A change of a century! Once in a life time!

What is more appropriate than celebrating it in the USA?

But, the beginning of a year in our north part of the globe is connected with winter, and we are coming from a very hot country, not accustomed to drive in winter weather conditions!

Naturally we decide to visit the southern part of the USA, where at that time the weather is like our spring.

I read a lot about the Mardi-Grass, and I decided to celebrate it in the "center" of this event – New Orleans.

Many years ago we decided to avoid huge gatherings and we were due to break this rules, discovering later on, it was a big mistake!

Using the Internet, I found that at the year 2000 the Mardi-Grass should begin at the 5th of Mars.

We decided to arrive to the USA several days before the 5th in order to visit Washington DC.

We booked flying tickets to the USA with Continental Airlines, setting out on the 2nd

of Mars and returning on the 29th of Mars.

Washington DC.

We arrived to Washington DC after a sleepless flight over the Atlantic Ocean, rushed to our booked Super 8 motel, hopping for a new refresh wake up in the morning.

It was our second visit to this charming city. This time our main goal was to visit the new Holocaust Museum.

In the morning I had a new meeting with "Donuts", the only food there was for breakfast!

Studying the map, we decided that we could walk to the Congress Building. Indeed, it was a nice walk, bright sunny day, only few people on the streets.

We found that we could use the Internet in the Congress Library if we become members of it, so we passed the applying process, and got some American identification cards.

We wrote to our family about our safe arriving.

Our first place to visit was the FBI. We stood in the line with a very nice family from New Hampshire, sharing with them our experiences from visiting their charming state.

What impressed me the most was the collection of weapons they have and the lecture about the methods they use to solve crimes.

Our next place to visit was the Kennedy Centre. Why can't we have such a place at our home town?

The next morning was dedicated to visit the holocaust Museum.

As being the second generation to parents who were victims of the holocaust, we decided to visit it although we knew it will be a very emotional experience.

The first astonishing impression was the variety of people who came to visit this place.

It seems that suffer is a common feature among mankind and those who know the means of suffer come to share it with others.

The museum is arranged in a way that you cannot avoid any exhibition: you start from the first floor, have to continue to the top and go down to the exit.

Going out of the museum one had only one thought in his mind – not to allow it to happen again!

In the evening we booked a private tour of the city by night.

It was a delightful tour, visiting all the illuminated places of the city.

A very impressing visit was to the memorial wall for the soldiers who died in Vietnam.

On the next morning we flew the rout Washington DC – Huston Texas – New Orleans Louisiana.

On the plain from Huston to New Orleans we caught a glimpse of what is expecting us: drunk and noisy people dressed in funny clothes.

From high above Louisiana seemed to be more water than land.

Now I can understand how the area could be flooded during the Katrina hurricane.

New Orleans.

We planned to stay in New Orleans three nights, using the local public transportation.

We collected our luggage and took a cab to our motel in which we had booked a room.

It was the Travelodge motel on the rout from the airport to the city center, less than 10 miles from the airport

A very huge unpleasant redhead woman welcomed us at the reception. Ahead of us in the line for the reception desk stood a Canadian who was happy to tell us that he visited Israel and was very much impressed from our country and our people!

The redhead lady told us that she upgraded our room, so we cheered up.

I don't know by what she meant an upgrade room, but it was a standard one and the most common color in the bathroom was rust.

Unwillingly we returned to the reception desk to gather information about how to get to the city center and the schedule of the holiday.

"It will be soon dark" – told us the redhead. "Don't even dare to show your face after the dark in the city!" – she shouted. "In any case, even in daylight, you'll pray to God if you'll return safely back to the motel". And those were the words of a local citizen.

We learned that there was a bus station right across the motel and that a Mardi-Grass parade would be in the morning after two days, so we decided to dedicate the next day for touring the city.

Reaching the city center by bus, our eyes caught the sign of a public library. After the "lecture" of the redhead woman we decided to write home so they'll know that at that moment we were still alive!

We have been in a very heavy mood, looking to all sides trying not to be involved in any "misfortune"…

We couldn't avoid using the city map, but we learnt quickly our way to the French Quarter and put the map back into a pocket. The dominant color around us was black.

