Israel…on 24 hours’ notice!
The beginning.
I always say that no one can predict the future. I never could have predicted that where I grew up in a small town in Illinois was preparing me to travel all over the world.
As a boy, I became interested in grassroots, jalopy car-style racing at an early age. I lived in a lower-middle-class neighborhood, maybe a lower-class economic neighborhood. There were about 10 houses on our block. Lower class? Really? Today, the houses on Doering Avenue in East Peoria, Illinois, are worth $50,000-$60,000.
For my lifelong benefit, three houses on our block kept a stock car racing team on their properties. Back in those days, a simple one-car garage could be home to a championship local racing team.
Don’t count on me to fix anything.
I have never been mechanically oriented. Nevertheless, I hung around those garages as a young boy and watched and listened. Even after doing that, I didn’t know a spark plug from a gas cap. What I think I liked most was the vast amount of preparation that was required to be competitive.
My all-time favorite track.
My local track was the Peoria Speedway in Peoria, Illinois. They raced every Saturday night from spring until fall. We couldn’t always go to the races. General admission was a dollar, and parking was another $0.25. We didn’t have that kind of money to blow on things like that every Saturday night.
It was time to branch out.
Of course, things change as time passes. When I was 14 years old, I finally got the chance to go to a track outside of Peoria, Illinois.
At 14, this was beyond cool.
My divorced mother was dating a man who liked race cars. He even had a part-time job at a gas station (Jim Penn Mobile) that sponsored a race car, a 1955 Mercury. Later, during the winter, that ’55 Mercury would be stored at our house. This truly was grassroots racing.
As a 14-year-old, I remember my mother and my future stepfather, Bill, wanting me to support their union. They agreed to take me to a race in Davenport, Iowa. Davenport was about a two-hour drive from where we lived. To me at that time, driving to Davenport, Iowa was about the same as visiting a foreign country.
Supper!
Along the way, we stopped at a “supper club” to get something to eat. The Midwest has supper clubs, but I don’t think California does.
Our evening meal, growing up in the Midwest, was never referred to as “dinner”. It was always “supper”. The term dinner was reserved for wealthy folks.
Hard to believe, but true.
Because these two were still in the dating stage, they had lots to talk about and “googly eyes” to make before Google ever became what it is today. They talked so much at the supper club, while I fidgeted in my chair, wanting to get to that new race track, that by the time we left and arrived at the Davenport Speedway, the races were finished. I was bummed.
Bill and I went to a lot of races.
As I say, time passes and things change. For the next 40 years, I went to well over 100 race tracks all over the United States and Canada with my stepfather. Jim Sabo is pictured with us. We went to more than 100 races together as well. We always had a great time. I introduced my stepfather to a lot of travel that otherwise he would not have been able to be a part of.
Most of my civilian friends have no idea.
Today, I have become what is called a “trackchaser”. Most of my civilian friends had never heard of such a thing. My trackchasing hobby has taken me to more than 3,000 race tracks in 89 countries. I would not have had the motivation to visit these places had it not been for my interest in auto racing that came from living on the “back street”, Doering Avenue.
Trackchasing, the hobby.
Hundreds of people consider themselves trackchasers. In one form or another, they have assembled a list of all the tracks and locations where they have seen racing.
By my having seen racing in 89 countries, I am considered across the hobby as the “World‘s #1 Trackchaser”. There must be someone at the top of the list in every hobby, right?
The world is a big place, but getting smaller.
Depending on what list you look at there are 193 different countries in the world. I have now visited 100 of those countries. That’s pretty good for a boy who didn’t have the resources to pay a dollar to go to a stock car race back in the day.
Trackchasing is all about the count. Don’t trust anyone who says it isn’t.
Trackchasing has a bunch of rules. The rules define what a trackchaser is allowed to “count”. If a racing event counts in the trackchasing hobby, you can bet a trackchaser will show up. If the race doesn’t meet the rules, you can also bet that a trackchaser will not show up.
As noted, there are 193 countries in the world. I’ve now seen racing in 89 of them. Not every country has auto racing. If every country had auto racing, I might have visited 193 countries by now.
It is getting more and more difficult for me to find countries where I haven’t been, that do have auto racing. I never stop looking.
