Reentry into the USA was a no brainer for us. Traveling Business Class with Global Entry cards turned the expected hassle into a walk in the park. They looked at the phones but didn’t ask for passwords and basically we kept going at a walking pace right though all the security. OTOH getting though security to board the plan in Istanbul was a more of a hassle, mostly because we had to got through the same ritual three times! The flight On Turkish Air 777 was very comfortable in business. Plenty of room to stretch out and totally lay flat beds. Worth every penny.

Istanbul was a bit of a forspeice. If we hadn’t already been there.In the morning we wandered on our own into the gardens of Topkapi, which we had not seen in our previous trip. Later we went into the largest, oldest shopping mall where we were saved from buying anything by repeatedly asking where will we put it and who wants it. We did pass up some beautiful items but. . .

We are in Mansfield OH at a large campground on the outskirts sitting astride a lake. We have not ventured out as it is raining. and we are tired. This was day two from Kansas ‘city MO. One more day will put us in N Tonawanda where we will leave the coach for some service work and we will go on to the apartment in the Jeep.

We already have a day trip planned with Vic and Joyce, no driving for us! Just a gentle ride to Jerry and Barbara’s in Ithaca.

Thank you homeland security! I am getting ready to fly through Istanbul to the USA. Although our first stop is Istanbul with 24 hours layover, no one can tell us whether we are going to check through or have our baggage with us in Istanbul. Carry on is fine for an overnight, but if we are checking through, we must pack our cameras and computers now. To avoid issues with security I am going to post this and lock the computer away in my luggage with my camera. The memory cards for our cameras are in my carry on. The password for my phone has been changed to something obscene (but very obscured) for the benefit of the aforementioned homeland security. I am good to go!

When I am less rushed and annoyed, I will provide a more complete post about the whole trip. I must say this has been a wonderful adventure with a good group of fellow travelers. We look forward to future travel with Overseas Adventure Travel.

From the time I started reading about this trip the most exciting aspect was the long overland drive from Khujand to Dushanbe in Tajikistan.  This drive starts in the Ferghana Valley which is divided between Tajikistan, Uzbekistan an Kyrgyzstan. It is among the most fertile areas in the region. It narrows and eventually gives way to serious mountain passes with the road climbing to 9,000 feet and passing through two major tunnels and uncounted snow sheds before it descends to the southern valley with Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan at its foot. The notes in the itinerary are relatively brief calling for stops in Istaravshan to visit a couple of master craftsmen and the luncheon with the block print artist was cancelled because of Ramadan.

We visited a wooden comb maker and watched him make a comb from a block of wood:

Cutting the wood to dry for two years

Shaping the blank for the comb

Cutting the teeth

Even the decorations were added while we watched

 We bought a couple of combs for display, mine is a mustache comb!

The knife maker forging his blank from a leaf spring

Finished product I was not thrilled with the source of his metal stock.

 We did have a lovely lunch at the home of a tour leader who was not working at the moment.

 There were various stops along the road, these dried fruit and nut sellers had set up shop in a wide spot where the road did a 180 degree hairpin turn

 It was startling to come up on this herd as were were hurtling along the highway around a bed at 35 mph.

Just a picture stop. That snow is not usually present on June 5, but they had a lot last winter.

We got into Dushanbe in time to check in to our hotel, a marvel of modern, comfortable conveniences. The wifi here even gets the New York Times. Cannot understand why it wasn’t available in Khujand, the second largest city in Tajikistan and it is available in the capital.

There is no censorship in Tajikistan. NYTimes.com is not reachable here in Khujand Tajikistan, neither is npr.org. I am writing this from blogger.com but I cannot read the post I sent from Samarkand. I’m not sure I will be able to publish this when I am done.