Coming near our destination we felt a very strange and a strong smell. "What can it be?" – We thought. Reaching the French Quarter we started to walk in flooded streets with heavy mud! This was left after the previous night celebration, mud mixed with vomit after drinking too many gallons of beers. The beer's vapors were the horrible smell that covered the streets.

After walking one and a half blocks in that charming French style quarter we rushed to the harbor, to smell the sea!

At the dock welcomed us a nice surprise: a high stage and several jazz bands played on it.

We went on a sail on the Mississippi river. The last station was the New Orleans zoo. It was like in the old days, sailing on a typical Mississippi boat! The zoo was a charming place to visit.

We returned back to the harbor, strolled again on some streets of the French Quarter. They seemed much better: they were clean and one could hardly smell the beer.

So we came to the conclusion that we came too early in the morning to that place.

As we knew we were going to be there on the next day for the parade, we gladly took the bus to our motel, having in mind that a rusty shower is waiting for us…

Next morning we woke up very excited. The big day had arrived! We were about to go to watch a Mardi-Grass Parade, something I saw only in the movies!

According to the schedule we had, the parade should begin at 10 am. Around 9 am we strolled among hundreds of people trying to find a piece of the pavement to stand and watch conveniently the parade. If an eye watched us, it could easily notice that we weren't familiar with such an event! People brought with them many different kinds of sitting facilities: chairs, ladders, benches etc. One couldn't imagine the creativity of building special furniture to this event. One family brought with them a ladder, and combined chairs on top of the ladder for all the family members, like a Channukiah!

We could only stand on our feet trying to release the muscles from time to time.

It happened that 10am became 11am, when the first musical band and the first wagon appeared. The people in the wagons were dressed and acted like being a part of a theatre play. What more, they threw kinds of simple pieces of jewelry to the crowd standing along the pavements. It was very funny to watch elder people acting like children and trying to get the attention of the people in the wagons, in order to get jewelry thrown at them. They shouted and jumped and danced in a funny way to get that attention. My wife was lucky and she grabbed a chain with a very big crown with bold letters: Mardi Grass 2000! It still decorates my bed side even nowadays!

After three hours of standing in one place our muscles were so stiff that we couldn't move a leg! We tried to find a restaurant to eat lunch but couldn't find anyone open. Only three streets away from the parade we found a place to eat and found out that what cost 10$ the day before, costed that day 25$! We ate something and walked towards the bus station.

We could barely stand on our feet, so we looked for a place to sit. We found a bench not far away from the bus station. Several people sat with us.

Suddenly a young guy approached toward us wanting to make acquaintance. Of course, everybody could recognize us as being not American. We shook hands and in the corner of my eye I noticed that everybody around us disappeared. That made me very cautious! He wanted to know from where we came, so I told him. He mentioned that he was glad to have new friends. Then he began to tell us a story: He came from California to New Orleans to celebrate the Mardi-Grass. He stayed in a kind of a hostel. He hided his money in his shoe… As I heard the word "money", I didn't let him finish his speech, grabbed my wife by her hand, told her in Hebrew to walk immediately in front of me toward the bus station, I apologized to the guy that we have a bus to catch, and left him with an open mouth. To our luck the bus arrived at that moment.

We found empty seats at the back and hoped to relax from the last event…

An Afro-American big and fat woman accompanied by a girl aged around ten took places in the row next to us. We noticed something strange about her behavior. "She is drunk" – my wife whispered.

Suddenly she began to scream at someone she called Bobby:

"Why don't you want to marry me? You promised my father who gave you a lot of money!" The little girl wanted to burry herself! The shouts were unbearable!

"Who is Bobby?" – Someone asked her. She pointed out at a guy, half the size of her!

All the bus began to persuade Bobby to calm her down but he refused.

That was a reason for the woman to shout louder. A big guy with a Texas's hat told Bobby that he would throw him out of the bus if he didn’t make something to quiet her.

The threat did its goal. Bobby told the woman that when they'll return home he'll invite her to dinner. That helped quite for a while. Suddenly she began to scream again and "little" Bobby grabbed her and told her that their bus station is near and they have to go off the bus. Hoof…

After three more station we reached our motel, we ran to our room and started to pack for the day after, knowing that we were about to leave New Orleans with a decision not to visit this place again.

