Had a couple coffees and chatted with Katarina in the morning, worked a little bit more on their jig-saw puzzle (it's been a long time since i have done that!), packed up my bags, and was on the road by 1100h. Found the Vyatka highway, which to my surprise was fantastically surfaced with a six foot 'bicycle lane', and headed south through the pine forests and swamps of eastern Mari El.
Would have stopped for a few breaks during the first 55km, but the size of the horse/deer flies truly scared me so I continued on. 
Reached the corner turn about 1330h (averaging 25km/h) and stopped for my typical meat cutlet, cabbage salad, and mashed potato lunch.Continued on toward Cheboksary over a road that alternated between being scrapped clean for resurfacing and freshly tarred (you can imagine how excited i was for that..). Eventually entered the Chuvash Republic and crossed over to the right bank of the Volga. Headed into town to meet up with Mike (my HC host for two days) at the local mall. We piled all my stuff into the back of his car and headed for his flat. After a quick shower, we jumped back into his car and headed out into the countryside to the birthday party of Mike's work colleague at her family's village house (in the interestingly named town of yungapusi - my transliteration).
Chatted with the 12 other guests while drinking Chuvash beer and eating salads and delicious shashlik. At some point the vodka was brought out and the menfolk started getting into it with the inevitable toasting. Had a good time, but by 2300h I was pretty tired and so found the hammock - after which there was no moving me until i awoke at 330h, chilled, wrapped in a modest blanket. Headed into the house to be awoken at 500h so Mike could drive back to town for his operation that morning.
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