Ok, to be honest. I’m writing this at 1AM the day that I’m leaving. So technically it’s Day 1? But I’ll save Day 1 content for later. I want to focus on Day 0–basically everything leading up to this point.
I want to share some brief aspects.
First off, this pilgrimage is from November 7 through November 14 of 2019.
I specifically chose those dates in order to accommodate the following:
- Not to interfere with Jen Fulwiler’s “The Naughty Corner” comedy tour, which happened on November 5 (I booked that first before thinking about booking Israel) (which btw was hilarious! Go give her a follow!)
- Not to interfere with Israel’s October holidays AND my hosts’ Euro-trip in October as well as Thanksgiving
- Simultaneously be a length of time and date range that minimized cost and use of vacation hours while maximizing opportunity to see things
- Go check out “How I Booked Airfare to Israel for $157”
Booked my airfare on August 21, 2019. And I basically didn’t think about planning for this pilgrimage again until mid-October.
The Potentially Very Ironic Situation
In September, there were many whispers and serious conversations at work regarding a business trip to Israel. And I was in the running to be able to go!
During some meetings in early October, management pursued having the business trip FOR THE SAME TIME that I had already booked for this pilgrimage.
I somewhat freaked out. Had the business trip gone through, I would have had to rearrange this pilgrimage to be at some other time. And if I didn’t do the business trip, I wouldn’t have been sad because I was already going to Israel anyway!
Turns out…they pushed out the business trip to next year.
Darn. Since it would have been nice if the company paid for me to go to Israel…but..it’s okay, I managed to pull off paying only $157 out of pocket.
My Hosts
I’m not going to Israel with any group. I’m traveling alone, but meeting up with a couple who are dear friends from my church back home in Texas. We’ll call them both “TJ” since that’s both of their initials. TJ works at my company, and he took an expatriate assignment in Israel 1.5 years ago, and his wife, TJ, tagged along.
They’ll be touring me around, and I get to stay with them!
How Much Planning Have I Done?
Honestly, not a whole lot. I went all mad scientist on figuring out airfare due to particular requirements I had.
I only started seriously doing any real planning just a few weeks before leaving. I had multiple conversations TJ over questions I had. I did provide TJ with a list of places I’d like to go see, and I left it up to them for scheduling and logistics. I also left a lot (A LOT) of room for flexibility since I have currently booked/bought nothing in terms of tours.
Right now, my itinerary only looks like:
- Thursday – Travel
- Friday – Arrive in the dead of night
- Saturday – Jerusalem/Bethlehem
- Sunday – Sea of Galilee area
- Monday – ????
- Tuesday – ????
- Wednesday – ????
- Thursday – ???? / Depart for home
- Friday – Travel and arrive home
And oh yeah! Between Texas and Israel…I’ve got a long layover (~8 hours) in Madrid, Spain. I just got done spending a little bit of time figuring out what I want to go see. Stay tuned!
How Am I Preparing for this Pilgrimage?
Pilgrimages require the practical but also the spiritual. Itinerary planning and packing? I’ve got that covered. Spiritual? Ehhh, I could have done better.
At the start of this week, I started collecting prayer requests and intentions from family, friends, and peers. It’s important for me to keep the spiritual aspect of a pilgrimage at the forefront of my mind. Here’s what I do with those prayer requests.
Before I leave, I’ll start putting them in my notebook.
Other than that…I’ve only been maintaining my usual devotional discipline with Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, and the Rosary. I haven’t specifically prayed for this pilgrimage. But I will now!
To combat jet lag, I started putting myself on Israel time after work. Basically, I took a long nap. Or tried. And now it’s the funny hours of the morning!
I’m gonna go take a nap and continue this “later”. But first…
Current Stats
Total Spent = $157
Starting Weight = 160.8 lbs (I figured this would be a fun thing to track BEFORE I leave and see how much I’ve gained/lost AFTER I come back)
Important Lesson
Planning everything in a detailed way can be a good thing. And I’m the type of person that would appreciate that. But…I know in practice, and in previous pilgrimage experiences, doing a lot of planning makes it to tempting to expect everything to go perfectly. And oftentimes, trips and travels don’t go perfectly.
Besides…I have to leave room for God’s planning on how He wants this trip and pilgrimage to go!
What do you do to prepare for big trips?
Navigate to other days:
- Next> Day 1: Going MAD
- Day 2: Subway Struggling in Madrid
- Day 3: The Fastest and the Slowest
- Day 4: Up In the North
- Day 5: A Day At the Beach
- Day 6: Avoiding Missiles and Apollonia
- Day 7: Let’s Avoid More Missiles Today
- Day 8: One Last Time Before Leaving
- Day 9: A Fly Way To End It
JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.