Exploring Criema with an off-road Lada

[krimster2]

So one day, a long time ago in Ukraine, a neighbor sold me his Lada Vaz-2103
the purchase price was $1500 USD, and included a lot of spare parts
this was an ‘84, which I believe was the last year they were made
original paint

I didn’t have a Ukrainian driver’s license, my wife did, but she didn’t even want to TOUCH this car, let alone drive it, so I bought her a Mitsubishi SUV to drive

instead of going through all the licensing of driver and car,
I decided to make it for off-Road use (I really just made a spontaneous decision to buy it, when offered)

I chopped the hood, and reduced weight
raised the suspension, put bigger tire mounts and tires on
used shock absorbers from a heavier car

I could only use this to drive on the dirt roads and NONE of the paved roads, cuz it wasn’t street legal

but this could take me from my village home, to the Crimean mountains by following ancient mountain trails meant for horses and wagons

me and my kids would take my dog and we’d load up supplies and go visit mind blowing places, like churches carved into the mountains at Inkerman, abandoned 800 yrs ago

and the last group of Goths that once upon a time plagued Rome, ended up in a ruined abandoned city we could explore as well (Mangup, Delos)

mind blowing thing, after m ind blowing thing, you never knew what you’d find

[Jumper1]

Very cool!