Back in Romny

We started the day today at 4:45, caught a taxi at 5:30, and on the bus and headed out of Odessa by 6:00 am.  Our play time with the Martins is over.  We were scheduled to arrive in Kiev at 12:30 pm, but we got there an hour early, so we went next door to the (believe it or not!) McDonalds, and had lunch.  Stas arrived around 12:30, and we started on our way to Romny.  Stas hates traffic, so he is constantly trying short-cuts to go around it.  On today's shortcuts, we went through several deep puddles, that we could feel hitting the bottom of the car, had to loop around and go back once, and essentially found ourselves going the wrong way on a one way street, and so had to turn around in heavy traffic.  But we made it to the outskirts of Kiev, and from then on, it was the pedal to the metal. I've described this before, but the worst time for me today, was during light rain, so the pavement was wet, going (flying) around a blind curve, in the wrong lane.  I peaked over Stas' shoulder and we were doing 160 km/hr, which is right at 100 mph.  I was praying hard for my soon to be orphaned children.  Amazingly, we made it to Romny safely, bought some groceries, walked up and got Julia for a little while, and then had a light supper.  So a little over 9 hours of travel today.

Here are a few leftovers from Odessa.  This is an Orthodox Church that has been rebuilt in the last 15 years.  It was only a hole in the ground when the Martins first arrived in Odessa.

Jill humored me by taking me to the beach so I could stand in the Black Sea.