Woke up in the morning to the sounds of rain on the corregated iron roof. Had a breakfast to stall the inevitable bike riding, but at around 1000h decided to get my stuff together and head out on the road.
Rode the first 8km in the pouring rain with a bit of a headwind with a flaky bike computer turning on and off. 
Eventuallly crossed the railroad tracks and headed in a more northerly direction with the wind slowly bending around to become a tailwind. Stopped for coffee at a village cafe and was immediately surrounded by townsfolk wanted to know what I was doing. Chatted for while in German with one of the local belles, while sipping my double Nescafe coffee. The music started shortly thereafter, and i was invited to a dance circle (I performed fairly well!) and then escaped out onto the open road.Headed another 40km or so until I found a cafe for lunch. After eating, the sky had cleared and the air warmed by a nice bit. Rode the last 15km until I saw the Samaraskaya oblast sign, at which I promptly cheered in celebration and then blew out my back tire. Replaced the tube pretty quickly, but naively forgot to check the sidewalls of the tire, thus causing another blowout 500m up the road. Pulled over and got out of the wind, and then changed my tire, tube and fixed a broken spoke all at once. At 1730h I got back onto the highway and with a 40km/h tail wind stared pounding out the kms at roughly 30-35km/h (Anger riding!) Found a motel at 94km, but decided that it was foolish to waste such a good tail wind, so I kept on riding at a fantastic clip until reaching another motel at sundown. Had dinner and chatted with the Azeris and Uzbekis that were running the place, adn then turned in around 100h (time zone change!) for eight hours of sleep..
28 days and nearly 2000kms - not to shabby Jeff!
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