Next morning we took the bus to the airport to the Hertz renting cars site, as we planned to travel in the northern states of the Gulf of Mexico.

But this is for another article.

Now you can understand what SABENA means: Such A Bad Experience Never Again!!!

It took me several years to overcome my fears and make my first step on USA soil. Isn't it surprising that me, being an Israeli, am not afraid to travel all over my country, to walk for my pleasure on military paths near the boarders, under the eyes of the Hezbollah, visit any mall I wish, travel by buses, but shivered only from the thought to walk on the streets of New-York City, or travel along the country?!

Well it was the time before Mayer Giuliani, when the newspapers and films covered the stories of crime all over the country, like bands of motorcycles, and the situation in New-York City, especially the underground.

After I visited the USA for the first time, on 1993, it became like a magnet to me, and I visited the USA five times more, during the years 1994 thru 2001. Each visit lasted a month. So, I can say, proudly, that I lived in the USA for a period of half a year.

I had in my mind thoughts to put on some media the descriptions of those trips.

The last trip that I and my wife took was on 2001.

We started our tour on the 23rd of September and ended it on the 17th of October, having in mind to travel the state of New-York during the "Indian Summer".

For those who have no patient to read my entire story, I can summarize in brief that the root was from Chicago through the states of Indiana, Ohio, New-York, New-Jersey, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and back to New-York City.

I always start planning our trips several months ahead. As the USA is so convenient for the tourists, I manage to plan for each day the places to visit and places to stay for the night. We find Super8, Best Western and Comfort Inn to be chains of perfect motels for our needs. I start my planning by marking on the map the places were those motels are, and I build the plan of the day to drive no more then 150 miles, because my back pains.

We booked our flying tickets on July 2001 to take off on the 23rd of September. Then happened "September 11". After we recovered from our shock, we decided that it is not typical for us, being Israelis, to cancel such a trip. Our family members and friends tried to prevent us from going to the USA in such a time. Now I felt for the first time the hesitations of those who want to come to Israel. But from our experience we knew that such terror activity cannot take place again too soon.

I myself felt that I have to "support" the American people with their grief and shock, after the long years they supported my people.

We passed much stressed days because all the flights to the USA were canceled, but we were lucky that several days before the 23rd of September, the flights were renewed.

So, the happy day came and we started our trip, flying with Lufthansa to Frankfurt to continue with them to Chicago.

I don't know how other people manage to sleep the night before the flight or during the flight. We slept very little, if any, before the flight, as the flight was due to take of at 5AM and we should be at the airport 3 hours before embarking the plain, because of the Israeli severe security check up. We couldn't also get some sleep during the flight because we were excited and worried about our connection. It was one hour interval between landing and taking off in Frankfurt, and according to the captain's announcement we were half an hour late. As the plain landed we rushed to the appropriate gate and to our astonishment we found ourselves in a long line. Immediately we felt at home: severe security check up! As it was only a few days after the renewal of the flights to the USA, the checkers did their job very slowly and according to the questions they asked one could feel the embarrassment of the security guys.

At last, after one hour delay we found ourselves in the air. The flight was very convenient, and after 8 hours we landed at the international terminal of Chicago airport. We were asked only about our purpose of coming, we got a tourist visa for 6 months, and we rushed on our way to our hotel, one of the Travelodge chain.

Chicago.

We woke up in the morning after sleeping some hours, with the known feeling of jet lack. The sun greeted us as a familiar friend. We liked the city from the first moment, almost like San-Francisco, the city we like most in the USA. It is a pleasure wandering through its streets especially the Michigan Ave with its lot of street sculptures. Where else can you take a picture with President Abraham Lincoln or ride an ox? In the back of my head I could hear Frank Sinatra singing his famous song about Chicago being his home town.

We stayed 5 days in this charming city, visiting all its recommended high-lights.

We were lucky to experience a very special exhibition in the Art Institute: pictures of Paul Gaugin and Vincent Van Gogh side by side, painting the same view or subjects. Such a case you can meet once in a life time!