As a college student, I didn’t want to go to Vietnam. Things change.
Carol and I had our plane tickets and hotel reservations made for the Vietnam Formula One Grand Prix in 2020. Then COVID came along. They canceled that race. Then the Vietnam Prime Minister, who was supportive of F1 auto racing, was indicted and then jailed for unrelated activities.
Algeria, yes? Nope.
I flew to Algeria in Africa to see a race. The plan was to be in Algeria for a week. Once I arrived in country, I learned that the race I was planning to see had been canceled. I spent that week enjoying Algeria’s hospitality and attractions, but I didn’t see a race.
I don’t care for “fragile.”
At this point, confirming that an auto race is going to happen in the countries where I haven’t seen an auto race is fragile. Like in Algeria, I can make the long trip, and circumstances beyond my control can make the journey a failure from a trackchasing point of view.
Always on the lookout for more information.
I found a website that shows racing dates for countries worldwide. I hadn’t seen this website before. Racingcalendar.net has provided me with some really good information on two or three countries I haven’t been to yet.
Uber competitive.
By the way, did I tell you that the trackchasing hobby is very competitive? It is today and has been since I first discovered the formal hobby in the 90s. The people who tell you the hobby is not competitive…are the most competitive chasers.
Lurkers.
I have lurkers. This past spring we also had piss ants. I don’t know which is worse. People will “lurk” on my Facebook page, hoping to pick up an informational nugget that can benefit their results. They would never acknowledge where they got the information or offer any thanks for the research it took for me to get it. They lurk and forage.
Israel appeared on my radar screen.
One of the countries that I discovered was holding races in 2025 was Israel. I had never been to Israel. Knowing there was racing in Israel put a “bee in my bonnet.”
Six race dates in 2025 were listed for the Arad Racing Track Circuit in Arad, Israel. I quickly did some research and began to make a plan to visit Israel. My plan was based ONLY on the race dates listed on one website. That qualifies for “fragile” in my book. Would I travel around the world based on this limited information?
Like any journalist, I have to get information from at least two credible sources before making firm plans to travel somewhere. I was having a hard time getting confirmation from that second source. The Arad track did have some social media presence, but the information I needed to understand was in Hebrew? I don’t speak or read Hebrew.
WhatsApp. What’s up?
I discovered a Facebook page for the track. The Facebook page included a WhatsApp phone number. I used WhatsApp, which is what most people around the world use to “text” people, to expand my search.
One of the advantages of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger is that I can call my contacts anywhere in the world for free. I have friends that I talk to frequently all over the world. We don’t pay a penny for our phone calls.
Ring. Ring.
I called the listed Israeli number. An older woman answered. She didn’t speak much English, so I communicated as well as I could. She told me she would contact another person who spoke English, and they would call me back within five minutes.
I waited by the phone. The call came! It was a fellow by the name of Gidi Cronin. The predominant religion in Israel is Judaism. Gidi Cronin didn’t sound like a Jewish name, but more of what you might think of as an Irish name.
This newsletter isn’t for this.
By the way, before I go any further, I won’t be talking about any of the sensitive religious or political issues that involve Israel. Those are serious topics, but my newsletter is not the forum for those discussions. We good?
Gidi “got” what I was trying to do.
Gidi Cronin spoke perfect English. He was a race driver. The best thing about talking with him was that he seemed to “understand” my intentions. When I talk to people, especially in foreign countries, it is common that they don’t really “get” what I’m trying to accomplish. Gidi did.
Unfortunately, the race dates for the Arad Racing Track were not accurate from the racingcalendar.net website, where I had first seen them. Gidi confirmed that. Now it looked as if I would not be traveling to Israel anytime soon. But wait. There’s more.
It pays to have friends at the top!
According to Gidi, the Arad track was not racing. However, another track in Israel—there are only three—was racing. I was talking to Gidi on Monday morning. He informed me there would be racing at the MotorTown Motorsport Park Racing Circuit in Be’er Sheva, Israel, on Friday, in four days. Most tracks in the U.S. race on Saturday. In Israel, Friday is their Saturday, and Saturday is their Sunday. Got that?
So much for advance planning.