We made the drive from Samarkand in the lovely bus we had been traveling in all week. After two hours on typical Uzbekistan roads, miserable, we reached the border with Tajikistan where we had to put up with over zealous exit routines and then pull our bags over 300 meters of no-man’s land to the welcoming Tajikistan entry post. Having cleared that and another 100 meters of  bad driveway we boarded what may be the worst bus we have ever experienced. The legroom is nonexistent, the fabric is disintegrating the microphone system works and doesn’t work at random and I thought I heard the clutch slipping when climbing a slight grade. And we need an external step to reach the first step in the door. The emergency exit door in the rear is a good 5 feet above the ground with no assist. Just bad! Tomorrow we are promised a smaller more comfortable bus capable of taking us over the mountains to Dushanbe. There a a couple of high passes to cross.

We are in an area that has seen little tourism and it shows wherever we go. To add to the interesting times, it is Ramadan, so restaurants have to open early to accommodate us and even those that do usually serve alcohol have not been offering it.  This is a Muslim majority nation but the state is not Muslim and many people clearly are not observing Ramadan fast.

I can post pictures of mausoleums and unused mosques, but they are of limited interest. The one mausoleum we go into was supposed to be closed to us. As we got there the door was partly open and we were invited to remove our shoes and go into the entry area, but explicitly told not to enter the holy area of the tombs. As we stood about taking pictures [now I cannot add pictures] a couple of ladies left and all of a sudden we were welcomed into the inner sanctum. After the tour and explanation as we put on our shoes and turned to leave the caretaker came out and locked up the building.

We went to lunch and returned to then hotel to freshen up before seeing some local embroidery with opportunity to purchase. Watch for another new cap to appear someplace, someday 🙂

100 years or so after Genghis Kahn rolled over the west extending his empire a new face appeared with the objective of becoming Kahn or ruler of the world. His name was Timor and his title was Amir, much lower than Kahn. Ultimately he ruled much of Central Asia. During one of his many campaigns he suffered an injury to a leg leaving him lame. He became known and hated in the west by the name Tamerlane – Timor the Lame. He based his kingdom from Samarkand and here we find buried his wives in a magnificent array of tombs

and himself and his grandson, Ulugbek, among others in yet another grand mausoleum, just across a small park from our hotel.

Mirzo Ulugbek was an astronomer and scientist who built a huge observatory to measure the length of the year – he got within 2 seconds of current understanding. He wrote a star atlas detailing 1180 stars as well. He also was destined to take over as Kahn after his grandfather, but his son had him beheaded so he could rule. The son’s rule lasted 40 days.

Mirzo Ulugbek

Astrolabe

The bottom third of the Observatory

The actual surviving track used for observations There is much more history in Samarkand and much of what we see today are reconstructions from the Soviet era. They were determined to preserve the local history while destroying the economy, go figure. We visited the Registan, central courtyard surrounded on three sides by Madrasas. It is hard to grasp the size of this space and these buildings.  If you look at the face of the arch on the right you will see a speck, this is a closeup of the worker cleaning the face of the Madrasa. We ended up wearing some of the dirt he was removing as we stood beneath is work area. Muslims do not generally make representations of people or animals. A close look at these figures from the top of the arch reveals that  the animals are not representations of real animals and the “human” face is so distorted as to not violate the letter of the law. Although I have written here about Samarkand, it is ion the past and tonight we wrap up two days in Tashkent with a farewell dinner to those who do not continue on to Dushanbe in Tajikistan tomorrow.

Finally a hotel with a decent internet connection and five minutes to call my own. I will eventually write about Ashkhabad, Nukus, Khiva, and Bukhara. Here are just a few pictures from each:

Ashgabat – Turkmenistan:

Bridegroom waiting to get married

The Bride

The Wedding Palace first color phase

Nukus – Museum of Avant-Garde Art – Uzbekistan

Khiva – Uzbekistan

Map of Old City with Sasha our OAT Tour Leader

The reason for this trip!

I am out of time and there is so much more, I will post this now and update and add later!

