I was able to do some pretty cool stuff before leaving the tech center. Nothing I can talk about but believe me, it was cool! I headed to DTW at 4:00PM. I made it to National Car Rental at 5:10 PM, with a full tank of gas. I piled onto the bus and headed for Delta check in. There was a problem with one of my bags. It was too heavy. Seventy pounds is the max. I had to relocate 10 pounds from my big suitcase to my garment bag. It is really suffering.
The flight was delayed due to a water issue. The countermeasure was to use bottled water and make the sinks, in the bathrooms, out of order. They put hand purifier lotion in each. We had a snack in the Delta Sky Club, while we waited. They got us going about 30 minutes late. The only real deal with the water was the coffee makers would not work. That was a bummer!
We made it to Frankfort and rushed to catch the Uzbekistan Airways flight. We found our way and got there in time. When I gave my passport to the lady to get my boarding pass, the information page had gotten ripped. I don't know if it happened during the big shuffle in Detroit or where. She called someone and cleared me to get on the plane. She had me put my carry on bag on the scale. Then she put a yellow band on it to indicate it was approved. She leaned over and told me quietly, do not put anything more in it, the maximum weight for carry on luggage on Uzbekistan Airways is 5 KG. The scale clearly said 8.8. I said thanks and moved along.
The plane was a Boeing 767, very similar to the Delta plane that brought us to Frankfort. The seats were a little older model. No personal screens with a near infinite choice of entertainment. Just ear buds, the movie and a few music stations. Just like the old days. The flight was pleasant. Some of the food strange but mostly tasty. When we arrived at the Tashkent Airport, they moved a giant staircase up to the door of this jumbo jet and we walked down the staircase, onto the tarmac. An airport worker took our baggage claims and we headed for Passport Control, on a bus. There was no issue at all with the rip. I was worried. Our luggage took forever to come into the building. Then we cleared customs. The agent thought I must be bringing statins to sell. I promised him that all of the medicine I had was for me. He made me write that on the declaration and sign it.
Just as we were released from Customs, a guy walked in and looked at us and said "General Motors?" That was good enough for us. We piled our luggage into a little car and headed to the Intercontinental Hotel. The driver was pulled over once on the way there. All he did was show the police officer a document and told him we were Americans. The cop let us go. Then the driver pulled up to the Dedeman Hotel. We told him that our reservation was at the Intercontinental Hotel. A bunch of them discussed and one who spoke English came and told us that all GMUZ people stay here. The rate is better and this is where the driver would be retrieving us in the morning. What the heck were we going to do. We checked in.
When we finally got in touch with Am Ex, they said we would probably be charged for both hotels. Oh well, I have a room, I've made a WiFi connection and now I am going to bed. Breakfast at 7:00 and a driver to Asaka at 8:00. What a trip!
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