The Silk Road

We left the hotel at 9:00 to visit a silk factory. The process that they use to produce the silk and find the beginning of the thread is really interesting. The silk worm only lives about 25 days and eats only mulberry leaves. When the cocoons are gathered, the worm inside is killed and they put several cocoons in water and stir it with a stick quickly. The beginning of the thread naturally clings to stick and they've found the beginning. Eight strands are twisted together to produce a thread that is used to create the fabric.

The shop had many articles to sell. Silk everything. I bought a duvet cover - it is beautiful and silk comforter (I think this is my one and only major purchase on the trip). Ward bought a dragon kite - it's pretty neat and several ties, one for John. Paige I bought you a silk scarf. I hope you like it.

The rest of the day was mainly travel. We left the factory to go to Shanghai airport. The morning started a little rough. Mom had a problem with her hip that made it difficult to walk. We ended up getting a wheelchair for her through the airport. She is feeling better now. We're glad that we decided to go with them as they definitely could not have made this trip themselves. We're especially glad that we decided on backpacks (John, mine is working out perfectly, thank you) for us and nothing else as this gave us free hands to help carry their stuff.

We flew for about 1 1/2 hours to reach our boat, the Katerina. There were several other tour groups that joined us. Most everyone was in bed by 10:00, exhausted. Early this morning at 5:30 the boat left for the Three Gorges. We're pretty sure that there won't be any 8 hours of sleep at one time on the entire trip!

Just a small note to anyone reading this---to date TERRI has done all the blogging- supposedly because I type faster - Hah! How did I know this would happen?

Ward asked me to mention that we won't be able to publish any pictures until we reach a hotel that has internet service. Coming soon!