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way and anti-aircraft guns in position at the airport. He also got a kick
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point. I guessed 6,500 feet, as did three others, and we were right. The
pot was only $5.50 and I said, This is too small to split lets draw for
it. All agreed. I drew an eight and immediately thought I was out of it,
but the other three all drew beneath me, so I won and gave the money
to Richard. It was a particular pleasure to me to win because when ac-
companying Dad as a boy it seemed to me that he usually won and my
boy deserved the same.
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An, a desert town surrounded by the grimmest desert youve ever seen.
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by a blowtorch. Arabian deserts looked lush by comparison. We then
boarded cars and drove through perhaps ten miles of barren desert and
then started descending through low, rolling hills planted to sparse win-
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we came to Wadi Mussa (Moses Canyon) where water in a channel
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hillside. The Arabs believe this is the rock struck by Moses rod from
which water gushed forth, as is reported in the Bible. Since there are no
other springs like it in the area, maybe it is the one. In the narrow canyon
below are terraced hillsides planted with wheat or barley together with
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The latter two kinds were in bloom. What a surprise to see such a place!
We ended at a stone fort of the Arab Legion. Arabs started shouting and
soon from many directions along the hillsides came men leading horses
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horses and donkeys would be used. Our baggage was loaded aboard
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pale yellow sandstone hills going via a dry watercourse. Soon we were
riding horses through rose-red rocks and gradually a canyon formed
around us, no wider than the dry creek. It became much like Zion Can-
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