down to the cafeteria to wait for Don and Ron and lunch. I stayed at our room again today, but tomorrow I will go with them and spend the day washing pottery shards, maybe I can handle that a little better than digging.
More later............ Shalom..............Bernice