Woke up and packed up camp. Decided not to push my bicycle through the heavy underbrush, but rather take the route alongside the farmer's ploughed field.
Walked in the mud for 500m and emerged completely caked with nice rich soil. Spent 20 minutes cleaning out shoes, tires, and drive train. sigh. Rode about 6km until found a cafe, where I ate a big breakfast of schnitzel, potatoes, borscht and bread. 
With the tank filled up, I headed toward Gubkin, which turned out to be the center of a very large iron ore mine. Its importance was immediately obvious because the roads in the area were much newer, flatter and noise reflection boards were placed roadside though the towns. Headed north on a great 4 lane highway with a wide shoulder. Eventually made it into my second political division of Russia - Kurskaya Oblast. Another 20km took me up to the road took me onto the major east-west highway that I will be following 600km all the way to Saratov.The road conditions took a major turn for the worse, with more truck traffic, narrower roads and a frequently disappearing shoulder. Rode for a couple hours not really enjoying the conditions until I reached Voronezh Oblast. Stopped just inside the border to have some delicious shashlik dinner and a beer. I was eating dinner when I saw a late 20ish woman riding a bicycle filled with gear. After a minute later, a late 20ish male came riding up the hill. I ran over and started chatting with them. Interestingly, this Scot-Dutch couple (Chris and Astrid) are riding from Amsterdam to Hong Kong along much of the same route that I am! We sat at the roadside table chatting for about one hour comparing notes on our routes. The sun was beginning to go down, so we decided to head up the road about 10km and we found a really nice campspot in a clearing about 100m off the highway. Had a bit more dinner and chatted for an hour before turning in for the night.
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