On the Road to Jerash?

Taking the advice of the many who have visited Jordan before us, we decided to rent a car at Amman airport, but tried to avoid Amman itself.  We stayed our first night in Madaba, just south of the capital, and planned to drive north to the Roman ruins at Jerash the next day. We were armed with road maps, Google-maps, and experience driving in the streets of Rio and Tirana.
The drive started out well as we drove through fields and olive groves. After living in the desert of Kuwait, the spring flowers were a beautiful surprise. We skirted Amman and approached Jerash by highway. Just before Jerash we found the road blocked by police who gave us no explanation and there were no signs for a detour. We did the only thing we could, and followed other cars down a country road hoping that they knew where they were going. It became apparent that they didn't. Cars stopped and turned around, gesticulating to us that there was no way forward. Google-maps wasn't much help, as it tried to get us to turn back to the highway. So it was by chance, that we finally made it to Jerash through the hill country shared by shepherds and not much else.

I recently heard a friend describe the ruins at Jerash as his "favorite roman ruins". They are quite extensive, and it is believed that only 10% have been excavated. On one side the ruins lie underneath the modern city of Jerash, and to the other side it is being grazed by goats. And throughout the place is overgrown with wild flowers. It is charming, but magnificent in its grandeur. And the small details, like the roman man hole covers leading to their sewer system and an old olive press, make the place come alive.

After hours of exploring we decided to avoid the gift shop and make our way back to the car. We allowed Google-maps to guide us once again ( in hindsight that was unwise) and headed south to the highway. We were alone on the road, and soon found out that the road to the highway was closed. The only alternative was a route through the city.  It must have been market day because the roads were full of vendors selling vegetables from the back for their trucks, parked in the middle of the street.  Butchers hung whole carcasses of goats and sheep outside shops, and a loud speaker seemed to be announcing the sale of cucumbers over and over. We inched along past the countless piles of potatoes and cabbages until we finally seemed to be leaving the city behind. We were not rewarded with an open road, but another blockade and unhelpful policemen.

Again we were forced to follow other cars and hope they knew another way to the capital city. How hard could it be? Jon's phone died and we didn't have a car charger. We switched to Ben's phone but Google-maps couldn't find an alternative route. Yet another road ended in a road block. By this time we were part of a caravan of cars who all had to turn around and wonder where to go.  We all crept along over the hills and through the fields.
Jon then told me we were out of gas and the gauge had been on empty for a while. He was hoping we would find a gas station soon. I then began to imagine a scenario where we were lost, out of gas and with no phone service.
We climbed a hill into a village where we stopped to ask about getting gas. Even though we tried the word for 'gas' in every language we knew, the locals just laughed at us. One man pointed ahead, but what did that mean? We continued on fumes and  crested the hill. Below us we spotted the highway, and a gas station. We were saved! Perfect timing!

Nearing Amman we were able to stop for food, and a cell phone car charger. On our first day we had seen much more of Jordan than we expected and learned a valuable lesson: travel is easy to plan on paper with the use of maps, guides and technology, but you can never predict what will happen live!