It’s always fun to take a “big” trip, isn’t it? How far in advance do you plan your big trips? I tell people that if a friend called and said, “I’m going on a big international trip for the next couple of weeks. If you can meet me ready to go in 10 minutes, I’ll pick you up in your driveway”. I could make that trip every time!
Gidi told me Israel races at three locations. He told me that Israel only started formal racing around 2016-2018. The third track I haven’t mentioned yet—I don’t have the name—isn’t racing right now. Why? The drivers consider it too dangerous with the war going on right now!
I was about to become trackchasing’s first ever war-time trackchaser.
The track that I was thinking about visiting, MotorTown Motorsport Park Racing Circuit in Be’er Sheva, Israel, was located just 25 miles from the Gaza border and the same distance from where the October 7, 2023, attacks took place.
I asked Gidi if the MotorTown track was considered “too dangerous”. He said it should be OK. Should be? I had never met Gidi in my life. I had only been talking to him for a few minutes. Now I was getting ready to travel into a war zone to trackchase based on his safety evaluation. Don’t worry. That’s how I roll.
I get it. I’m different.
Let’s think about this. I’m talking to a fellow I’ve never met on Monday. He’s telling me there will be a race in his country on Friday. It’s a war zone. That simple information had my very active travel mind running in all directions at once.
Once Gidi convinced me there would be a countable race in Israel, I decided to be there on Friday. He did manage to slip in the fact that one of their recent races had to be canceled on one day’s notice because of rocket attacks…so there was that.
It was time to put the planning machine in overdrive.
As soon as I hung up with Gidi, I made plans to leave within 24 hours. I mentioned my plan to Carol. You already know how I roll, and Carol knows as well. As long as she didn’t have to go, she was good with me going to Israel. That’s how she rolls!
On Tuesday at 4 p.m., I would fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tel Aviv (TLV), Israel via Frankfurt (FRA), Germany. I would land in FRA on Wednesday morning and stay overnight there. On Thursday morning, I would leave FRA and arrive in TLV on Thursday afternoon. I would be there in plenty of time for the racing on Friday morning.
Yes, I can turn a trip like this on less than 24 hours’ notice. I never thought twice about it. If I could catch a flight or two and get where I needed to be, then I would, and I did.
Now you know the background.
That’s a little background on how and why I came to Israel. Now, please permit me to explain what my weeklong experience in Israel was like. It was fun, it was challenging, and it supported my Die with Zero approach to life. I was creating memory dividends that will be with me for a lifetime. Those memory dividends will be invaluable to me, no matter what the monetary cost turned out to be.
The devil can sometimes be in the details.
I soon found out I would need a visa to visit Israel. Fortunately, the visa process has been simplified over the years in many countries.
I remember paying something like $250 per person to get a Russian visa while Carol and I were getting ready to board a cruise ship in Miami. We were left with making emergency stops to FedEx, complete with cashier’s checks and the like, to pull that one off.
I remember driving up to Los Angeles to visit the Brazilian embassy. I waited for two hours outside their office door in the hallway floor, while they processed the paperwork. I also remember on that trip backing into a light pole while trying to park adding to the expense of my trip to Brazil!
I love technology.
Now, many countries, if they require a visa at all, will give it to you electronically. Israel offers an electronic visa, and it only costs seven bucks. It took a few hours for them to get back to me, but I got the visa. Later, in Frankfurt, Germany, I would discover an error that I had made getting that visa, which also almost cost me the entire trip.
I like riding on jet planes.
My first step after getting my visa approved was to reserve a business class seat on Lufthansa Airlines from Los Angeles to Frankfurt. Lie flat seats, baby. I would need to stay over one night in Frankfurt before I could catch a flight from Germany to Israel the next day.
I am a Hyatt guy. Last year I was credited with 161 frequent stay nights with Hyatt. “Only” about 140 of those nights were actually stays in a Hyatt hotel. This qualifies me for Globalist frequent stay status with Hyatt. Most “points and miles” bloggers consider being a Hyatt Globalist as the most valuable frequent flyer or frequent stay reward available anywhere.
Frankfurt had a Hyatt Place hotel located within a kilometer or two of the airport. That was perfect.
