Nice to be back on the road again! First night camping and I discovered that I had a one person “hubba” tent instead of the two person “hubba hubba” model. Not quite sure how that happened but the hubba works fine for now.

Last night I tossed and turned some with excitement about the trip. I had breakfast and thanked my host family before departing. Roads were becoming busy but I went via Nevsky Prospect and took a brief look at the artillery marker. Mickey was ready with bicycle, but unfortunately hadn’t slept well for another reason. A bottom front tooth had become loose and inflamed? What to do now? Dentistry options worsened from here, so we set off across the city to find a solution. Fortunately, we found the “American Clinic” and they could take care of things at noon. By 1pm we were back on the road, but needed to keep it easy at first, so walked southbound from Sennaya Plochad they way I had ridden before.

Before 2pm we found a McDonalds (last one for a while) for a brief lunch stop and then headed on bicycles southbound. At 11km was Moscow Metro station and a turn to the east. I reset my odometer at the dentist. The eastbound road was quite busy and occasionally narrow so we walked at times. I walked across the bridge across the railroad tracks. Finally at 25km, the road became the M18 motorway. It was a busy road, but smooth and flat and we had a tailwind! We made some good time and at 53km crossed over the Neva River for the second time. We cycled from there to Шлиссельбург before finding a camp site off the main road. This area had many weekend Dachas and we had company close by. It is still nice to have some distance today and especially nice to be on the road again.

64km today, 2562 km across Eurasia [Photo: 527 529]