Back at Colton RV with Vodka in Hand

Some time back we had a self imposed encounter with some rocks and dirt that caused some damage to four compartment doors. For brevity's sake lets just say I was willful and refused to listen to good advice, from Carol. None of you have ever done that have you? I messed up four compartment doors, three need to be replaced. John, at Colton RV, was not terribly sympathetic, but he was glad to order the three doors and prepare to paint all four. Met with him today and saw again his ever present smile and can do attitude. Have also scheduled routine service and some minor stuff with firm instructions that whatever is not fixed by July 6 will wait until September. We must be at the airport in Newark on the 8th to pick up Corey. It is a house of cards from then on.
A brief recap of the summer's plan. Avi spends three days of Jazz Festival with us in Rochester. On July 7 we head for NYC (actually Jersey City, but what's the difference) and pick up Corey before attending an unveiling for Carol's brother Arthur. After a full Manhattan day with Corey we set off for Cape Cod and a visit with my sister Sandy for 4 days, On our way north we will spend some time in Boston - Freedom Trail with Corey - before putting him on a plane back to his parents. Onward from there to a Ferry from N Sidney NS to Newfoundland and three weeks of touring there before catching a ferry back to NS and begin a drive back to Rochester. Arrival is open. Departure is open, sometime After September 30. That is already too much schedule for our lives!

Returning to today or rather a few days ago, or was it even this year that we were in Central Asia with the very sterile, unoccupied Ashgabad

Where Carol and I sub in as the perfect couple for a Turkmen wedding. She was supposed to be crying because she was leaving her family, in reality she was stifling giggles.

On to Nukus and the famous - in some circles- Stavisky collection of thousands of works of art that were not permitted to surface during the Soviet era.

The only picture I got was these schools kids practicing their English on us as the prepared to tour the exhibits we had just left.

Then we were in Khiva, Uzbekistan, with interesting carpets and many, many columns.

From there we continued on our very comfortable bus to Bukhara. Known to some of us for the famous Bukharan Kepah, one of which I have worn every High Holiday since 1971. Not so uncommon here, actually thousands of them for sale especially at the Silk and Spice Festival which started its three day run coterminous with our planned stay in the quarter. 

Really getting in to baking bread

The bread adhering to the side of the oven

Us looking down into Registans the large courtyard in Bukhara

Can't resist a picture of Thelma, we celebrated her 94th birthday during the trip

A street scene of Mausoleums

Just something a little different, rock crawling outside Bukhara

The tomb of Tamerlane, know in these parts as Amer Timor (Timor the Lame was an appellation of those who hated him)

The Registrans at night lit for tourists

 I will add more pictures later, but dinner time approaches. We returned to the coach to find the electrical system in disarray. The power was out, the refrigerator would not start and the solar system 40 amp fuse was blown, taking with it the fuse holder. A call to a local mobile RV place Athena Caochwork, at 3 PM on a Saturday resulted in the appearance of  tech at 7:45 with parts in hand, based on my description of the failure and one failure code. By 8:30 he was on his way and the refrigerator was busy cooling off! Whew!

The next day the Lodge had its annual car show and I wandered through, still in a jet lag daze viewing Corvettes and Vintage Mustangs and many other interesting cars. Monday as planned we set out for Rochester. Three 350 mile days later here we are in North Tonawanda. We will take the car and head to Rochester mid morning.