We took off bright and early from the hotel, picked up Andriy (cool), and were on our way.
Our driver, former Formula 1 International champ Zoryana (well, I made up the F1 International Champ part, but she is one hell of a good driver), took great care of us and made great time. It’s about 300 miles, and we made it in just over 4 hours (you can do the math 😉). Zoryana has driven several of our folks and spent lots of time with LP’ers there, so she knows our crazy sense of humor, and she was able to handle us with ease.
The entire drive, all you could see was beautiful farmland on both sides as far as the eye could see. Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of the world, and it is easy to see why. There are HUGE farms with crops of every kind. It looked a good bit like Pennsylvania, only with less forest and a lot more farmland. It was very green and lush.
Again, there were really no signs of war the whole way. Other than a couple of checkpoints, which only caused a one—or two-minute delay, there was nothing to indicate that this country has been at war for almost two and a half years. Again, it was very normal-seeming.
We had a fun time. Just the 3 of us as Derek went overnight via train, and we will meet him when we get to Odessa in the afternoon. We stopped at a roadside gas station to try one of their famous hot dogs (we call ’em Road Dogs because every roadside gas station has them). They are delicious. They are regular hot dogs. You can get the normal size or the giant size. You can get different kinds, more red to more brownish. You can get them with mustard, ketchup, and mayo. But the coolest thing is, instead of a normal bun, they have this bun that is closed on one end. They put the condiments through the hole in the top of the bun (they hold the road dogs upright, not sideways) and then slide the dog in.
What’s brilliant about this (besides that they taste so frigging good) is that there is no muss/no fuss. You actually hold them in one hand. No spilling. No mess. It’s Brilliant. Not sure why America and the rest of the world do not eat their hot dogs this way (then again, maybe the rest of the world already does, and I am just behind the times). But man, they are good. I’m already thinking about the drive back to Kyiv later this week so we can stop and get another road dog or two 🤪
As you can see, it’s a straight shot south, a bit over 300 miles from Kyiv (blue dot) to Odessa
Luckily for us we had an Ace driver, Zoryana, who made it in a little over 4 hours 👍
I knew Ukraine has always been known as “The breadbasket of the world” and I have traveled a lot, but I have never seen 300 uninterrupted miles of such beautiful farmland. Was a site to see.
300 miles of THIS!!!
And NOTHING beats THIS. A road dog from the local gas station. DEEEEE-licious
Onward!!
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