Day 32, May 29 - Dimitrovgrad - Ulyanovsk

90km - 2262km, sunny, 26C, slight headwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 1 lenin, Hotel (2 broken spokes)

Packed up the campsite and headed back on the road. Passed through Dimitrovgrad, a supposedly pretty, but somewhat drab town. Couldn't find a cafe serving breakfast, so I though I would push on. Reached the next town 15km on and realized that I now had two more broken spokes. Stopped and grabbed a coffee and ripped apart my wheel and put spokes in. Sadly, I don't have a truing stand and the 20 minutes i spent balancing the back wheel helped a little, but didn't solve the problem. I decided to push on to Ulyanovsk where I could get someone a more professional (and with the proper tools!) to fix it up.

I still hadn't had much to eat, and was feeling the effects of the heat and lack of nutrients. Reached a town about 25km short of my destination that had an outdoor cafe. stopped for an 1.5 hours and had a delicious breakfast/lunch of okruska (cold soup) and some meat with a sauce served <>. Rode the last 18km to the bridge over the Volga, where I was informed that bicycles were not allowed on the bridge. I eventually found a taxi that would take me across, and we found the Hotel Europa somewhere near where I had written down an address of a hotel. Got a room for a couple of nights, had dinner and a few beers, and drifted off to sleep fairly early.