Wednesday morning after breakfast we drove to Massada. It was Laurie's idea to buy a one way ticket on the cablecar and walk down the snake path. It was a decision we would both regret. We watched the video of Eliezer Ben Yair and Massada and rode the Cablecar to the top.

      At the top we slowly walked around every part of Massada, seeing the Synagogue, the mikva, Herod's swimming pool, the palace and much more. We saw how every part of the mountain was fed with water. We saw the views from every corner of the plateau.

      Eventually we had circled the entire Mesa and returned to the top of the Snake path. We started down. Shortly thereafter we saw a girl from Dallas. She asked if she was almost there. Since I thought we were more than a third down, I said, "You're more than halfway there." My words almost killed her. Actually she was more than 90% there, but I didn't know it. That meant we were less than 10% down.

      We continued and continued and continued. The end seemed nowhere in site. Sweat rolled down our brows. Good humor was disappearing. Laurie threatened to destroy my camera. With every turn there was more.

      Then we saw a young Israeli girl walking up. I said, "You know it's almost noon." She said, "So what?" She was obviously much stronger or less intelligent than we were. We passed the cablecar beginning. The trail kept going down. Laurie had had it. Where would it end?

      I saw a route back up to the air conditioned building. Laurie was resting. I told her to keep going down to the guard post. I'd go up, get the car and pick her up. When I arrived at the guard, she wasn't there. I went back up. She wasn't there. Back Down. No Laurie. Back up again. She appeared. We headed back to the air conditioned hotel room.