I don't know if I can tell this story as well as my mother might if she were writing, but I will try to tell it so you understand and get the full effect.

Mandy and I spent Saturday afternoon, September 29, at the honey festival and in the park nearby.  After our time there, we were to meet up with John and Jenny for a cookout in the forest near our homes.  It was a beautiful fall day.  Full of sunshine and golden leaves on the trees.  It was warm enough for short sleeves and capris - truly Indian Summer or as it is in Russian - Bobaleta.  To get back from the park to where we needed to meet John and Jenny we took the metro to the gray line and then a trolley bus to the orange line.  The trolley bus route turns left from one street onto another street halfway through the route we needed to take.  It was at this intersection that our tale takes place.

Traffic turning left seems to be slow for some reason and our bus driver (a lady dressed in a nice black skirt) keeps slowly inching toward the middle of the intersection while the cars around us keep pulling over to the left and through the intersection when the light turns green.  Finally, we inch up close enough that we can see the problem is two cars who have run into each other in the middle of the intersection.  Now, understand that Russian law says you cannot move your vehicles from the scene until the police arrive.  I think this causes most traffice jams in Moscow.  However, people have learned to just go around anything that might be blocking their way.  This was the case in this situation.  Unfortunately, we are on a trolley bus that is attached to the electric lines above the road.  So our driver has to be careful as she attempts to pull far enough left to get around the cars and still stay attached to our source of power.  At each green light, she slowly inches forward - firt blocking one lane of traffic trying to go through the intersection and then the other.  Finally, ever so slowly, she attempts to drive past the car closest to us.  We are just inches from the car and everyone on the bus is straining to see if we will make it by without hitting the car when the bus stops!  The driver gets out her gloves and climbs out of the bus.  So at this point, we are stopped right in the middle of this major interection. Cars are driving all over to get around us and we are blocking several lanes of traffic!  Our driver begins working on the arms that connect us with the power lines.  It seems that something is wrong and she is having trouble.  Mandy and I are not sure how long we will be stuck sitting there and what will happen next.

After a few minutes, the driver climbs back onto the bus.  A couple of men say something to her and she responds emphatically in a long string of Russian. At her conclusion, the opens the doors to the bus. People stand up and begin to get off the bus.  Mandy and I look at each other wondering if this means we have to walk to the metro station from where we are sitting.  It is still several blocks away.  However, we begin to notice that none of the women are exiting the bus.  So, we decide to take their cue and remain seated on the bus.  We watch as the men gather along the side and back of the bus.  They are attempting to push the bus past the two cars and through the intersection!

I think we moved two inches at the most before they give up. Then the huddle together and look up at the power lines and the bus.  The give their suggestions to the driver who climbs back on the bus and starts it up.  She then backs up several feet.  The bus was at a junction of powerlines where trolley buses can turn from either street.  So at this point in the line, there is a small gap.  Because our bus was going so slowly to avoid hitting the parked car, the arms came off the power lines at the junction.  The men convince her to try a running start to get past the gap.  She was successful on the first try and stops the bus a few feet past the gap.  The men climb back onto the bus and the driver speeds off as though she is trying to make up for lost time!  I have no idea about the other directions, but where we drove, we could see that our stopped bus had backed up traffic for at least three bus stops!  That's a pretty long way!

What a fun adventure!  We had a good laught about it when we explained our lateness to the Porwolls.