My flight home is slowly drawing closer. I have been at the airport here in Tel Aviv for a good portion of the last 48 hours.

I arrived at the airport at about 8:00 on Friday night with my tour group. The main part of the group had a flight that left a little bit after midnight. I had several friends who had early morning flights and would be spending time at the airport waiting for their flights. I decided to stay with them instead of finding a hotel and coming back early the next morning.

Finally, the time came to go through check-in and security and I headed to the gate. When it came close to the time for boarding they made an announcement that boarding would be delayed for an hour. I started to watch the clock as I would miss my connection in Newark if there was much more delay. The time slipped again, and then a little later the flight status on-line switched to canceled.

We then had to go back through passport control, pick up our bags and go back to the check-in area. After a bit of chaos we were all sent to hotels. We all received a note later in the evening from the hotel letting us know to be ready to go back to the airport at 9:30 in the morning. I had also received my new flight information in an e-mail. We were scheduled for 1:25 P.M.

I did get the best night of sleep of the trip last night. I slept for about 10 hours straight and woke up refreshed and ready to go. It was only a few minutes after we got to the lobby that information started changing again. Now the flight had slipped to 10:30 P.M.

I took this picture of the flight board earlier today. The board now has us at the top as we watch all the intermediate flights leave.

The bus brought us back to the airport and we had a fun time going back through check-in and security. The airline has provided us with lunch and they have dinner scheduled for us in a couple of hours. A group of about 25 passengers has circled together and are having fun discussing a variety of subjects. The current subject is college football.

The delayed flight has actually made the local news. You can read about it here: Ynet News

We did find out from the news report that a part was arriving on a 4:00 P.M. flight along with technicians to install it. So, the repair should now be in progress.

The latest check of the flight status shows another half hour shift, but the arrival time in Newark stayed the same. I will have about a two hour layover in Newark before my flight to San Francisco.

I am hesitant to post this now, as things may change. However, I know that some of my friends would like an update so I will send this now.

I will also share a nice picture that I took in Joppa on Friday evening.

I love the beauty of this hibiscus and the slightly out of focus background.

So, Happy New Year from Israel. The Rosh Hashana holiday has also contributed to the chaos at the airport as many places seem to be under staffed.

If you don’t see a big update or post from me later today, that will mean that I am on the flight. I may post a comment before we board.

May your day today be better than mine 🙂

Steven