I thought I was too cool for school…but I wasn’t.
When I landed in Germany, I used a train ticket machine to get a ticket to the train stop next to the hotel. I was pretty proud of myself since all of the signage with the ticket machine was in German. I don’t speak German.
I was supposed to ride the train one stop, but it didn’t look like I was in the right place, so I stayed on the train. I was either on the wrong train, or I had made a mistake somewhere in the process.
Soon, I was riding the train out of town from Frankfurt. I knew that wasn’t right. I got off at the next stop, which gave me the experience of being inside a huge old German train station. Rather than figure out how to get where I needed to go using the train, I simply ordered an Uber. I paid €20 for the ride when the train would have cost me only two euros.
I didn’t worry too much about it. If a 20-euro mistake like this was going to have much impact on a trip that was going to cost a lot more than €20, I probably didn’t need to make the trip in the first place. I am very good at accepting setbacks and moving on without giving things any more thought.
Nice!
When I checked into the Hyatt Place at the Frankfurt airport, I discovered it was one of the best Hyatt Place hotels that I have stayed at anywhere in the world. I’ve stayed in my share. Their breakfast was outstanding.
Riding the train back from the Hyatt Place hotel to the airport on Thursday morning was as originally advertised—one stop for €2.35. I learned a lot for my next trip through Frankfurt. I find Frankfurt, Germany, to be a great connecting point for those locations that don’t have nonstop service from Los Angeles. When I have to stay overnight in Frankfurt again on one of these layovers, I will use the Frankfurt Hyatt Place hotel.
The biggest obstacle of the trip?
This Thursday morning, I was at the airport three hours before my 10 a.m. departure. I provided the airline agent with my passport information and everything else, including my electronic visa. Then the red lights started to flash. I was told that my passport didn’t match my electronic visa. What?
It turned out that I had entered Carol’s passport number into my Israeli visa application. Of course, that didn’t match my passport info. This was a serious mistake. I was reminded that I am a sales guy and not an engineer.
Performing under pressure.
I was now under the gun. It was Thursday morning. The race I wanted to see in Israel was going to happen on Friday morning. If I couldn’t get this visa thing figured out and processed in time to make the flight at 10 a.m., which was the only flight to Tel Aviv on this day, then I wouldn’t be there in time for the race tomorrow. I would have flown to Germany for nothing. This potential outcome put a frown on my face.
I found a quiet place over in the corner of the airport, opened up my laptop, and made the Visa application one more time. They didn’t get back to me for several hours the first time I did this. I didn’t have several hours. Somewhat miraculously, I received an email with all of the correct visa information to allow me into Israel about five minutes after I made my application. Whew! That was a close one. I guess I need to pay just a little bit more attention to what I’m doing.
I have always considered Israel one of the more “foreign” countries that I was likely to visit. It wasn’t all that foreign. Israeli Americans who were visiting their homeland spoke quite a bit of English, and so did the local population.
Bring Them Home Now.
I did see signs all over the airport and all over Israel that read “Bring Them Home Now,” referring to the hostages from the current war. The nationalism that supports this idea in Israel is similar to how the United States felt after 9/11. Fully understood.
POS.
I would be renting a car in Tel Aviv. I used Expedia to help me reserve a car with Budget Car Rental.
I don’t have a lot of clout with Budget Car Rental. I can feel it when I have no clout. Budget gave me a little POS rental car. It was a Kia Picanto. This car could probably do 0 to 60 in a minute and a half on a good day.
What? No Hyatts?
I would have much preferred to stay in a Hyatt hotel in Israel, but they didn’t have any. When I can’t stay at Hyatt, I’ll use Expedia and find the most highly rated hotel I can find at a reasonable price.
This turned out to be the Maxim Hotel in Tel Aviv. The location was good. It was just across the street from the Mediterranean Sea and the beaches. The beaches were constantly packed with young people running, walking, riding their scooters and small motorbikes, and were always very busy.
I admit it. I am spoiled by always staying in new modern Hyatt hotels. I am constantly being given all kinds of free stuff, including breakfast, parking, and luxury suite upgrades.
