Day 3 Blog

From Rachel Crossley
HI MOM! (It's late and the legs are telling me it way past bedtime. So, this is the only message I can leave right now.) XOXO
LOVE TO YOU ALL, AS WELL.

From Jerry Weider
On Monday morning I spoke about being called to participate in this ride. Some of us responded to a celestial call, and others of us responded to a temporal call (Sharon Sobel). But no matter which call brought riders to this experience, after the third day of riding, there is no question in my mind that the "call" is going to be necessary to move us up the hills that we will be facing as we ride back up to Jerusalem. I for one, will be putting all of my efforts to do everything necessary to make the effort to fulfill my calling to ride for the support of the reform movement.

From Adam Martin
Day 3 and a very exciting day in Israel, it’s Election Day. Leaving the comfort of the Tel Aviv hotel and back to the somewhat uncomfortable but familiar feel of the bike, we passed through the buzzing streets of Tel Aviv. Election days are ‘holidays’ in Israel so there were lots of people on the streets on the way to their polling station, probably still deciding who to vote for. Will it be Kadima, Meretz, Avoda, Likud and for those people that are dead probably Shas.
We entered the Yarkon Park near Beit Daniel and enjoyed the beautiful scenery eastward along the length of the Yarkon River all the way to the Tel Afek National Park near Rosh Ha’ayn. Our leader was must have also had his mind on the election as we managed to go the wrong way quite a few times. The ‘path’ which at times was more like a gravel track and even sometimes a sandpit was lond and winding, and again I got to see an area of Israel I’ve not seen before.
Lunch today was with the Rosh Ha’ayn congregation. This is a small congregation which is unlike most other Reform communities in Israel, there are only 3 Anglo Saxons!
From here we rode northwest via the city of Ra’anana and the Sharon agricultural area. We concluded today’s ride at Kibbutz Shefayim guest house on the Mediterranean Sea. The Israeli members of the party went to vote whilst the rest of us went out for dinner in Netanya. I was very disappointed not to see a fair and there certainly wasn’t a senorita with flowers in her hair, although the restaurant served very good pate and steak!
Thankfully the distances are getting slightly shorter, we only did 62 kilometres today, and the ride was much flatter with a measly ascent of 212 meters. A slightly more relaxed day to get us ready for a gruelling last two.
Go to www.riding4reform.org to read other riders BLOGS and see pictures.

From Ross Wolman
Wow! Day 3 is done. It was a day both on and off road. But, for me, the most meaningful moment came when we rolled into Rosh Ha'ayin. I served as their cantor for High Holy Days this year. I remember driving there for Rosh Hashanah in my rental car. It seemed like a long drive then, but I had no idea. It was such a thrill to think that I had ridden my bike there from Jerusalem. it was 2 days and 120 miles away (as the bicycle rolls).

Seeing the representatives of the community meant so much for me and what I've been a part of. This year their community had it's first High Holy Day services, it's student rabbi was ordained, and the mayor of the city attended a Friday evening service. It was a great pleasure to be a part of this process. The R4R visit was a wonderful punctuation to my experiences with them.

Other than that I've been enjoying the ride as much as last year. It's much easier with less hills, but there are more challenges in different areas. I didn't get to train as much as I would have liked. The ride has seemed pretty easy thus far, mostly because we have yet to take on a climb. We haven't hit any hills since 1 that we saw on day one near Yad Kennedy and that was familiar to us as it's part of our training ride in Jerusalem.

And for now, I'm quickly fading. Everyone else is in bed and I'm almost done uploading photos. It's been a lot of fun but it will get harder as we begin our climb up to Jerusalem.