We rose early in order to check our room dimensions email from Helen and head to the rug shop on the way out of town.  Sure enough, the rug we liked best seems to fit, so we finished the deal, grabbed a mocha for the road for Phyllis, and left Goreme behind.  The rug, once folded into a bag for transport, sure seemed a lot heavier than the 24 pounds we were expecting (easy enough to carry around on trains and planes henceforth, right?) and when we reached the car and checked with our digital scale, we were not pleased to see the number “44” in show up.  This will be a bit more difficult than we expected, but we’re not sure we would have done anything differently.  Shipping is pricey, and lacks the reassuring certainty of having it with you and thus ending up with the same rug you purchased.  But Craig’s back will pay a different price, for sure.

Onward…  We headed back along the same route as before as far as Konya, where we diverged more directly westward rather than south towards the sea.  Among other things, we stopped at the same gas station near the caravanserai and were happily recognized by our same friends (it’s not that either Craig or Phyllis is so memorable, but our combination of radical height difference often gets attention).  After a fill up and a little more conversation, and an equally useful gift this time of cold bottled water for the road, we were on our way to Egidir for the night.  Further down the road, Konya was just as smoggy as it had been on our first time.  The road past Konya was a little slower than the uphill route we took from the coast, but we still arrived well before dark.  The drive was pretty and we drove along several large lakes.

We had decided to spend two nights in Ali’s Pansiyon so we could have an unrushed day to visit the nearby ruins at Sagalossos.  (Yes, there are a few more ruins in store for Craig.)  Plus, we were able to arrange for some laundry to be done by our host, things like blue jeans that Phyllis just can’t handle too well in bathroom sinks.  Egidir itself is a very small town, and was still pretty quiet as it is not quite tourist season here yet.  We had an over-priced (for pre-tourist season anyway) beer at a waterfront café, but opted for dinner cooked by our host, which was an excellent fresh fish from the surrounding lake.