The Maxim Hotel wasn’t a Hyatt. Their parking “garage” looked like a dungeon. It housed about eight cars in total. I had to park in all kinds of crazy directions to get a spot that wouldn’t have me boxed in.
Too close for comfort.
The hotel elevator was about 4’ x 3’. I could barely fit in with my 22-inch rolling bag and computer case. On one occasion later in the trip a young, attractive woman entered the elevator with me. We had to be within 6 inches of each other for the ride. That was awkward. I would pay quite a bit to know what she was thinking.
Breakfast was very colorful but was totally devoid of meat. I’m a meat person. I don’t have a lot of color in my diet. Nevertheless, I ate what I could to avoid starving to death.
Let’s go trackchasing.
The first item on the agenda for my first full day in Israel was to drive out to the race track. The track’s location was just 25 miles from the Gaza Strip border and the same distance from where the terror attacks took place to begin the current Israeli war.
Friends helping friends meet their friends.
Have you noticed that I rarely mention any trackchasers helping with information? Some folks will go out of their way to help when they can, but not many.
Gidi, my primary Israeli race contact, made contact with one of his friends, Gil. Gil was the race director at the MotorTown Motorsport Racing Circuit. My bread and butter in life is meeting people, making friends, and then meeting their friends. It takes a village.
I was in!
When I arrived at the track, which was located out in the country, there was no admission charge.
There were only two classes racing today. The touring cars brought 11 racers, and the radical division had just five. That would be fine. Each class would run several races during the day, and I could watch for as long as I wanted.
Gil. Race Director. Nice guy.
The highlight for me was meeting Gil, the race director. I find that people enjoy and appreciate meeting an American. I don’t think they get that chance often.
It pays to know people in this hobby. When you know people, you get a chance to meet them and gain lots of insight into their racing program and often their personal situation. Knowing people also puts me in a position to get special privileges.
When people take the time to meet you, that is special and says a lot about that person.
Even though Gil was busy directing the races and answering all kinds of questions from the competitors, he spent several minutes with me.
He told me that racing had only started up in Israel during the last 10 years. He said they raced at his track about a half a dozen times each year. The track was privately owned. There were no grandstands. For the most part, there was a paddock and a paved road course about 2 km in length. There was only a small amount of elevation with this road course.
Gil did reiterate what I had already heard. He told me that one of the races had to be canceled on 24 hours’ notice after rocket attacks which made holding a race a poor choice. Yes, I kept looking over my shoulder. The race track didn’t offer much in the way of bomb shelters.
Gil told me he wanted to give me a souvenir from the track. He said he would have to “look me up later in my trip” to give it to me. I didn’t think that would happen, but it did.
Lifetime track #89.
Seeing a race in Israel was a big-time bucket list item for me. Not only was it my lifetime trackchasing country number 89, but the races were held in a country that up until a few days ago I didn’t even know they had racing. That made the experience extra special. I had fun at my day at the races.
This is very important.
With my AT&T international calling plan, I could use my phone just as if I were back home in San Clemente, California. I wouldn’t have the ocean view, but you know what I mean. This meant I could use Facebook Messenger just as if I were texting folks. FBM is a lifesaver in creating a good plan on a moment’s notice.
I really wanted to meet up with Gidi.
My primary contact, Gidi Cronin, was working at his racetrack today, the Arad Racing Track. Gidi promotes the track for racing and runs race driving schools for the general public. They weren’t having any competitive racing today, but they also were not very far from where I was seeing the races today. He asked if I could come out and join him at his track so we could meet up. For me, that was a great idea.
Camels, yes, camels.
As I drove along the Israeli highways, especially in the rural areas, I discovered a lot of “camel traffic.” That was fun and unusual to see.
When I arrived Gidi was busy working with his clients. Nevertheless, he took several minutes to spend time with me. Gidi even gave me a couple of t-shirts as souvenirs from his track. He recommended that at the end of the day we get together to have a drink.
First tourist attraction.
With that, I headed down to the Dead Sea, a major tourist attraction in Israel. The Dead Sea was only about an hour’s drive from where I was. The drive was like a roller coaster, with severe downhill winding road sections that took me to sea level.
