To the seas start — logbook Toyota 4Runner, 2001

Let's get started.
First, dry statistics.
The distance traveled is 4964 km from the parking lot in Moscow to it.
The amount of fuel consumed (92nd gasoline) - 665 liters
.

Let's go chtoli on the sly) I'll probably only describe the road part of the route.
The first point is Saratov. We went there for two reasons. My sister lives there, and the second is that we should change the steering tips / rods / silent blocks of the lower levers there (it was much cheaper there than in Moscow).
In the Ryazan region, the valiant representatives of the traffic police punished us a little. Departure to the oncoming lane (I did not have time to complete overtaking the bus). In short, they fought back for a long time, but after hearing the deadly argument “you will drive Vorobyovs in your black jeeps, and not here,” everything became clear - the consensus will be measured by a figure somewhat different from the one I would estimate this employee)) Total 2000 rubles . It was the first and only "fine" for the entire journey, by the way. Having paid for the services of a “pleasant” interlocutor, we went further. The road, frankly, is not a fountain there. Bituminous puffs 10-15 centimeters high, the roadside in asphalt "wrinkles" ... and there are a lot of such areas. In Saratov the next day we went to the service. It turned out that it would not be possible to fish out the breakup bolts, therefore it was not possible to replace the silent blocks. Everything else has been replaced
On the way from Saratov to the Volgograd region, we met an “imported” cyclist on a ligerade (recumbent bike) with a trailer. Welcoming him in every possible way with gestures and buzzes, we went on. Once at the age of 16, it was along this road that I also began my cycling experience, having overcome 230 km to Saratov in a day, so this meeting was especially pleasant for me)
We reached Volgograd without incident. The road from Mikhailovka to the city is good.
We arrived in Volgograd late at night and went to Mamaev Kurgan to show my wife the Motherland. Who else has never been there, be sure to visit, a majestic creation.
I definitely did not want to spend the night in Volgorad, so we moved on to Salsk, having a little nap at the exit from the city.
The goal was simple and unpretentious - in the evening to go to the sea in the Tuapse region.
The road to the fork in Tikhoretsk is not bad, although it used to be, to put it mildly, not very good.
On the way we again meet cyclists on Soviet bikes a la Sura/Vela. With St. Andrew's flag. A couple of years in their 40s and 50s. We drove from St. Petersburg to Novorossiysk. Of course you can fuck, well done.
At the fork we were stopped for the first time to check documents. The man in uniform carefully studied all the documents, since, according to him, he had never seen such a machine. Then he raises his head up and carefully looks at the trunk, sees a shovel and smashes my brain to smithereens:
— Ichthyologists?
"We?! Why is that?" We haven't been called that yet
- Well, why not? Since you are carrying a shovel, it means ichthyologists.
After a couple of seconds, it dawned on me that the man clearly showed off his erudition, but missed the definition a little. Barely holding back laughter, I take away the documents, close the windows and. The dream was taken away by hand because laughter invigorates furiously))) I regretted that I didn’t tell him that we were some kind of “Ureoplasmologists”)) I can imagine how he stopped the next tourists with a shovel on the roof would tell them:
-Ureoplasmologists?
-What?!
- yes, yours passed here recently, also with shovels.
))))
Ha-ha and ha-ha. As a result, we miss our turn and by the will of fate we leave a little in the wrong direction, namely in the direction of Armavir. Well, if so, then we will slow down in Maykop. It's just not far from Lago-Naki. Lago-Naki, as always, pleasantly pleases the eye with its beauty and views.

They don't let you upstairs by car, you have to leave it downstairs. On the "alpine meadows" they carry UAZs of all stripes.
Galloping across Europe, we quickly ran further.
The navigator insistently tells us to go through the Hot Key. But the map says that you can go directly through the Shahumyan pass, because it is almost 100 km shorter. It started raining quite hard. By the way, already from Maykop, all the crossed rivers that flow from the mountains were just streams of mud, which indicated not very good weather in the mountains. Okay, let's go straight ahead. The pass is nothing complicated, only there is no asphalt at all on top, there is a grader. and in the rain the road is dotted with streams/brooks of various sizes. Pleased with the abundance of absolutely blind closed turns) you won’t fall asleep at the wheel. We even met two trucks at the pass)) There was low cloudiness at the top. In some places, the road had already been washed away a little earlier, but everyone had already fenced off. In short, there we fucked up in some unknown way, completely dirty, in the incessant rain, almost at night we reached the Black Sea. to Tuapse.
Further overnight at the hotel. In the afternoon, they carefully tried to separate us for stopping at a railway crossing in the city. They have such a joke) of the 6 cars that stopped behind the stop line, only I was pulled out, because I have numbers with beautiful letters 199 in the “region” section. In short, as always. Not getting enough sleep, not yet having breakfast, I was not in the mood for a romantic dialogue.
I am not me, the cow is not mine. completed the maneuver. There is no traffic light timer. And why didn’t he stop the rest and other attacks helped. Even on the way to the car, in order to draw up a protocol on the seizure, they returned my documents to me, saying that “it’s better not to have anything to do with Muscovites like me at all.” Well, I didn’t get upset at all, although I was a little offended, I’m good))
And then, having bought a local map, we climbed a little into the mountains. I’ll probably talk about this in the second part ...