The flights were un eventful. All smooth and all on time. It was impressive that we could travel half way around the world, and clear the customs in Canada with in 6 minutes of when expected. The only hitch was at each stop, it was necessary for us to "teach" the airline staff their job. They all wanted extra baggage charges, but being calm and firm seemed to do the trick. I did loose one fight, more because I was tired then anything. I noticed that they had water in the duty free shop in Bishkek, so I bought 6 bottles for the Moscow airport. but when we got to Moscow they said that we could not have them. When I pointed out that if they had been large bottles of Vodka like the other passengers were caring , they would not have a problem... but that just brought on a whole bunch of shouting by her , so I realized this was going no where, so when she said that we could have one each, it seemed like a not bad compromise... But i am sure I could have won that one if I tried harder. Delta admitted that Aeroflot should have checked our bags to Canada, and they should be free, but since Aeroflot refused, then they would charge $35 per bag. But they soon learned the errors of their ways, and we were on our way.
We arrived home to a major storm that has knocked out power to most of our area. It was just 3:00 this morning that we got power back.. that meant that we had no Internet, no water , and now lights... But it did give us a good excuse to sleep..
Today we are dealing with a few issues..the big one is our van.. We are please that it is hanging on for us, but we know it will not last long.. it has around 300 000 km, and the body is falling apart.. last summer I got a few cans of that foam insulation and sprayed it into all the holes. then when it dried , I cut off the access and sprayed it with spraypaint... from a distance it did not look to bad. But now things are a little worse. It sounds a bomb ready to explode.. or like a swing machine with a bent needle. Then there is the muffler, and the heating system that will not seem to shut off. I was in to town to get a price to fix the engine, and figured that $2500 was about twice what the car is worth. I have a friend that has a car lot. He has offered a real deal on the same van, two years newer, and half the millage, and the body in good shape. It looks like it will be $1000 down and another $1500 to pay off as we can. We have a lot of traveling to do over the next couple months, so we will have to bite the bullet and go for it.
It was great to see Benjamin and Rachel, and of course Jonah. We went for a visit last night. Bekah has been looking for a Summer job, and it is looking like she will move to Ben and Rachel's and be a nanny for them for the summer so that they can pick up some extra shifts. So its looking like it will be down to just Julie and I for the summer..
We are going to take it easy for the weekend, then I have to start working on reports for the last few months... Already have been in touch with many of our sponsors, but need to do some reports, and prepare presintations. We also have a few new projects that we are very excited about, so stay tuned.
Over the next week, I will be sorting photo's. There are a lot of cool stories that we simply did not have time to share so we will play a little catch up.
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