2013.07..28 — Sunday — Hit the road out of Odessa at 8:30 AM. Per usual we lost ourselves a bit leaving the city, but ended up taking a pretty direct route. There were lots of game-time decisions when we encountered unexpected one-ways. A large, loud pack of dogs viciously attacked Jon Hay, who barely escaped with her life. We drove all day and hit every type of road imaginable. Including a stretch which was perhaps the nicest of the entire trip. But mostly the roads were much poorer. We moved West-to-East through Ukraine at a pretty reasonable pace. The roads were driving at 60+ mph, but the ride was bumpy as hell. Lots of patchwork on the asphalt, and it was impossible to gauge how fast to take the approaching patterns on the road. But the road was extremely straight, and you could see forever in every direction. Passing was a breeze (though we were usually the ones being passed). Endless fields of sunflowers. Just fields everywhere. We stopped for gas in Eastern Ukraine to discover that we did not have our rear bumper or our front-left hubcap. These were casualties of the road, and it had been rough for so long that we weren’t going to go back and look. Everybody we encountered working the gas pumps in the Ukraine was super friendly and full of smiles. This one was very amused by the state of our car. Jon Hay looks so weird without her bumper.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant nearby. We were the only ones there. The food we ordered took a very long time to make its way out to us. Portions pretty small per usual. A man entered the establishment while we were eating and eventually pieced together enough English to get through to us: He had Jon Hay’s bumper! I followed him outside and across the road to a  semi truck. His trailer was open on the top and he climbed up and in and reemerged with a piece of Jon Hay. Lots of the pins had broken, so we did what any good mechanic would do — duct tape. As of press time the bumper is still intact.

Jon Hay with and her recovered bumper. Matt was also there.

We decided to turn North and stay in the Ukraine as long as possible in order to optimize daylight driving — thought it would be a waste to spend our remaining hours waiting at Russian border. We spent the first bit on some winding two-lane road stuck behind a long line of slow moving vehicles. Despite the solid line, Ian effected a 10-car pass, getting to that 10th car right at the point where the cops flagged us down. All wasted. Little nervous that we failed to acquire auto insurance at the border. But the officers couldn’t speak any english and released us almost immediately. They briefly examined Ian’s passport and Washington State driver’s license and we were off again. We got onto some faster roads, and then some much slower roads. During this transition we found a huge grocery store and tried to turn in for supplies. But as we drove down the road we encountered two cars stopped in the road, their former inhabitants brawling on the roadside. One found a large stick and was using it without reservation. So we threw Jon Hay in reverse; this was not the supermarket for us.

For most of the rest of the night our drive west of was on poorly-marked roads in disrepair. In the dark. And with way more road options than indicated on our maps we were not always sure of our route. But we knew the overall directions, and compass in-hand we made all the right moves. There were some stretches of potholes that we had to take in first gear. Similar to the Ukrainian roads near the Moldova border. At one point a probably-intoxicated man came out of the dark while we were basically stopped. He was pretending to throw his bottles at us. He went through the motions but held fast to the bottles, spraying Jon Hay with their contents. We soon made it back to a real town and roads improved. We stopped at a gas station and for some food and water and set out to find a campsite nearer the Russian border. It was time to sleep. We pulled off down a little farm road and tucked Jon Hay into the weeds. We set our tent up right next her and ate our victuals.

Jon Hay posted up next to some sunflowers.