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.

In two weeks we will be heading out on the road to resume our peripatetic lifestyle. For some details see previous posts. For sure we are looking forward to adventure travel with OAT to The Stans and road tripping to Newfoundland not to mention Xerox Rochester international Jazz Fest. I am also having feelings about leaving Jojoba Hills. I have attended several last committee meetings of the season in the past week. and at each the attendance is dwindling as others make their way north and east. We will attend our last Last Friday Dinner Dance for the season next week and start to say goodbye to friends, fellow community members who were strangers just months ago. Some we will see in other parts of the country as they and we travel. Others we hope to spend time with back here next Fall.

I’m not sure if I have written this before, but there is no way for you to stop me if you’ve heard this one  – just stop reading.

Some times Carol and I will be sitting around trying to think of where we want to travel next and how to get there. For example this summer we knew we wanted to go to NJ to visit Carol’s sister-in-law and our nephew and whatever family is around. I knew I wanted to go to Newfoundland. Starting from Rochester NY after Jazz Festival this does not seem like a logical route. It seemed reasonable to see if we could camp on Cape Cod, one of our favorite places and near my sister in Wellfleet. From there we would travel north to catch a ferry to Newfoundland (here after NL). About this time our grandson Corey sent an email wondering if he could join us on the motorhome for part of our travels. Of course we said no! Who wants pesky grandchildren along.  Right! Sure! After some back and forth we set up a schedule – damn, flights require planning. We will pick him up in Newark and after Cape Cod and some time in Boston we will take him to the airport to fly home and travel in his parents’ trailer, or maybe go to camp first. Then on to NL. The theme is Nor’East and family.

Wait! the family isn’t done with us. Avi, the youngest in California and a budding Jazz musician heard we had this Jazz Fest thing we are nuts for in Rochester and is “horning” in on that for a few days, got to get him his very own pass. When they read this we may be in for more trouble as there are still three grandsons who haven’t checked in and asked for time – yet. Well Alex asked, but hasn’t found a time yet. At least they haven’t asked to come along to The Stans with us 🙂 yet

But there are other kinds of themes we have built trips around. One year we were traveling in the car and I was playing Paul Simon’s Graceland on the radio. I probably can stop there. That trip got built around a visit to Graceland and Memphis. Once we got that far we continued the music theme with a trip to Branson MO. That trip was bracketed with stops at our son’s family near Charlottesville VA.

Early trips were not full time and were as short as three weeks and as long as three months. Winter trips were cross country and the “theme” was to find a different route and new places to sight see. Eventually we started looking for trips that covered new territory. On our way to Alaska – a classic theme trip on it’s own we crossed US 20 as we drove up US 101 through Newport Or and I said “we really needed to drive as much of it as we could since it passes about 15 miles south of our townhouse in Rochester NY on  its way to Boston Commons”. Five months later after returning from Alaska we picked up US 20 as it passes through Yellowstone and followed it to the border with Illinois. After a side trip to Madison WI we used Interstates to get around Chicago and rejoined US 20 where it intersected I 94 in Indiana. We stayed with it through Elkhart and Cleveland all the way to its intersection with I 390 south of Rochester. On other trips over the years we have driven most of US 20 east to Boston.

US 1 (often confused by Left Coasters with CA 1/Pacific Coast Highway) runs from north of  Calais ME to “The Conch Republic” Key West. It often runs through densely populated areas like Boston, New York and DC area. A couple of years ago we started across “The Lincoln Highway” also US 50 and got distracted somewhere in Colorado. We will get back to that one day. We have driven the length of US 90 from Jacksonville FL to its western terminus at Van Horn TX where it merges on to I 8.

Our winter theme for the coming year is not developed yet. We expect to spend the cold weather part in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort. Mostly October through April. But that plan is not even set in Jello yet.

We have been busy for the past 21 days. The major event was Escapade 57 in Tucson, well at the Pima County Fairground south of Tucson. On the way we made two overnight stops. The first, in Dateland AZ, was just an overnight stop. It is a truck stop and shop which we have stopped at from time to time just because we wanted to get off the road and Yuma, not exciting, is another hour. Our next stop was Catalina State Park north of Tucson. We got the last dry camp spot in the overflow area and that was with a reservation two weeks ahead! The route took us through Anza Borrego Park which is being inundated with tourists coming to see the superbloom. We didn’t stop for pictures as pulling our entire rig 36 feet plus 4 door Jeep is a bit much to try to stop when there are crowds. I did get some pictures in Catalina SP