Another Sketchy City
The bulk of the gas stations in Russia appear to be 24 hour for the sole reason that the owner lives there. At one station, the Scamp was scouting a place to park when we hear over the radio,"Oh shit, they've got wolves, oh shit they are trying to eat us" The Scamp sits extremely low and as they rounded the far side of the building we could see this enormous German Shepherd trying to jump through the window.
One of the Russians had his hand out of the window frantically trying to get us to follow. I was sure that some sort of weapon would be brandished shortly. They all hopped from the car and surrounded Dom and I.
We were rejected from two stations and opted to keep moving. Soon the convoy had pulled over at what appeared to be a safe quiet spot. Within seconds people came out of the shadows and engulfed the General. Mind you, this is Russia, on a Saturday night past midnight, needless to say these guys were wasted. Somehow it was decided that we would follow the drunks in their Lada to a hotel. Everyone in the convoy was pretty sketched out by the prospects. We figured so long as we were on a main street we would be fine. When the Lada turned down an ominous looking dark alley, we halted. The Lada came screaming back us in reverse and the tinted black windows were rolled down about 4 inches. One of the Russians had his hand out of the window frantically trying to get us to follow. I was sure that some sort of weapon would be brandished shortly. They all hopped from the car and surrounded Dom and I. We politely thank them continuously until they left us alone.
We drove around the city for another hour lost as you could ever be. Every time we would stop, people would appear from nowhere and lurk about as we discussed our plan. On a couple of occasions cars purposely followed us around. Finally we were clear of anyone and found a farmer's field to sleep in.
We are currently on our way to the Kazakhstan border, if the roads are solid we should be there by late tonight.
Seth