Riding in Israel

A fellow SMBA coach recently rode on the Egyptian border. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Boulder anymore …”

Hey everybody!

I hope all is going well in Boulder. Everything is going great in Israel. Last week I had the chance to ride with a family friend from boulder through the Negev desert in southern israel, right by the Egyptian border. It was a lot of fun, a little different from riding in Boudler. To begin, we had to wait in order for the Army to go through their daily check of the road so we had to make sure to start riding after them. although, we still got stopped by the border patrol at one point just to ask what the hell we were doing out there. Also, there are war memorials everywhere and a lot of ruins from either Turkish railways from WWI or the war for Israeli independence. Another difference is that there’s no shade, absolutely none.

The ride was a lot of fun, but I really got my ass kicked. I forgot what it’s like to ride with some strong guys after not being on a bike for four months, I almost had to walk my bike up some of the hills. Aside from breathing hard, the ride was going great until on our way back from our destination, (which was a military base) my friend joe ran into the bike i was borrowing and broke the rear derailleur. So we sent our host david back to fetch a van for us and he told us, “try to wait in a spot that’s out of site from the Egyptian border guards. You never know when one of them might take a shot.” One more difference from riding in Boulder!

-Ari