The Dead Sea was an interesting spot and worth the trip. It is a landlocked salt sea bordered by Jordan. The Dead Sea was obviously out in the desert, and quite a bit warmer than any place I had visited up to now.
I walked into a couple of huge casino-like buildings. The entire area looked like it had been built up quickly and was still expanding. This was home to Israeli vacationers relaxing in 35°C temperatures with huge pools and cabanas.
I spent a couple of hours there. I would have liked to have gotten in the Dead Sea and just floated on a warm April day. Quite a few new homes were being built. Israeli architecture seems to be built on a series of squares.
Time to do what I like best…meet the people.
It was now time to drive back to Tel Aviv. As I was making that drive, Gidi gave me a call. He told me he had wrapped up his day and was heading home. He recommended we stop somewhere for a drink. We did just that.
It’s always fun when I can spend some personal time with a local in whatever country I might be visiting. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve done that a hundred times or more. Meeting Gidi was fun. He was a very intelligent and well-spoken man in his mid-40s. He shared a lot of opinions on the current situation happening in Israel, with racing, and life in general. Gidi’s family was originally from England, hence the name.
It was reinforced to me that making personal contact with a local on these trips is so much better. People are never as intimidating as their countries’ reputations might indicate after you meet them…and all countries have reputations of some sort.
Soon, I was back at the Maxim Hotel. I was reminded once again that I wasn’t at a Hyatt. Trying to park my car, which was fortunately a tiny car, took 100% of my attention. I didn’t want to scrape any walls or bang anybody else’s car.
Jerusalem here I come!
The next day was another highlight of the trip. I use GetYourGuide, which has become my go-to worldwide touring guide. GYG helped me arrange a guided tour of Jerusalem, the old city, and the new city. Jerusalem is only an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv. We were doing this tour on a Saturday, the holy day in Israel. That came with some touring limitations.
This would be a bus tour lasting all day long. What was unusual about this particular bus tour was that we would be away from the bus for five hours. That meant a lot of walking on uneven ground and up and down steps—a lot of walking, and I’m a walker.
Never would have expected this on a tour of Jerusalem, never.
Along the way, we made a restroom stop at Elvis’ restaurant. You may have seen Elvis-themed rooms or businesses in the past. I’ve never seen anything more “Elvis” than this place. I was about “Elvised” out when I left.
Not something to be missed.
I highly recommend the tour of Jerusalem. I am not a religious expert by any means. However, if you know a lot about the beginnings of Christianity, this would be the tour for you.
I enjoyed observing the worshippers at the “Wailing Wall.” Unfortunately, since it was Saturday, no photo taking was allowed. That’s a stock photo.
I was a little suspicious when our guy told us that some of the locations we would be seeing in terms of churches and resurrection spots were what he considered “estimates”. Since there were no iPhones or Google Maps 2000 years ago, it is somewhat difficult to recognize exactly where this happened or that happened. Nevertheless, if you get to this part of the world, checking out Jerusalem is something that I think you would want to enjoy and appreciate. Be prepared for some crowds.
When the tour was finished, it was time for another dinner at one of the seaside restaurants. Watching the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea was a nice way to end the day.
This was going to be such fun.
I’m a big sports fan. I made some inquiries and discovered that a game was being played in Tel Aviv as part of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv Israeli team is the equivalent of the Boston Celtics in the NBA. They have a rich history. The league started in 1954, and Maccabi Tel Aviv has won the league championship 57 times!! The next leading team has held the top spot just five times.
On this Sunday evening, Maccabi Tel Aviv was hosting the Hapoel Jerusalem team in the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv. As far as I could tell, the teams don’t have nicknames as they do in most places.
Google Maps told me that it was about a one-hour walk from my hotel to the arena. I thought it would be better to walk than to drive my car. Parking all over Tel Aviv was difficult. Walking rather than driving would get my steps in and probably just be easier.
No Uber.
Before you ask, Israel does not use Uber. That meant to get places, I either needed to walk or drive my rental car.
No ticket. No problem.
I also didn’t have a ticket to the basketball game. I went online to try to get one. The website I checked told me the game was sold out. I asked Gidi to check for me. He came back with the same news: sold out.
Need one!
