Well, as you may notice from the date stamp on this post, it's actually the next day. That's because Tuesday was a whirlwind with no chance to set up, log in, and blog. Even though it was a loooong day.
04:15: My alarm went off -- note that this is Bethlehem time ... eight hours ahead of US CDT, which was still Monday 20 August at 22:15.
05:15: I had my bags outside the door and headed down to a pastries and coffee breakfast set up in the lobby. A few of my fellow pilgrims were already there, and the others trickled in over the next few minutes.
06:00: A little later than planned, our bus had arrived, was loaded, and we departed the St. Gabriel Hotel. To our surprise, our driver was not Wael, which was disappointing since I for one had not properly bid him farewell and thanks for the fantastic job he did over the past week. We left Bethlehem and settled in for the drive to Ben Gurion Airport.
There I got special treatment again because of my pacemaker. Not the pat down, but "many questions" about my arm sling and pacemaker card. Kristal had waited behind for me as the others went on toward our gate, which seemed miles away. We were worried we'd miss loading -- but it turns out our plan was late in loading and late in leaving for Istanbul.
Istanbul was ... mercy! -- I don't know where to start. It's all a blur, but we went through at least three security checks, a mad dash across what seemed like an airport that had to, like Istanbul itself, span the Bosporus over into Asia Minor, long lines, etc. We had arrived late, of course, so were feeling the pressure on that count -- then at the gate a seemingly longer line for boarding that included two back-to-back, within-sight-of-each-other, security checks, one including a pat down. There was then a long wait in airplane. There seemed some confusion or something regarding some passengers. I wondered if there was some kind of heightened security alert level for some reason (although I found out later that one of the disturbances had to do with a family scattered from one end of the plane to the other, with at least one barely-toddler child isolated from the rest and the father not going to stand for it.
Frankly, my impression of the Istanbul airport coming or going was not favorable, although at least this time we seemed to be in a more modern part. Last week it was more like a third world country, with even more people, and uncomfortably hot as well. And I'll spare you a description of the bathroom....
The flight from Istanbul to Houston was supposed to be longer than it was. I'm not sure how, but the pilot made up most of the lost time and we landed less than a half an hour after our posted time, about 19:40 US CDT. But it was still a long flight, and I was stuck in the very center, the middle seat of the middle rank of three narrow seats, the middle of three men, none of us small. It was agony.
Finally, we landed. As I expected, suddenly we were all going our separate ways and I never got a chance to properly bid farewell to some of my companions for this pilgrimage. Later, I did send a general WhatsApp to the group: "As I knew would happen, in the rush of deplaning and getting thru the Houston airport, I did not get a chance to say proper farewells to some of you. This past week has been a pleasure and a privilege. I especially thank all of you who were so solicitous of me in my debilitate state. Fr. Emilio, thank you for putting this pilgrimage together. I hope all our paths will cross again sooner rather than later. Kent"
Kristal, Robert and Kathie, and I managed to stay together to the doors, where Kristal awaited an uber to take her to our mutual in-laws' where she would spend to night to fly home tomorrow and I departed with Robert and Kathie to retrieve their vehicle, drive out of Houston, eventually to find a hotel in Cleveland, Texas, to crash for the night.
... Over 24 hours from when that alarm went off in Bethlehem.
It's now the next morning. Don't you know I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep!?
I will be backfilling the days of the pilgrimage in the next few days, and loading up lots of pictures and even some video. And I will write some kind of general summary of how wonderful this experience has been. But that will be later. I've got to finish getting packed to be ready at 07:00, when Robert said we were headed home to Louisiana.
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