Everything has worked as planned, so far. We got to the Elks Lodge in Blue Springs as the bar business was peaking and got set up in their camping area. Nice sites with an excessive slope so all my leveling supplies were required to get level. The PER (Past Exalted Ruler) had a bit of an issue about our leaving the coach unattended for 20 days. He invited me to a Trustee meeting they happened to be holding at which I was to answer any questions that might arise. The only thing I got to say was “Thank you” as the trustees couldn’t see any problem, especially since I was not asking for a discount from their normal site rental rate.

Caught an Uber to the airport and flights were mostly on time and tolerable, MCI (Kansas International) may be the most miserable airport in the  country. Clearly it was built before anyone thought about security and there are no decent airside amenities, no room for them. We got to the Hilton Garden Inn at JFK and found our reservation waiting and a decent room to boot.

Breakfast brought a surprise. We were seated next to a younger couple (not to say young, but all is relative) Ira and Mary and got into a conversation about life and travel. They left to get on with their day and after another cup of coffee I asked for the check. They had picked up our check and before we could thank them, or say anything the door to the shuttle closed on them and they were off. We are the beneficiaries of a delightful random act of kindness.

With time to kill, it is now noon and our flight isn’t until 11:55 PM. I found a nearby barbershop and took an Uber there and back to get what hair I have shortened for the trip. Naturally the owner of the shop is from Uzbekistan and he got excited to hear that that is where we are headed.

Now we sit, check out of the hotel room at 2 and we can’t check in for our flight until 9 PM. It is too hot and too late to go into the city so I guess we will be sitting around twiddling our thumbs and reading until we board the flight for another 11 hours of travel time followed by several hours of waiting in Istanbul for the next flight of 3 hours 40 min to Ashgabat.

1250 miles down the road, only 420 to go for this leg. This may be as long as the miles 🙂

We had a delightful stop in Phoenix. Josh, our grandson, was picking up his girlfriend, Rhoma, in Phoenix and called to see if we could meet for lunch at MIM. What grandparents could say no to that. After a delightful lunch in the MIM Cafe, they went on to run through some of the exhibits in two hours! while we devoted the same time to one room, the Dragons and Vines exhibit of wonderful inlay work on guitars and banjos. This is mostly contemporary work and now makes use of NC machines to be able to replicate the designs. After a break back at the coach for a bit we returned to MIM at 6:30 to meet Susan and Lee who were sponsors of the concert and had generously offered to provide us with tickets. Carol and I are sure they mixed the tickets and gave us their sponsor seats, center just behind the cross aisle about 4 rows from the stage. Anat Cohen and the Tres Brasileros were wonderful and we enjoyed the Brazilian Churros – the music not the food.

The next day we set off for Sedona. Well the Sedona area. A stop at the Red Valley Visitor Center yielded a map with good places to boon dock highlighted by the ranger. We set our selves up about two miles in on Forest Road 525. This is the Interstate of Forest Roads. it provides access to a couple of ruins and some housing on private land best reached via 525. The sites are primitive and getting level required some extra effort, but once there we were pleased to be paying nothing for gorgeous views and mostly quiet. We used the jeep to explore some of the primitive roads in the area ranging from good dirt which most any passenger car could handle to Jeep/ATV tracks requiring the use of low range 4×4. We concluded our time there with dinner at Asylum in Jerome with the Riddles from Jojoba Hills. We sat down at 6 and finally decided to vacate the table at 9.