The phrase “sold out” doesn’t mean a lot to me. I am the king of the ticket scalpers, both buying and selling. I could simply use my “need one” sign, right?
Was walking a concern?
I was also a little concerned about my personal safety for taking a one-hour walk in Tel Aviv at night. I asked several people if this was a good idea. Some were more concerned about my safety than others. That sort of how it would be in the U.S. as well. You might ask someone if you could walk from Times Square to Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some folks would say no big deal, and other people would shudder at the potential outcome. That’s just how people are.
I decided to walk. A lot of the neighborhoods reminded me of New York City. There was a lot of pedestrian traffic amongst mainly young people walking and enjoying their Sunday evening.
There were very a few spots during the one hour walk to the stadium where it was overly dark or less populated. I felt good about the situation. But then again, I am one of those people who considers most situations, “no big deal.”
Don’t worry. I am a professional.
When I reached the stadium, it was still about an hour before the game. As the professional ticket buyer/seller that I am, I discreetly surveyed the situation. I looked for the police. They didn’t look like they were going to bother people like me. Of course, I was only seeing the uniformed police, for which there were many, and not the undercover police.
I looked for scalpers. Initially, I didn’t see any. Then I saw a ticket booth. There wasn’t much activity there. Maybe they had a ticket? It never pays to ask, right? I made some inquiries.
The Menoro Mivtachim Arena was built in 1963 and renovated several times since then. It seats 10,763 for basketball.
This might work.
When I inquired about a ticket, I was told there were just a few left. I could pay 600 Israeli shekels, or about 150 U.S. dollars, for a ticket four rows from center court. Right now, one Israeli shekel is worth about $0.28 U.S. I could also buy a ticket for 200 shekels, or about $50 U.S. for a ticket nine rows from the court. I selected the latter. That was a good choice. I would rather pay more for one game with a good seat than pay half as much for tickets to two games with bad seats. Die with Zero, baby.
Scalpers!
I had my ticket, but if the game had been fully sold out at the official ticket booth, I could have bought a ticket from these guys. This restored my faith in mankind and convinced me that Israel was truly not as foreign a country as I thought before I came here.
I couldn’t resist talking to the scalpers. They are my people. Unfortunately, they only spoke Hebrew. They showed me pictures of tickets on their phones. What could have gone wrong with that? Nothing!
Rowdy. Really rowdy.
I have told you about Japanese baseball games and how “rowdy“ they are. At those games, there are cheering sections with people who chant songs, pound constantly on bass drums, and wave flags throughout the entire game. If you’ve never seen a Japanese baseball game and get the chance, you will immediately notice it’s not the same experience as seeing a much more laid-back American-style baseball game.
Rowdy plus one.
That said, I will tell you that Israeli basketball takes rowdiness to a new level. It’s far beyond what I’ve seen at Japanese major-league baseball games.
These fans are absolutely crazy. Both the home team and the visiting team have their sections at opposite ends of the stadium. The Tel Aviv team probably had 500 people chanting, singing, and pounding on a bass drum the entire night. Nonstop. These people, mainly young men, had to be exhausted at the end of the game.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv team (22-4) was playing the Hapoel Jerusalem (20-6) tonight. Right now, these two teams are in the top three of the entire league. Hapoel Tel Aviv leads the league with a 23-3 record. Don’t buy the t-shirt for Hapoel Haifa. There record is 3-23. I love Wikipedia. By the way “Hapoel” is a bank, the Hapoel Bank. They sponsor several teams in the league.
I’ve only known “Jerusalem” from a religious point of view. Who knew they had a professional basketball team and a good one at that?
A very somber presentation preceded the game. A woman gave a very spirited speech in Hebrew in support of her husband, who was being held hostage in the current war. The fans, as you might expect in Tel Aviv, were behind her 100%.
Meeting more people.
I had a great seat, especially when I was expecting the game to be sold out. I sat next to a young man, maybe 15 or 16 years old. He was really into the game and rooting for the home team. He was more than willing to answer my questions. We talked, and he told me this was the one game of the year that he gets a chance to see in person. He was having the time of his life. What a nice young man.
