Kazan, Siberia, Russia! Time to head east, towards Ekaterinburg. Natassia took off first, then Costanza in the support plane (Nikki didn’t fly with him today) then the Maule. This works better. I’m telling you,m the land here is beautiful. Do you know the difference in an Ag-Pilots heaven and his Hell? When he dies, he goes to a field 100 feet by 5 miles. In heaven, he flies it where he has 5 mile runs. In Hell, he flies it cross-ways with 100 foot runs. Well, western Siberia is an Ag-Pilots heaven. Huge fields, no obstacles, beautiful farm land. We were told that farming is just now starting to progress. Slowly but surely. Nikki and Natassia have a plane full of people. Khalide and I are alone. But Rafael makes sure we have everything we need before we leave. Sweets, mineral water, cokes, toilet? He calls us from the AN-2 and offers coffee. 4 1/2 hours after Kazan, we land at Ekaterinburg, to another band, flowers, and TV crews. Another bus picks us up and takes us to a building that we thought was our hotel. When we picked our stuff up, Valery said “down, down, no hotel”. We never know where we are going. We walked into the Ekaterinburg Friendship House. About 20 people were lined up waiting. When we stepped into the door, a woman started playing an accordion and everyone was singing. Of course then there was dancing. Nikki was dancing with a 4 1/2 foot tall red headed 70 year old woman. You should have seen Natassia and I. We looked pretty pitiful. Then up 2 flights of stairs for a reception. We received gifts from the women and I’m telling you now, I have never never had so much lipstick on my face. Not even from those old family reunions my Mother made me go to when I was young. Pretty amazing, the reception we have been getting across Russia. When we finally got through all the translated speeches, we got on the bus for a sightseeing ride. Well, it was cut short when a woman opened the door of her Hyundai, and the bus took it off. The translator was saying “very very expensive automobile”. They stuck us on another bus and whisked us off to our hotel. Another day in paradise…..
