The Jesus Trail--Part Three

I mentioned in my most recent post that during the siren, those in their cars stopped and got out.  Here’s a photo showing that:

Oh, and something I forgot to mention; my sister shared this same photo on Facebook, and I commented on her wall when I was reminded that in America, people don't even want to stop for funeral processions.  Some food for thought.  Maybe I'll write about that later.

 In the last post about the Jesus Trail, I failed to mention I was the one in charge of evicting the various critters from our guest house, and I had to check our sheets before we turned in for the night.  I let the lizard stay, knowing he would probably stay put for the night; he went to the corner and never moved.  After tossing and turning most of the night, I got out of bed around 6 am and went for a walk.  The dust had finally moved out of the area and I could finally see the sky.  I found a horse not far from the house, and it was eager for company.  I walked up to the fence and it immediately came to me for some attention.  After petting him for a while, I walked back to the house with the intention of taking a shower, as I needed one to at least rinse the dust off from the previous day, but when I walked into the shower room I decided it was too cold (the shower was outdoors), and figured I would sweat it off anyway.  Instead, I began getting my things together and piddled until the others started stirring.  The hike this day would be twice as long as the day before—about 10 ¼ miles, taking us through Cana.

Little goat herders

Herding the goats

I didn't notice the two goats running into each other until I saw the picture

Cana is where Jesus performed His first miracle by turning water into wine.  And yes, there was a church built for this occasion; two actually.  We were required to dress modestly in order to enter the church, but I was too hot and tired to search my backpack for my pants to wear over my shorts, so I stayed outside and babysat everyone’s bags while they walked around.  I didn't mind, I was happy to sit for a bit.  We stopped at a store that advertised free wine tasting; I’m not sure it had alcohol, but it was sweet, similar to the dessert wine I had during our mock Passover seder. 

Art depicting Christ's first miracle

Hobbit door (my backpack and I almost didn't make it through in one piece) leading to St. George Convent & First Miracle Church of Cana in Galilee

Art depicting archangel Michael defeating the dragon Satan...I've always liked this picture

Atop the Custodia di Terra Santa, another church in honor of the miracle

When we were almost out of Cana, an American couple (I assume) stopped their car to ask us where we were from and what we were doing.  We rattled off our respective home states/country, and told them we were hiking the Jesus Trail.  When asked if they had heard about it, the man in the passenger seat smiled and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a cross tattoo.  They wished us luck and drove on.    

View leaving Cana

This was a sweet tractor...silver spray paint and custom additions here and there

 The scenery leaving Cana was gorgeous, especially since the sky was clear.  We walked through a nature reserve type area, and stopped there to eat lunch.  We found a small hill with rocks under some shade.  Sitting on them, we pulled out our snacks (I had bought Doritos; so excited) and began to munch, enjoying the view.  The sitting didn’t last long when I looked down and saw a spider capable of carrying me all the way to Capernaum chilling on my backpack.  I jumped up and grabbed my bag, and others noticed they had spiders on their bags, too.  I hate spiders.  They’re number two on my list, right behind snakes.  Clowns are number three, in case anyone cares.  Moving to larger rocks in the sun, we finished our lunch and drank more water. 

After about twenty minutes or so, we were back on track.  Since everything had been going pretty well up to this point, we decided to mix things up by getting lost again.  After much debate, talking with strangers to figure out where we were on the map, and working on our tans in the process, I decided we should keep on the main road since we saw markers for a different trail that eventually merged with ours, according to the book.  We walked down a very steep hill for several minutes, and with every step I prayed I was right, as I did NOT want to have to turn around and go back up that hill.  My prayers were eventually answered as we spotted the beautiful white and orange stripe.  Or was it the orange dot…I don’t remember right now.  We also found the sandwich man listed in our book, which added to my glee.  Unfortunately, he did not sell ice cream. 

My excitement after finding the sandwich man

Almost to the main road; notice trail marker on tree

Pretty scenery before we got lost

Pretty scenery while we were lost

Taking a break by a wheat field after being lost

At this point we were very close to our destination for the night, but Becca had developed blisters on her feet; once I gave her some Band Aids, we made our way to Yarok Az, which happens to be a goat farm.  I LOVED this place.  We spent the night in a very large tent structure on mattresses, we were welcome to eat anything out of the garden, and the showers were amazing.  They have two finicky horses and a frog pond as well.  The kitchen was outside, and it became windy, which wreaked havoc with the gas stove.  Becca brought out a blanket and built a wall around me as I fried potatoes that Koichi had cut up.  A guest who was staying next door to us (he and his wife were also walking the Jesus Trail) gave us the remains of a bottle of Coke to go with our dinner.  In addition to fried potatoes, we had mashed potatoes, pasta, and pita.  Shortly after dinner, we decided it was time to go to sleep.  I didn't sleep that night either; I averaged about three hours a night during the whole hike, but I didn't seem to notice too much while walking.

Almost to the goat farm

The only good snake is a dead snake

Entrance to farm

From inside the large tent

Our tent

One of the frogs in the pond, hanging out

Apparently the horse said something she didn't agree with...probably the funniest picture I've taken since I've been here

 

Hellur

Master chef Koichi

Jesus Trail Wall of Fame; all who walked the trail and stayed at Yarok Az signed the board; we found our friends' names

Making our mark

I'm proud to say I was the first to place a pin on Oklahoma City...again, circled and arrows drawn for your convenience, since it's all in Hebrew

Some things I learned/was told on this trip (according to a Bostonian) :  I'm very "Midwesterny", I don't pronounce most words right, I'm pensive, and I write the date backwards.  In case anyone was utterly confused when seeing my signature and date on the board in the picture above, it was April 2, not February 4.