Arrival in Asaka

Follow-up:
I have absolutely no cell service.  Email is the only way to contact me other than to comment on this blog or via Skype, if you see me there.  I was not able to connect my phone at the plant because the wireless signal is too weak.  The only e-mail account I will see during the day is my GM one.  If the matter is not urgent, I'll get to both my yahoo and wku accounts each evening.

New Business:
We made it today.  As expected we had breakfast and the driver appeared at about 8:10AM.  The trip was about 5 hours.  Tashkent appeared nice and was very colorful.  After we left the city we drove for about 4 hours before we saw anything that wasn't brown, gray or white.  The snow capped mountains were nice but the rest...blah.  There is a great deal of poverty.  I was really humbled by just how fortunate I really am.  Along the way we saw a few interesting things:

1. A street sweeper (woman with a broom).
2. Road crews (men with shovels).
3. Hundreds of men in fur hats.
4. Thousands of cars that all looked alike.
5. Cars with frame structures on them to carry cargo, like furniture, firewood or whatever.
6. Many broken down cars.
7. The number of lanes on the road is variable based on driver interpretation.
8. Lines on the road, if any, are not really used for any purpose.
9. Surprisingly, no accidents.
10. Pipe lines, I suspect natural gas, above ground right next to the road.
11. Housing that all pretty much looks alike.  Corrugated steel roofs, walls of cement or some similar material and a gate or garage size door, with a man door in it.
12. Goats crossing the road.
13. A cow in the road.
14. Many donkeys pulling carts full of wood or straw or whatever.
15. Roads that are in worse repair than the ones in Detroit.
16. AK47s, lots of AK47s.
17. A rest room where everyone uses the same towel.  (I used my jeans thank you).
18. A passport checkpoint in the middle of the country.  (Everywhere you go you must be registered so that the government knows where you are.  If you leave a place for 3 days, you have to register again upon your return.)

Now I am in my room in the cottage.  It is 10x12 with a closet and a bathroom.  Furnishings are a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a desk and chair and a mirror on the wall.  The common area is a large foyer, kitchen and a gathering room with TV and surround sound.  It is now my bedtime as I plan to use the treadmill in the next cottage over before breakfast and off to work.

Thanks for your interest and please don't forget about me!!!