After our incredible journey through the ancient ruins of Petra and a good night’s sleep, we checked out of our hotel and set our sights on the Dead Sea. Once in the car we plugged the address of our Dead Sea resort into Mandy, our trusty GPS.

As we left Petra behind we followed Mandy’s directions towards what we thought was the Kings Highway.   Fifteen minutes later we could see that were heading west into the mountains and not towards the Kings Highway.  Confused by Mandy’s choice of roads, we decided that she knew best. After all, she was a GPS unit and we were mere mortals. If she thought this route through the mountains was the best route then we would follow her directions.

So here we were. Four Americans in a minvan, with 1 tank of gas and 3 bottles of water, driving through the mountains of Jordon guided only by an old model GPS.  Can you see where this is going??

Right away Kristie hopped in the third seat of the minivan, put on her pink eye-shades and decided to get some sleep. This is probably the smartest thing she ever did because she would have freaked out had she seen the road conditions we were about to encounter.

As we drove into the foothills and began to ascend, the roads looked great. Really well-paved wide roads. We were enjoying the view and talking about our upcoming spa appointments which we had booked at the Dead Sea for 1pm that day. We had 4 hours to drive 130 kilometers. No problem!

About half way up the mountain the road started to narrow and get a bit rugged. Further up the mountain the paved road disappeared altogether. We started driving on a gravely dirt road filled with potholes.  Sean slowed the car down to 5-10 mph. as he maneuvered our giant mini-van over the dangerously windy narrow road. At times the road would have an almost 90 degree incline and we couldn’t see if the road went left or right until we chugged up the hill.

Another half kilometer and the road narrowed to the point that only one car could drive through at a time.  The only signs of life were a couple of sheep and a camel. We could hear the tires scraping rocks and gravel as we rolled into each pothole and back out.  At this point there were steep drop off’s on both sides of the road! If a car came from the other direction we were screwed.  Our situation had quickly deteriorated.

I think it was at this point that we started talking about the Bedouin drug runners that our Egyptian guide had warned us about. Wasn’t this the type of deserted mountainous road that the Bedouins used to transport drugs up through Jordon. The thought was too scary to think about.

After hitting a particularly GIANT pothole, Kristie popped up out of the back of the mini-van. Disoriented she lifted her pink eye-shades up and said “what’s happening?” We sadly informed her that we were driving a minivan over a treacherous mountain road and if we broke down, the only people who could help us would probably be Bedouin drug-runners. She didn’t seem happy with our response.

An hour passed and we’d only driven 5 kilometers!! We would never make our spa appointments at this rate. Hell, we didn’t even know when this road would end!

But we kept driving. For 15 more kilometers Sean seemed to handle the minivan better than any Nascar driver could. Weaving around enormous pot-holes, avoiding slippery gravel and watching for any sheep and camels that might be crossing the road.  As we rounded the top of the mountain, the steep drop-offs disappeared on one side of the car. We had started to descend.

That’s when we saw a truck off in the distance. They were heading our way. We sorta panicked at this point because there was no room for two cars. Sean stopped the car to let them pass.  We had only an inch of room to spare on the passenger side.  As the car came closer we could see it was a truck driven by Bedouins who seemed as surprised to see us as were to see them. As they passed they ALL looked at us, and I think all of our hearts stopped. Were they drug runners? Were they going to turn around and come find us?  We had no plan if this were to happen. So we did what anyone would do in this situation. We waved and smiled at them so they would know that we were dumb foreign tourists and no threat to them.  Whew! It worked. They kept driving.

We drove on… and on… and on.  After what seemed like an eternity the road finally widened and the potholes disappeared. We were coming out of the mountains! Hooray!! We were going to make our spa appointments after all.  I looked at the map and realized that Mandy had guided us to within ½ kilometer of the Israel border. Imagine that!   We cruised through the first military checkpoint and was FINALLY on our way to our spa appointments at the Dead Sea.