We enjoyed, free of charge, two concerts for the public, one in St. James Cathedral and the other at the Cultural Center.

We couldn't visit two of the sites we planned: The Sears tower and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The authorities were so confused because of September 11, that they forbade non authorized people to visit those very tall buildings!

We wanted to visit a zoo located in Brookfield, which was highly recommended in tour books but we had some difficulties to get information how to reach there. I almost gave up, but finally I bumped into a tourist information office on Michigan Ave, where I learnt how to reach Brookfield by train, and than by bus.

Traveling by the train was an opportunity to see a bit of Chicago vicinity.

Well, it was worthwhile to visit that zoo. The animals live there in huge cages. One gets the impression that someone wanted to give the animals the feeling of living in their natural habitat. My wife enjoyed the zoo so much, especially the big monkeys

(usually she doesn't like much the look of animals), that it caused her to look for more zoos along our trip.

In the morning of the fifth day we walked to the Hertz agency office to pick up a car we rented in Israel. I enjoy very much driving American's cars, being so huge and convenient. I always rent a car that has a cruse control. My wife says that driving an American car is so simple and convenient because you need only to hold the wheel with your hands and put a match in each eye to hold your eyes open.

I don’t know why, but I wanted very much to get this time a Ford Taurus, and you can imagine my excitement getting to the agency and found a big white Ford Taurus waiting for me. I asked for instruction how to operate the handle gear stick, because it was connected to the wheel and not to the floor, as I'm used to, and the man in service thought that I came from some other planet, not knowing to operate such a simple element…

Overfilled with joy we drove back to our hotel to pick our language and started our way out of Chicago. I cannot avoid mentioning the wonderful service of the AAA by providing guide books and maps. I cannot imagine a successful trip without their guide facilities. I also want to praise the excellent roads and guiding signs, which make the driving in the USA a "piece of cake". A local person who is born to such a system cannot appreciate it like an outsider.

Indiana.

We drove through the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. At the visitor center we viewed a nice audiovisual program about the history of the lake and its shores and drove towards South Bend. There we visited Copshaholm, the Oliver mansion. A very impressive house, owned by the man who built a factory of agriculture machines. Besides the large building, there is a smaller one, typical house of the workers. As a Polish born, I was surprised to learn that all the area was populated by immigrants from Poland, and the worker's home is called Dom Robotnika.

We found a nice restaurant for dinner, where one of the waiters, explained to us how to reach the S. Ray Miller Antique Auto Museum near Elkhart.

We visited several such museums during our traveling in the USA, but this museum was the biggest and the richest. One can roam hours among sparkling antique cars, and watching puppets in and beside the cars, dressed with clothes of the appropriate period.

The USA is a "young" nation comparing to Israel, and such a museum symbolizes to me the efforts the American do to preserve their history in every discipline.

While driving to our booked motel, we met strange horse carriages; we recognized them as belonging to the Amish, according to pictures we've seen in the past. We took photos of them, while driving. Later on we learnt that they are not allowed to be photographed, so, I apologize!

That night we spent at the Best Western Angola Inn.

Ohio.

We started that morning visiting the Historic Sauder Village in Archbold.

Entering the ticket office, the lady in charge noticed that we are foreigners. She was so pleased to hear that we came from Israel at such a time, that she wanted to raise the Israeli flag, in favor of us. We refused, because, as Israelis, we have instructions not to be outstanding, and we kept this advice, even while being in the USA.

It was nice to walk through all the rooms describing the early life of the American craftsmen learning about antique tools and clothing. The most attracting part to my wife was the doll room. It was hard to pool her from this charming room.

Our next station was the museum of art of Toledo. It has a very impressive collection of art and we enjoyed very much to watch all the collections.

I planned a relaxation day before continuing our trip, and I choose to make it in Port Clinton, being on the Lake Erie shore, and in the honor of the name "Clinton", which for me as an Israeli means a lot!

So, we stayed two nights at Best Western Port Clinton. Again, we had a very warm welcome from the lady manager, telling us that we, the Israelis, traveling at this time in the USA, prove to her how to continue with regular life, beside all the troubles!

