Hitchhiker from Moscow to motherland

The first day.

We were not going to repeat last year's mistake (we hung for almost a day on the Moscow highway) and got to BlahBlahCar away from Moscow in the direction of Ryazan.
The road promised to be successful and fast, we had breakfast in a roadside cafe and went to stop further.

Here the problems started: 2 hours stand, 10 km ride, 2 hours stand and so on. In one of these segments a wasp flew into the open window, at full speed, directly to my lip. The result: for 5 hours passed ~ 50 km and swollen lips. The Ryazan Region clearly does not want to let us go so easily.
But towards the evening we were lucky, we were picked up by 2 guys on a truck born in the "homeland of evergreen tomatoes" as they called Mordovia, who went to Saransk. A small lifehack: if you do not know which cafe on the route is best to eat - ask truckers, they always know where it is tastier and cheaper to eat. So we ended up in the cafe "Yo-Moyo" in the village of Umety where we ate 210 rubles (for two!). By the way, the village is one of the most remarkable places on the M-5

One of the most famous places on the M-5. It is famous for its number of the most diverse roadside cafes - more than 500 pieces stretched along the road at a distance of about 2 km, named mostly by female names: "Two Tatyana", "Natalie", "Olga", etc. Roadside catering is the main economic activity of the village . The restaurant "Morddovins", renamed from "Morddonald's" after the claims of "McDonald's" , is also famous.
We landed at a turn to Saransk, somewhere in 200 km from Penza, where we stood for about 50 meters from the gas station.

The second day.

We got up with the first rays of the sun, somewhere at 5:20, drank an invigorating coffee with a snicker at an invigorating price of ~ 400r. Haw!, if you spend so, then until the fall you can not live.

This day began much better, we were picked up in 15 minutes by a Kazakh Turk who was traveling to Shymkent and with him we drove almost 500km to Samara.

He complained to us about low salaries in Kazakhstan (50000 tenge ~ 10000rub ~ 160$), told about delicious watermelons and melons (of course Kazakh) and just at the moment of this story he saw his friend who was traveling to Moscow. He shouted something at the radio, stopped, and came back with a watermelon, a melon and a packet of strawberries :)

He drove us to a turn to Orenburg and went further to his native steppes and deserts. The evening was approaching, and we still had a little less than 300 km to my native town of Sorochinsk, which is in the Orenburg region. Here again, we were unlucky, because the road workers unearthed a huge section of the road at the border of two regions. This greatly hampered the hitchhiking, because the cars went in large caravans or did not go at all. I already thought that I would have to sleep 200 km from home, but already with the sunset we were picked up by a guy who carried a pastry shop in Orenburg. Idealism!
Our hometown was met by a crowd of drunken daggers, eh, how I have lost the habit of such things, living in St. Petersburg.
We are still planning to stay here for a while, with a sortie into the national park "Buzuluksky Bor", then I will write a report.
Remember, every your upvote, this additional rice seed in a roadside cafe for us :)
In the meantime, everyone, subscribe, comment, put like! With you was @fourapril

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.