Good to be Home!

We're home! The flight was long. I think some of us slept during the ride over the pond. However, my non-scientific poll demonstrated that most didn't sleep much. Frankfurt Airport cracks me up. I think from the point of leaving the plane to actually getting on the connecting flight (we walked, took several escalators, two bus/tram rides, and walked some more), we circled the entire complex. The plane was ready to take off and was waiting for us. It was a very smooth flight. I took along some noise canceling headphones. Wow! I truly recommend them for air travel. On our last leg home, a baby cried and screamed for quite some time. I felt bad for the parent. But, as soon as I put on my headphones connected to my iPod, I didn't hardly hear the little one again.

A few more folks came down with the yuckies in the last two days. I waited until the last night to get a sore throat and beginning of a cold. The flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt was about 3.5 hrs and the flight across the pond through Canada to Portland was 10 hrs.

The weather storm that was predicted never materialized in the magnitude they expected. Although Jerusalem received some snow, it wasn't the hit that was forecasted.

I'm pooped out. Although I slept some in the plane, I am going to take a nap. But, my plan is to stay up as late as I can handle in order to re-adjust my inner clock to this time zone. As of this writing, it is 1 am on Thursday in Jerusalem, way past my bed time... sort of.

We will be planning a large group presentation for the parish as well as a reunion in the coming month. I will be investing some time in preparing the audio recordings I've done while on pilgrimage. I have well over 100 audio recordings about our experience and information about the sites. I have purchased the domain www.pilgrimcast.com and will eventually be editing these audio files into some order as a podcast which will be accessible via that address and iTunes. I'll make a post to let you know when it is up and running.

Thanks everyone for your comments and encouragment. It has been an awesome experience. That's enough for now. I can hear my pillow beckoning.... Zzzzz.....

-Fr. Bill