In the morning we took a ferry to the Put-in-Bay Island, and we had a very charming morning. The rest of the time was dedicated to resting.

Our first station, on the next day, was the Health Museum of Cleveland. How often have you the luck to wander alone in a museum? I didn't ever visit such an interesting museum! The most impressive experience was traveling inside a huge tooth, learning from the inside about its structure.

The next station was, of course, the Cleveland Zoo. We passed nearby a group of Amish people, dressed in their typical closes, who visited the zoo, and we pretend to take photos of ourselves, but focused on them. Forgive us again!

We crossed the "border" to Pennsylvania and slept at Super8 Motel Erie.

New-York state.

We were excited to get near the area where the "Indian Summer" prevails. As my wife once said:" traveling that area is jumping from one picture into another"!

Crossing the border to New-York state we reached a charming little town with a bold sign: Public Library. One of the tourists' privileges in the USA is using the internet in the public libraries conveniently and free of charge. For the local citizens it is so obvious, that they cannot appreciate it. We wrote home calming messages to our family.

When I am in the USA, I mainly watch two TV channels: the weather channel and Fox News. On an evening bulletin they told the public that because lack of tourists in New-York City, there are excellent deals for those who want to get an hotel there.

So we also checked the deals on the Internet and there was nothing attractive. Our reservation was still cheaper than all the "deals".

The old rule prevails: never believe what they want to "sell" you on the news media!

We drove along the shore of Chautauqua Lake towards Corning.

My language is too poor to describe the delight feeling to be in the NW of the USA during the "Indian Summer". Better writers than me did it a lot. I can only wish everybody to experience it.

Corning - a charming little town – was our next stop. There we visited the Corning glass center. Walking through magnificent pieces of glass art, one cannot avoid wondering how people developed the glass industry and the secret of producing such wonderful and delicate pieces of art. There is so much creativity in each model!

One cannot avoid adoring the skills like patience, punctiliousness, delicate and strong muscles that the manufacturer needs!

That night we stayed at Super8 Motel Corning.

The next day was dedicated to travel through the Finger Lakes. We started with a delightful walking along the scenic glen in the Watkins Glen State Park. At noon we visited the Rose Hill Mansion, admiring its Greek revival style and charming furnished rooms. At the afternoon we walked again in a glen and admired the Taughannock falls near Ithaca. At night we stayed at Super8 motel Binghamton.

Next morning driving on route 88 we reached Howes Cave. The uniqueness of this stalactites and stalagmites cave is that it is very deep. You go down by elevator, and then you tour it by a rowboat. Our "sailor" must have been the most bored man on earth, as it was reflected on the look on his face, and his explanations. I wanted so much to ask him what keeps him in his "job", but, I didn't dare…

Our next goal was the Catskill Mountains. We drove the recommended roads by the AAA's map all the way to Kingston, where we stayed at Super8 Motel Kingston.

The next morning we started by crossing the Hudson River. If someone was watching us, he could, I believe, watch two strange people with open widely mouths, for a good period of time. For us, the Israelis, coming from a relatively dry area, such a huge amount of water is a miracle!

Hyde Park is a little town with several mansions and museums. We could visit only one mansion and we picked the Vanderbilt Mansion. What can I tell you?! It is good to be a millionaire, and the best is to be such one in the USA!

Wandering through the rooms and the gardens reminds you the biggest and richest palaces of the kings in Europe.

Our next visiting place was West Point. Can you imagine my excitement, being an Israeli officer, coming near the legendary place on which we heard and learnt during our training? It was a big disappointment to find it is closed to visitors because of September 11! Only family members of the young trained officers were allowed to enter the place! The only compensation we got was a very good meal in a Mexican restaurant not far away from the camp.

We made a charming visit to Bear Mountain; from its top one can see the entire Hudson valley below as far as the horizon…

That night we stayed at Best Western Nyack.

New Jersey.

We passed this state on our way to Philadelphia. The only place we visited was Edison National Historic site at West Orange. Wandering through the laboratories one cannot avoid thinking about the huge contribution this man gave to the human development!

That morning was the only raining time during our visit in the USA. Can you imagine our luck being on a tour with only two hours of rain during 25 days?

