June 15: Girls (and Arabs) gone wild...Bus Dance Party 2006

June 15, 2006
We finished Tomb 21 (the really big one) and found lots of bones, none in any sort of order. Check out the sarcophagus lids on the left side against the wall.

I also got another tomb to do and have been there for last 2 days. It was a smaller one like before. We thought that it was unrobbed (may still be) but did not find much.

The stones were tightly packed at the tomb entrance, we thought it might be untouched.

The ceiling of the tomb chamber was very cool and different than all the rest. By the way, we thought at this point that we were close to the floor of the tomb. WRONG.

It was wider and much deeper than the other single chamber tombs. I had blisters on my hands and bruises on my knees by the time we found the bottom.

Found multiple fragile bones in the back of tomb by left corner. Probably water washed them back over the hundreds of years. Found a coin dating ~AD60-400. Did not find any other artifact, but also did not find any signs of a modern robbery. Could have been robbed in ancient times.

Last night we went to Gedara. This is where Jesus took the demons out of the men and placed them in the pigs. This ancient city was a Roman decapolis city and later an Ottoman town.

We watched the sun set over the Sea of Galilee. To the left was Israel and to the right was Syria. Very nice.

OK, just ONE more sunset picture. It is sooooo pretty!

We had steak and wine. The wine was a little strong even for my Fayetteville friends. We checked and the ETOH level was double what it usually is in white wine.

The small bus that we drove became a moving Arabic disco (on really rough roads)for the entire 45 minutes of coming home. The bus driver really should have told us ahead of time that we were coming to a military checkpoint BEFORE they saw the crazy people and all got their guns out. We sat down and tried to act normal. I guess it worked but before we even hit first gear, the bus driver had turned the music back up and Gretchen was in the aisles!

Well actually, we were all in the aisle. Even Dr. Rose and Dr. Deloris and Dr. Al-Najjar!!!

Julianna didn't even drink anything!!!

None of the Arabic guys drank anything. Couldn't tell!!!!!

Oh, dear Lord!

This was our minor break at the military checkpoint. Eric began the festivities as soon as we were allowed through. Crazy Americans!!!!

Be back next week. I have no idea what day it actually is here. It is nice not having to keep up.