Ready to Ride

Well, the preliminaries are over the procrastination is about to be and the pedals are about to turn. The bike came out of its suitcase and was resurrected smoothly. Only missing a tiny magnet. Alas, that means no distance calculator, but I can live
with that.

My only concerns are where I will sleep each night. There are towns and hotels, but I would prefer to camp if I could find the right place.

I wrote a lot on my 3 day train ride from Moscow to here, but you will have to wait til the book comes out...
Hours and hours later.
Well, my planned 50km day turned into 95 as I never found a place I felt comfortable camping alone. Every river access point was someone could see me go down the road, and the stealthy looking places had too many bugs and not enough water. I ate 2 dollars worth of strawberries and continued riding on to the town with the hotel. Which of course was 5kms behind a headwind and then just a little further down the road into the midst of the tourist town and and two hungry hours. Later I found out they wanted$ 55 for the room! "It's a big room," they said. "I'm not a big person," I answered. "You can fit a lot of people," they said. "I am only one person," I answered. I asked if they had any 10-20$ rooms. They said no, bit I am in one Noe. The town sherriff and two of his friends overheard the commotion and saw my stressed and hungry eyes watering. Next thing you know, they gifted me this room. Which I know is more like a 39$ room. I socialized with them (cognac, not bad) over my dinner (borscht, bread and fries-pretty good). And now I must find a butilka of water and hydrate. Only difficulty tomorrow will be figuring out my sleeping arrangements again. I hope its not off and on rain again tomorrow. I'd prefer it off