I’ve got a long list of sporting venues with locations from all over the world that I’ve been able to see during my travels. I have a special page on my website, www.randylewis.org, titled “Sports Spectating Résumé.” Here I list all of my sporting experiences. This is a link if you’re interested.
Randy’s Sport Spectating Resume
Of course, I had to buy a Maccabi Tel Aviv T-shirt to keep my memory of tonight’s game at the forefront. Sadly, for my young friend and me, Maccabi lost 93-85. This was their only loss at home all year.
Everybody, except the U.S., has expensive gasoline.
I had not fueled my rental car, which I needed to do before I headed home. I ended up paying 7.31 Israeli shekels per liter, which is $7.68 U.S. per gallon.
I didn’t get gas until heading to the airport at 5 a.m. on my departure morning. It turns out that most Israeli gas stations are not open at that hour.
Fortunately, I stopped at a station with a very friendly gas station attendant. And yes, I always ask permission for these photos…at least for close-ups. He gave me all the directions I needed to operate the pump and ultimately pay for the fuel. None of the signage was in English. Without him, I would probably still be standing at the gas pump, trying to figure out how to make it work.
Fun with not having to worry about a lot of advance planning.
My trip to Israel was fun, but it was unusual. Who decides to go to a place like Israel on less than 24 hours’ notice?
Who would rent a car in Tel Aviv, Israel? Who would have a chance to meet up with local people who would sit down and spend time just getting to know each other over a beer?
Remember Gil?
You remember that I told you that Gil, the race director at the MotorTown track I visited, told me he wanted to give me a souvenir? He did exactly that.
Gil messaged me back and forth while I was at the basketball game. That was my last night in Tel Aviv. We decided the best time for him to give me his gift was after I walked back to my hotel from the game.
I didn’t get back to the hotel until about midnight. The game had started at 9 p.m. I had already walked 9 miles and was pretty well used up.
Nevertheless, Gil was waiting patiently, at midnight, in his car across the street from my hotel. He gave me a nice gift bag with a hat and a water bottle with the track’s name on it.
I didn’t know how far Gil had traveled to meet me at my hotel. How many people have you ever met who would be willing to do that at that late hour to give me a remembrance from him and his racetrack? I was impressed with Gil and thanked him profusely.
It was time to pay the piper.
I ended up grabbing a nonstop flight from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles. This was a 15-hour flight. I had flown from Los Angeles to Frankfurt in business class with lie-flat seats.
On this 15-hour flight, I flew in coach class in a middle seat. Surviving Marine Corps Boot Camp was brutal. Yes, that’s me, lower left, practicing my craft of trying to win everybody’s money and their CD collection. I wonder where those guys are today? The guy in the middle was named Sarge. I did win the guy’s entire CD collection sitting on the left. He looks kind of sad about that, doesn’t he? Boot camp for me was more than 50 years ago.
Flying in a middle seat in coach for 15 hours was less brutal, but still somewhat brutal at this stage of my life. I avoid brutal situations as often as I can.
Well done.
I was impressed with the young woman in the window seat in my row. During the 15-hour flight, she never got up once to pee. She would be a great partner to take on a long road trip, right?
It’s been busy and it will stay busy.
So far in 2025, and it’s only April, I’ve taken 1-2 week separate trips to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, and Israel. In a few days, I leave for a two-week trip to Western Europe. Then Carol and I will go to the Osaka World Expo 2025 in Japan in early May. I’ll bring her home, and then I’ll head out to China and Western Europe again. All of this will happen by the end of May. I’ve had a few domestic trips sprinkled in here and there. As you can see, I’m still pretty hard on the gas with this travel thing.
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for coming to Israel with me. I can’t tell you about each one of these trips because I simply don’t have the band width to produce things. I’ll share what I can when I can. I very much appreciate your interest in reading, and hopefully enjoying my travel experiences.
Rest assured, you’re getting exposed to some of the wildest adventures. Maybe you’ll have the fun of making the trip at least vicariously now, and maybe in reality sometime in the future.
להתראות ובהצלחה
Randy Lewis
Yes, that’s my Maccabi Tel Aviv t-shirt worn in the Netherlands next to my friend and Sweden’s championship rallycross driver, Simon Tiger (hence the driver’s suit). Let’s not forget I’m 6’3” tall.