There were quite a few reasons why we didn't really expect that we would actually make it all the way up there, but we figured that we would give it a try and the worst security could do (hopefully) was turn us around, maybe escort us back to the capitol. We made it through quite a few security checkpoints. Most of them only consisted of an orange cone in the middle of the highway and a train car on the side of the road with a few guys inside asleep....really effective. But the big ones were the problems. At the first one, they flagged us down but there was no where to stop and lots of traffic, so they waved us through. About 30 minutes down the road we paid the toll no problem. But then at the next one, we sat on the side of the road while Yosef took down all of our names and our father's names. When he went to call someone and ask about us, the wind blew the paper away and so, instead of going through all of that again, he just let us through! We waited around for a good 30 minutes and made friends with all the little kids who were selling stuff.
Down in TX, we know to watch out for deer. Out here we have to watch out for camels. Can you imagine if we hit one of these. The rule around here is, if you hit someone's animal you have to buy it. We'd be eating camel for a while! In front of us, you can see the guy's car.
It was the next checkpoint that was a little more stressful. We pulled up and immediately the security guys hopped in their truck and just said 'follow us'. We didn't know where we were going but we knew it wasn't to the pyramids! We ended up in this little town at the security office only about 20 minutes from our destination where we waited for another 30 minutes while they called people, trying to figure out what to do with 9 wandering Americans. Finally, they decided that they were going to turn us back. The thought of facing another 3 hours driving through the desert was too much, so we took turns using their bathroom...all 9 of us! I'm sure they thought we were crazy and they will always remember those weird Americans who used their bathroom!! Then we talked them into letting us stay and eat lunch, so they escorted us to the one hotel in town that happened to be right on the river and negotiated for us to just use their courtyard but eat the food we brought with us. The security guys were actually really nice, joking with us and all. They even left us there and didn't escort us out of town, although they did take our phone number and called to ask us when we were leaving a couple of times.
This is a picture of the rocks that we climbed, actually taken on the drive up, we didn't climb them until we were headed back. Notice the houses and the 'shoulder'' .
So we returned to K-town...well, almost. We stopped at some big rocks (and by stopped, I mean we pulled off the paved road and drove through the desert a while) and climbed them...then we headed home. Before we left, we really did think of several reasons why we thought security would not let us all the way up there, however, we never even considered the reason that was actually used to turn us back. But, we made it about 3 hours farther than we really expected and maybe they'll lift the travel restrictions soon and we will actually get to see some pyramids next time. Some would say it was an unsuccessful day, however, we climbed some cool rocks and saw a lot of camels and desert, had a fun road trip with good friends...and can now say that we've used the bathroom in the security office in Sdi!
