August 20, 2015 Yarovoe to Novosibirsk

Today we rode 396 km (248 miles ) to Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia. It is located on the banks of the Ob River.  The Novosibirsk Hydro Electric plant was built next to the river on the outskirts of the city.

Our morning started with a short motorcycle ride to the nearby restaurant we walked to last night.  (It’s uncomfortable walking any distance in our padded Kevlar gear and boots).  The restaurant, is not normally open in the morning, but agreed to serve us breakfast.  Everyone had porridge with butter, fried eggs and sausage and a choice of boiled or instant coffee.  A good start to the day.

We returned to the hotel and decided to hold the morning briefing in the middle of the road, occasionally moving for traffic.

Since the only suggested stops were by the roadside, or at today's destination, Dave and Boz decided to set out at a quicker pace.

...the potholes slowed us down a bit (but only a little).

The cars gave up even driving on the road.

Most of the towns we went by seemed to have an abundance of abandoned buildings.  The ones that did show activity had black smoke spewing from stacks.

The last couple of days, we’ve seen lots of people sitting by the side of the road with produce for sale.  This one had watermelons and honey.

We stopped at a nice café about 11am.  Note the potatoes for sale.  While we only had coffee and juice, the food inside looked good. 

After a couple of sips of coffee, I noticed the brick walls didn’t look quite right.  Whoever covered the metal, did a great job.

These guys were quite interested in the motorcycles.

Refreshed after our half hour stop, we headed back out into Siberia.  There’s still a whole lot of nothing.

Wow!  They actually fill in some of the pot holes.

As we’ve gone further north, we’ve noticed more aspen-like trees and pines.

On the road today, we saw the evidence of timber harvest…

…and more loose livestock.

Not far from our destination is a little town of Maslyakha…

…sitting by the Novosibirsk Reservoir. 

The roadside of this small town was lined with small stands selling produce, honey and dried fish caught in the reservoir.

Since we reentered Russia, we’ve noticed more Orthodox churches.  These two were about 20km apart.

We were having a nice run down the road, sometimes passing other passing vehicles (Boz, what's with that double pass up there?) when…

 …Yep.  Boz is pulled over by the police again.  I couldn’t get a good shot without being noticed because there were two – look in the side mirror.  The officer was so excited about Boz being from California, he called his partner over.  Boz then had to explain our whole trip using the map on the outside of our side case.

 We knew we were getting close to Novosibirsk when the traffic, especially truck traffic, picked up. 

Soon we were in the thick of it.

There is a veil of smog over the Ob River and the city…

But modern buildings and new construction give the city a sense of vitality.  I think they’ve finally broken free of the brutalist architecture of the Soviet era.

We managed to pose the motorcycle and ourselves in front of the Lenin Statue at the Opera House without being confronted by the police.

A car with an exclaimation point on the rear window means that the driver of this car has been licensed for less than a year.  Beware!

 David had a hankering for good ole American fast food.   So we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch.

Quarter pounders and French fries.  Mmmmmmmm good.

We checked into our e-mail accounts while eating lunch.  We got the best news ever!  Tiny little amazing Emma...

has decided she wants to go home!  After a 10 day roller coaster of emotions, we finally cried tears of joy, sitting in a McDonalds in Novosibirsk, Russia.  Amazing Emma.

Next stop was the Nordic Castle.  And look – our van and baggage.  Thank you Mike for delivering our luggage.

I know I said in a previous blog that dinner service is slow everywhere we been, but last night was unimaginable bad.  After two hours, at least three quarters of the table still had not received their entrée.  We gave up and left for bed without eating (we did have bread and appetizers, and some wine, but no main course for me - they were coming out about one every ten minutes).

Our run of bad luck did not end there.  The air conditioning in the room did not work.  Not only was it not working, but it was dripping water onto a corner of the bed.  Ugh.  We turned it off, put a towel under it and cuddled up on the other side.  Tomorrow will be another fun day of riding in Siberia, to the town of Tomsk!