Country Road to the Birth Certificate Office

Country Road, Take Me Home to the Place where I belong……Mountain Mama, Take me home…..Country Road. Okay now that I got you all singing…..here’s is how our day went today on a country road.

Tuesday morning we left early to make our way to the birth certificate office which was approximately 2 and a half hours away. It was very cold today, approximately 10° F. We traveled down the main highway in Cherkasy, which to me and Robert was more of a country road. Nicolai was driving approximately 120 km/hour on the bumpy, curvy roads. We were all very tired since we were up late last night and got up real early this morning so we were trying to nap as we are holding onto each other each time we went around a sharp turn or when Nicolai had to swerve or stop on a dime to avoid hitting the crossing turkeys, geese, roosters, chickens, dogs, cats, rodents and people walking and riding their bicycles to work. It was a very interesting drive to and from the birth certificate office in the district where Steven and Evan were born. There were not many street signs once we got off of the main road, which really made Robert and I wonder how Nicolai found his way.

Once we arrived at the birth certificate office we all waited for Alla in the car as she was taking care of business for about an hour and a half. We knew that once Alla was back in town that it’s business before pleasure, which means we need to hurry up with the documents and then we will get some food. Because of this I made sure I took plenty of snacks for us all to munch on as we waited.

On our way back from the birth certificate office we traveled down the country road again, but this time Nicolai stopped on a dime as he swerved over to the side of the road and stopped the car. Of course, the dramatic stop alerted us to look around to see what was going on. We noticed a flat bed truck with some greenery on top of it approaching us and it was moving really slow. There were people walking behind the truck and a small band playing instruments as they were walking behind them and then some police cars, an ambulance and a car with a priest in it that followed the people walking. Here it was a funeral procession with an open casket on the flat bed with the person propped up in a lounge position in 10° F weather as she was laying in the open casket with a few family members mourning over her as they were sitting on the flat bed truck. Okay, now I think I’ve seen it all. It is customary for other cars on the road to pull over to the side and stop so when they past our vehicle we got a close up of the whole procession and the lady that past on. This will be one memory that will be remembered for a while.