Wednesday, December 10, 2008

That's What Friends Are For!

Route: HaSharon jct to Tel Aviv
Distance: 36 km / 22.5 miles
Time Waited: 4 minutes

The Story: After waiting for some time heading south on highway 4, I realized that I probably wanted to be heading down the parallel highway 2, which would bring me into Tel Aviv, possibly even reaching the beach for sunset. My driver pulled up right away, and seemed more eager for conversation than I was - if that's even possible. He introduced himself right away and offered me a tangerine. Noam, probably in his mid 30s.

He lives on one of the nearby moshavs, but apparently waking up early and trimming his hedges was the most moshav-like thing he'd done in a while. He'd studied education, facilitated groups, lead hikes, and currently runs his own business. I was traveling with my medium-sized backpack, which caused him to think been a) hiking b) leading a hike. He asked a few times, just to make sure.

He was heading into Tel Aviv for a blind date his friend had set him up on (why don't I have friends like that?). It was, he reported, the 2nd time he'd ever gone on a blind date. When I didn't say anything, he pointed out that for this to be the 2nd, there must have been a first. OK, I'm not that nosey.

Half-way there we picked up another hitchhiker, who was heading to Hertzliya, where she'd left her car. She was also offered the perfunctory tangerine, and together a merry ride was had by all. After locating the street of his date, Noam let me off and I walked to the beach. I ended up missing the sunset by 4 minutes, but the sky was absolutely stunning nonetheless. Someday I'll figure out how to post pictures.

2 comments:

Nadav said...

Love it. Blog on!

athalia said...

So should I start looking for eligible boys to set you up on blind dates with if you come down to SD?