Auto Show

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I spent the day in Moscow with my boss at the auto show. Mesha was right on time this morning at 9:30 as I asked him, but at 10:00 my boss is calling wanting to know where we were and seemed all upset that it would be close to 11 by the time we got to Moscow. I did not plan for any traffic and there was none and we arrived just as I planned (10:30) because we had agreed upon some time between 10 and 11, but I guess it was suppose to be closer to 10 so he tells me his driver who speaks both Russian and English wants to talk to my driver. They talk a little bit and pick a different place to meet. Being here in Russia I do not know why it surprised me, but it did, we met on the INTERSTATE! Yes, they were pulled off the side, sort of the side and we pull in front so I jump out of my car and get in their car along the side of the interstate! I know, not the safest thing in the world but was not sure what else I was suppose to do.

We get to the show and it is packed. Again, some not so wonderful planning by the Russians. There is only one entrance and it is from the north to get to the conventation center. It is a really nice center, about as large as one of the halls at the Georgia World Congress Center, but only one exit from one direction to get to it so you can image the already bad Moscow traffic now with all of these cars from the south getting off north of the conventation center to turn around and go south, traffic was back up well past the turn around exit!

The show was nice. It cost 250r (~$10) to get in and they had most of the major, and not so major, car manufacturer there. I did more following than looking and I honestly think my boss was there to look at the women models more than he was to look at the new cars and when his driver caught up with us (this is his personal one, not the one from work), he had to take Alan's picture in front of very good looking girl who was modeling a car. Let me tell you, there were a bunch of good looking women there so Alan has his picture with about 50 different ones. Maxim, his driver, took about 100 pictures between the cars and the girls.

Afterwards, we went to a Mexican restaurant. It was not bad, but if you know Mexican, you would be disappointed; however, if you only know about it, it was not bad and it definitely was not Russian so it was a nice change. Plus they had Jack Daniels so I was set...lol To make it better, Alan picked up the bill.

I had scheduled to meet my driver at Alan's place at 6 PM and we were running a little ahead so I had them drop me off and I was going to wait for Mesha. I ran over to one of the casinos, there are a ton of them in Russia, but walked away when they wanted to charge me 1,350r ($51) to get in, whether I gambled or not. It looked really nice, but no one was in there - wonder why?!

I did not take my camera so I do not have any pictures to show you but wanted to share. Tomorrow I get my hair cut so that could be interesting!

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