Into the Makhtesh
It's 6AM on Shabbas and Joshua is snoring -- seems to be a common behavior among the zoids -- as Josh & David happily tell me I'm guilty of the same offense. Josh has licked his jet lag by going to bed past 1AM, but I'm still struggling. Of course waking up at 6AM isn't too bad, as we generally need to be on the road by this hour on our biking days anyway. It is also early enough that I can catch a view of the sunrise in the Makhtesh. I walk out to the 220+ bicycles in the parking lot, with the intention of biking just the half mile to the lookout on top. At the parking lot, not surprisingly there are already a couple of riders out there looking for their bikes. Shemaya and Danny K. (both MAMILs ) are planning a ride to the bottom and back (1200' of vertical in 2.5 miles, about 10 percent grade). I'm unprepared for such a ride -- I've got my jeans on, a long sleeve shirt, and a kindle tucked into my back pocket... but I've also got no so se...