Kim & Len's Greatest Adventure ..(Yet): Day #20: Samara REST DAY

16JUN13:

“Hello..We find ourselves in Samara, central Russian city on the Volga, a massive river used as a transportation way all the way to the Black Sea. Today is a day off, everybody is cleaned up, smiling and looking good, some have a day of rest, some have a day of work, many of the competitors have parts and mechanics being flown in for repairs and repairing anybody that can rejoin us has. It is truly amazing to to hear the stories of endless days and nights sleeping under trucks and bumping along for days on end just to rejoin the party. We have been lucky, our fat old girl has stood her ground and managed to arrive here instyle and shining. We have been feeding her 95 gas regularly and when available 98, she's smiling most of the time, particularly after we gave her a bath yesterday. Our travels from Tyumen took us through the countryside of rolling hills and remains of the collective farms and villages onto Irbit where there was quite a good small motorcycle museum, again interviewed for Russian television. Had a great lunch, Russian style and off to Ekaterinburg, arriving to the best hotel yet, a brand new Hyatt. A television interview, many people and Kim's fan club were all awaiting us as we got there. The patio bar, a visit to the church of Blood, a great dinner, plenty of beverage and off to bed. We left Ekaterinburg under the treat of rain for a drive through the Ural Mountains onto Ufa. Encountered a few wedding parties at one of the passage controls only to be more photographed than ever with the bride and groom getting all kinds of pictures with the cars, it was truly hilarious. Onto Ufa, the last part of the day being a long slow trundle amongst an army of endless Trucks arriving somewhat tired. An older hotel amongst the trees, Friday night, the whole group having recovered and regrouped from the tragedy, a simply wonderful bar, look out what a party. Now onto Samara, a beautiful drive through the rolling hills and farms on a sunny warm day. Samara is a real paradox of the old way and the new way. Once a closed city because the Russian space program is based here, you can really see the struggle of the young trying to move on and the old trying to hang onto the way it was. We went for traditional Russian last night in the old part of town down along the Volga. Lots of laughs and good stories amongst new found friends. The hotel here is quite nice, upon arrival there was a full fledged wedding going on right in the lobby, what a spectacle, however the hotel was poorly prepared for all this and checking was chaotic. Today I sit here in my chair writing this note amongst all the teams doing maintenance and every 20 seconds one of them giving me a hard time because I am sitting on my ass and not getting dirty, as they all are. Administration has it's finer points. This afternoon we are trying to organize a boat ride on the Volga and we will take it from there. It' Sunday here and a nice warm sunny day with the locals mingling amongst us shooting pictures and smiling at all the goofiness and joking about that is happening as I am sitting here writing this. Bye for now, Love to all, talk at you soon.”

-Kim & Len

Brian&Chantel patching up their car