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July 30,
1998
You know, Nikki and I
talk about overpopulated places, logging timber and loosing land to asphalt as we cross
this vast country. Well, not here. Trees as far as you can see. Little
towns of maybe 100 people every few hours. Night flying in Tennessee is with a lot
of those night watchers in the country. I bet flying out here at night is
intimidating. Black as tar. We left Omsk late this morning. We have to
get our fuel out of old military trucks at the aerodromes. Mikey tests the fuel
before they pump it. Checks out good. Seems they ran out on the 2nd AN-2 and
had to go "analyze" some more. We were a couple of hours late, but no
problem. As we fly, we have offers of fuel, food, and "many kisses" from
aerodromes that we pass. Everyone has been fantastic. This is a big event in
Russia. (The 60th anniversary) 4 hours and 10 minutes of flying, gets us to Tomsk.
Met again with flowers and media. Fantastic! Put on a bus to go into
town to the hotel. This time we had a police escort. (Get this), Blue lights
flashing, siren blowing, driving in the middle of the road. People pulling over and
if they didn't, he would get on his loud speaker and holler in Russian, "Stop, Over,
The American Pilots." Right up to the hotel. I wanted to be on the back
of the bus with my cap pulled down. I'm more of a "Bubba Truck" type.
15 minutes of cleaning up and a police escort to the restaurant. When we got
there, the police car turned crossways in the road and blocked traffic. We pulled up
to the door and got out with everyone staring. After a dinner of fish, fish, fish,
and tongue, then caviar, we were tired and started to leave. Now,
you remember what people say about their 15 minutes of
fame? We walked out of the restaurant to an empty street. No cop, no
bus. After a little while, we saw it way down the street. So we walked down
the sidewalk with Nikki and I cracking up. The bus stopped at every red light
instead of being escorted through them and a little old woman standing on the corner tried
to hail us like a city bus. Now, I was comfortable! I wish my laptop was
working because I have some great pictures for the journal.
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