That was Wednesday. Thursday found us driving up 89A to Flagstaff tp prepare for Josh’s graduation. 89A from Sedona to Flagstaff really is not meant for big motorhomes like ours. Carol negotiated the entire drive, seldom exceeding 30 mph on the narrow windy road. Rhoma and Josh joined us for dinner on the coach which I grilled – for the meat eaters. Friday Malena, Dan, Alexander and Corey drove up from Phoenix having landed there the night before. and we started the gathering on our coach. We all met at Copa Cafe for a lovely dinner and retired sort of early to prepare for an early departure to get seats for graduation starting at 10 AM. We were in place with seats for all before 9 AM. After the ceremony we drifted back to the coach where we had food, drink and dessert for all extending through the day and well into the evening. Between grilling and playing Frisbee and conversation I started preparing the coach for an early departure.  The next 364 miles of our adventure. After we were down to dessert and conversation one of Josh’s professors, the one who oversaw his independent study, appeared and we settled in for some interesting  discussion about education. Just in case I will leave that for private conversation. One thing I will note, we asked Joe how common it was for a student to undertake independent study at NAU Education. He said it is not part of the program and it required much effort on Josh’s part and presumably his to get the permissions to include it in his program. Not sure I remember the exact words, but he said a student like Josh is like dessert for him.

By 9:30 Sunday morning we were rolling East on I 40, next planned stop a small town east of Albuquerque, the home of BoondockersWelcome.com hosts. They opened the gate for us as we approached and provided us with a lovely level driveway to park in. As we were setting up Joe came out to invite us in for a drink. Spotting our prepared wine bottle, he told not to bring it in. We had a lovely conversation about RVing and retiring and life in general. They are looking to replace their current coach with one more like ours so of course we toured them. In the AM we hooked the car up and prepared to leave and Joe came out to say farewell.

Another 360 miles East, on I 40 to Tucumcari where we turned NE on US 54 crossing a corner of the Texas Panhandle and the Oklahoma Panhandle to stop in Liberal Kansas at the MidAmerica Air Museum. It was hot and the wind continued to blow and as I write we are experiencing thunderstorms of varying ferociousness and continuous rain.

Tomorrow 423 miles to Elk Lodge in Blue Springs MO. It may take a lot longer if this rain doesn’t let up. I have moved the suitcases into the car for easier access for packing on Wednesday. Thursday we fly to JFK, Friday night 11:45 PM we fly to Istanbul and on to Ashgabat.

We got off the road early ish so I have time for an update.

We came down the wonderful switchbacks on 74 into Palm Desert with Carol at the helm and many happy cars behind us as we pulled off into almost every turnout. We came through to Quartzite where we bought diesel and pulled into our favorite boondock area, called Hi Jolly STVA (Short Term Visitor Area) We are not all alone, there are three other coaches sharing a space that holds hundreds in prime season.

It is HOT. Currently showing 109 F. Expect it to cool off into the 70s so we will be able to shut down the AC and the generator to sleep. On to Phoenix tomorrow about 146 miles and 2 hours. We will take our time getting under way in the morning.

To those of you recommending MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). That is where we are headed for a performance Sunday night. We have been there several times. The first visit, about 4 years ago, we went two days in a row. We have been telling everyone we know about it, including some of you 🙂

No Pics, no map this time.

By the time most of you read this we will be preparing to get on the road or well on our way. We are planning our first stop on the way to Phoenix in Quartzite. The predicted high there is 105, we may keep moving, but it doesn’t appear to be any cooler in Phoenix. I guess we will be hot for a bit then cool later.

It seems strange to be getting back on the road. Even our cross country trek last Fall was more of a slow motion dash than an open ended wander. As I have said in prior posts, we are pretty well programmed from now until August 17 when we return to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland. I am using a new piece of software to plan the parts of the trip that require advance planning. It is RV Notepad and it is helpful although the interface is taking some getting used to and the developer is interested in documenting some things that I am less interested. I hoped to be able to share the route plan, but it seems that the only reports I can generate are after the fact. Here is our intended route for the next two days. We will be following the blue route over the mountain to I 10.

The golf cart batteries are taking their last charge before a long sleep, and the cover is on the cart. The umbrella is covered and the Jeep is set up for towing. All we need to do is cover the table and get the coach out of its snug berth under the awning. Hope to be rolling by 10 to beat the worst of the heat. We have had a couple of fair well happy hours, fun, as we agreed not to create a traffic jam as we all are exiting for the season.

Next post should be a review of the Anat Cohen concert in Phoenix Sunday night.