Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

This segment of our journey is fast drawing to a close. In less than a month, we will board a plane to fly back to the United States so our mothers can see their grandchildren.

So far, we have toured the US (with a brief stint in Canada) by car, cruised the coast of Alaska, stopped by Shanghai, explored Siberia by train, camped in the expanses of Mongolia, toured through China–including Beijing during their 70th-anniversary party and training at the Shaolin Temple.

Last week we started tracing the Silk Road, beginning in Xi’an, which is famous for the Terra-cotta Warriors of the First Emperor of China. We are now in Turpan, Xinjiang, China, in the northwest corner of the country, near Urumqi. From here we will travel to Kashgar by train. We heard a rumor that there is a bus we can take from there over the mountains in Kyrgyzstan, though it is possible you have to get off and walk across the border on foot. We’ll see when we get there.

If all goes well, we will continue from there into Kazakhstan, to Uzbekistan, back into Russia, and eventually to Moscow to catch that return flight to Washington DC. After a visit, we head off to Oceania—Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, etc!

Wish us luck!