I had a good birthday Tuesday. Yes, I am another year older. I am currently in Nashville TN for a few days for work. And after traveling quite a bit for years I was unfortunate enough to have the Airline lose my luggage. Now I am scrambling to get what I need. I now own a new Golf shirt, Golf belt, Golf socks and Golf underwear. I am now even thinking about taking up golf. The cashier at a restaurant asked me a question about golf since I am obviously very knowledgeable about golf based on the money I drop on Golf clothes. I was happy with myself that I didn't freak out at the airline. They can't help it. They gave me a very informative pamphlet about lost luggage and educated me that I was carrying around a type 22D piece of baggage. There was a brief point where they started to point out where *I* made a mistake that lost my luggage, but I pointed out that I did everything in my control. Not that it could possibly be their fault, it did neutralize the discussion.
Central Asia
We are back from our most recent crazy trip. This time it was Central Asia and the "five stans" - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. We made all of our objectives. And we have now been to 104 countries. Angie has 95 and I have 94 countries. Together it is 104. These five countries were packed into 12 days, 7 flights, 2 high speed trains, 1 cable car ride, 1 horse ride, and lots of hours in car trips. They are all Muslim countries, but they are better characterized as former Soviet countries. Russian langauge is a strong second language in all of these countries. There isn't much English spoken in any of them. Angie being fluent in Russian made all the difference and did intrepreting for me as well as a couple of British backpackers we met in Turkmenistan. Tajikistan is the Country with the distinct langauage being a derivitive of Persian with the others being Turkic. Ethnically, Southern Uzbecs are Tajik. Interesting, the spelling of many...
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