27 Jul Russian breakdown
Eastern Ukrainian to the
Russian border, July 24 and on to the Kazakhstan border July 25
Got a good start from the zoo hotel heading toward the Ukrainian border with Russia. Life on board settling to a new normal, with Pietro and Stefano fitting right in with this crazy crowd. It was a quiet day yesterday, but today the weather is better and our spirits are higher.
We stopped for the night after yet another 11 hour day in Luhansk, but only finding two rooms available so the boys slept in the bus while the girls split the available rooms. Well technically all of them slept on the bus, but Pietro actually slept on top, under the stars.
July 25th–leaving Ukraine at last and entering Russia. We were happy to say goodbye to Ukraine, mostly because we felt like our border and police interactions were shakedowns. The $30 spent to get into Ukraine, the police stops, and the feeling of being vulnerable to the omnipresent corruption. However, one of our police stop was legit, at least on the face of it. We’d accidentally left our gas cap off at a fill-up, and as we came around the corner of a roundabout soon after, the police stopped us for the diesel spilling out on the road. We put a plastic bag and zip ties over the top and basically begged him to let us go back and get the cap. He reluctantly agreed, but was still telling us we owed for the spilled diesel. After Don made an apparently illegal u-turn to go back to the station, he stopped us again in an attempt to explain our idiocy. We agreed, but still insisted we needed to get back to the station. He shook his head, three up his arms, and let us go, much to the amusement of his fellow officers.
We returned to the station, relieved that they’d saved our cap, them passed back by the police nervously. Fortunately they just gave us a thumbs-up and shout of “Good Luck” as we went by. I’m sure he wanted money, but we were just too much trouble.
Thankfully there was no more trouble for us after this cop stop, but we did get to spend some quality time in Volgograd looking for Spot
Tracker batteries and some groceries. Knowing we had a long way to go to get to Atryau, we decided to swap out drivers and get as close to Astrakhan as possible. This meant we left our swank hotel at 7:30 and didn’t stop until 3am, pulling to the side of the road for what became known as “prison camp slumber party” time.
Everyone was sleeping and I was dozing a bit when a big truck pulled in behind us, ostensibly to sleep. But, paranoid as I am, I immediately sounded the alarm that an axe murderer was coming for us. This is what I do. But at least everyone jumped when I shouted, even for no good reason.
Sarita and I awoke at 4:30 am and decided to pull a couple of hours drive time while the others slept. Sarita is a machine, and also the navigation Nazi, because she never stops the bus, making see we make good time every day.
We stopped in at the McDonald’s in Astrakhan for a welcome hot breakfast and wifi before the eagerly anticipated floating bridge on the way to the border. Chris climbed up on the roof, Pietro and Stefano ran ahead to capture the bus coming toward them, and the rest of us just enjoyed the novelty of the ride. Everyone cheered and honked at us when we made it to the other side safely.
Nearer the border, thanks to the terrible pothole filled roads, we lost a bracket that held the rear brake caliper. After some searching, we gave up on finding the bracket and Tommy and Don decided to make a new one, after a fashion. Chris flagged down a passing trucker to see if he had a hacksaw we could cut a piece of metal we found, and he did us one better, pulling out a grinder that made short work of the cutting. Don gave him a Team Dixie Chickens shirt as thanks. Once the temporary repair was complete, we set off in search of the bracket further back. Eagle eye Don spotted it a couple of miles back, and reinstalled it for us to be back on the road again.
Our stop at the Russian border was fairly uneventful, except that the final guard asked us for a souvenir. We gave him a Dixie Chicken coozie that clearly did not meet his expectations for a gift!
And then came Kazakstan…not feeling the love.