Ḩayy aş Şuwayfīyah

We said goodbye to our camp and drove a little shy of 200 miles today from Wadi Rum back up to Amman - almost the entire length of the Kingdom of Jordan in just 3 1/2 - 4 hours! Crazy. You can’t get from one end of Oregon to the other in that amount of time.

We took the quicker, non-scenic Desert highway back. It was a fairly boring and uneventful drive, until it wasn’t. Once we got to Amman, the car starting pulling badly and then the dreaded “bump, bump, bump” sound. We got a flat tire … on the freeway. 😧 Luckily it didn’t blow, it just slowly went flat. We got out and started changing it - figured it was a good teaching moment for Jordan since she hadn’t been shown how to change a tire for years. But within just a few minutes a couple Jordanian men stopped, came over and without much discussion (language barrier) finished changing the tire for us in no time. I don’t think we had much of a choice. 😂 Apparently, chivalry is not dead - and yes, I will let a man change my tire any day if he’s offering.

Traveling is very cool, and amazing - but today was just … life. There are still mundane tasks we have to do while on the road. Today was laundry day. We tracked down a laundry-mat once in Amman and did a couple loads. We had dirtied almost every piece of clothing we owned, so it was time.

I certainly don’t agree with a lot of the beliefs and ways of life here, especially in regards to the treatment of women, but I will say that EVERY person we’ve come in contact with in Jordan has been kind, helpful and very friendly. They are a very happy, smiley people.Read more