Fourteen and a half hours after leaving Chisinau, we arrived in Brasov.  It is true that the border was slow and we had to buy extra insurance but what really slowed us down was that we took a secondary (scenic) highway over the mountains.  At times, I honestly thought it was just going to end without notice.  No worries about driving too fast for about two hours we never exceeded 20 mph!  We thought were just beyond the worst section when we saw the "inches" sign (meaning road closed).  So in my awful Romanian, I stopped some locals--in a village way up the mountain--for directions about alternative routes.  I said "Noi perdem si sunt americans"  We are lost Americans.  They kept looking at the license plates and muttering in disbelief "Americans from Moldova???"  It did not seem possible but we did get some directions and headed off to what we were assured was a "good road."

Finally we found ourselves on a good section and it seemed all would be good (which was nice as it was getting dark).  Well, that was wishful thinking because we hit a road that looked like a lunar landscape just about 10 pm and started dodging craters (Ryan, God love him was willing to do the bulk of the driving).  Finally at almost 2 am we arrived at the pension and fell into bed!

Anyway, we spent the next two days seeing castles, shopping in the western-style hypermarket and eating really nice food and enjoying the mountain breezes far more refreshing than the heat and humidity that has come to Chisinau (yes, it is hot here now).

The Ride Sometimes we shared what loosely could be called the "road" with cows.

Honestly this is a better road than what we drove on.

Ryan and Allison pose with the indestructible Dacia Logan on one of the better roads we found in Romania.