Lodo Grdzak's Russian Intermission* (*Double-click on Pics for Full-view):

"...they kept staring at Coburn, curious about his injury."

Coburn (left); the Dallas Beauty Queen (right); Rules (head on table) in Moscow:

Rules (left); Coburn (center); and the Dallas Beauty Queen (right) in Moscow:

The Russia I saw a few years back had old cities and poor roads. Their economy was in the dumps and the population struck me as conflicted about capitalism and rather defeated overall. Vodka is sold in action-type; on-the-go bottles normally reserved for water or Gatorade here in the States; and damaged cars or remnants of accidents were a common site on the road.

From Moscow to Novgorod is 304 miles; but it took us all day and a good part of the night to make it by bus. Despite Novgorod being the oldest city in Europe* (*might want to fact-check that), the road between it and Moscow was just two lanes--one in each direction. We had a long intermission between destinations, exacerbated by the fact that the women in our tour group didn’t gel. They stared at my friend Coburn and whispered to themselves, curious about his injury and perhaps even concerned; yet too timid to ask what had happened.

But eventually one woman worked up the nerve.

“Your friend? He’s gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I answered.

“He should probably go see a doctor don’t you think?”

Coburn didn’t want to talk about it. None of us wanted to talk about it. I quickly closed my eyes and cranked my Ipod. Rules and the Dallas Beauty Queen began to sketch. Coburn turned away from us all. Looked out the bus window at the passing wooden houses, where perhaps he sought solace in anonymous, simple tenants. Who liked their roads inefficient. Their vodka strong. And their secrets left buried, like old Tsars and regimes.