Well, coming from the Holy Land, the sun always follows us…

We found no more interesting sites to visit in NJ. What we did found, with no offend, that NJ is only a passing roads to many Americans. There were no such crowded roads in any other state! After some very long and fatigue driving hours, we reached Brooklawn, our next two days base for visiting Philadelphia. There we stayed at Days Inn.

Philadelphia.

I think there is no Israeli who did not study the early history of the USA. To me this period of time was always fascinating, and comparable to the Jewish straggle to establish our own state. So, a visit to Philadelphia is accomplishing of a childhood dream! We had a very exciting day at the Independence National Historic Park.

I couldn't avoid taking pictures with the Liberty bell.

At the evening we had a very pleasant meeting with a couple of American friends, who came especially to meet us from Wilmington, Delaware.

We became friends when we met them on a guided tour to Scotland a few years before, and our friendship keeps going on. They took us to a very unique restaurant called Ponzio's.

The food and the company were great!

The meeting with the Amish people as I described above, made us curious about them. Reading the AAA guide book, we found to our pleasure that we are not far away from the Amish land. Our former plan was to drive straight to Washington D.C., but now we decided to visit first the Amish land. It came out as an excellent decision. At the Amish village Bird-In-Hand (what a name?!) we found all the explanations we asked for. There is a tourist center explaining all about the Amish people: their foundation, believes and traditional way of life.

Full with satisfaction we drove to Washington D.C., to our reserved motel – Days Inn Alexandria. There we stayed 3 nights.

Washington D.C.

It was our third visit to this wonderful city that we like so much.

At this time we stayed in a beautiful suburb named Alexandria. My wife even found a suitable and cheap jacket at a Benetton store. Sometime you need to come to the USA in order to buy cheap and good European products!

This time we visited museums that we hadn't the chance to visit on former tours to D.C, like that for Modern Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. At the last one we had a very nice experience, listening to a great performance of Jazz at noon.

To my disappointment the botanical gardens in the city were closed.

Pennsylvania.

We faced a very interesting but emotional day. Our plan was to visit Gettysburg.

At first we visited Eisenhower National Historic site. It was surprising to learn that such a great soldier and leader had habits of a common man, sitting by the fire place or running a farm. I think that dealing with animals is much more easy then dealing with people…

In the memory of those who died in the battle of Gettysburg, I don't even dare to tell with my poor words about the place. I can only tell, that me, an Israeli officer who participated three wars, suffered again all the horror, pain and agony I felt.

May be such a war, must have happened in the history to make the American people what they are today…

It was not easy to get a room for the night at Harrisburg. After we found one in Super8 Motel Carlisle, the owner explained, that in the area there was an exhibition and motor race of old cars, occasionally happening once a year in those days. As he told us that all the roads will be crowded we canceled our plan to visit the famous chocolate factory, Hershey.

New-York City.

Next day we drove all the way to New-York City. Lucky enough, we were advised by a tourist information office, in NJ, that there was only one open way to enter NY City, by the Lincoln tunnel. The Holland tunnel was closed to the public because the works in ground zero.

It took us two hours to cross the tunnel because of the heavy traffic.

Can you imagine how happy I was to return the car after more then 4000 miles?!

It was our third visit to NY City. This time we stayed in a booked apartment in Greenwich Village. I don't know why, but the city looked to me quite different this time.

The buildings were not so high; visiting Time Squire was not so exciting…

We stood 2 hours in the line to buy tickets to the Loin King musical, but left the line when we found out that the price was 92$ per ticket!

We enjoyed very much staying in Greenwich Village. It is not at all as NY we met on previous visits.

We also enjoyed wandering in the near neighborhoods, like Chelsea.

A couple of friends from Long Island, with whom we traveled together in Lapland, invited us to dinner in a restaurant. Although the table was booked before, it took a long time until one table was vacant. Well, it seemed that the New-Yorkers were coming back to themselves…

We took the subway to Brooklyn. We walked on the charming streets of Brooklyn Heights, and then we faced very emotional scenery – in the promenade facing ground zero, many lighted candles and wreaths of flowers in the memory of the innocent victims…

Such an end of the visit to USA reminded us more than anything the place we are going back…