Moscow 1989.

In this rare photo, I'm hitching a ride in Moscow in 1989. Naturally, it was staged, and had I spent two seconds contemplating the harsh glare of posterity, it wouldn't have been those pants.

Just shy of 29 years old, and roughly about 220 lbs (gasp), ostensibly I was there to study the Russian language, but the black marketeers and folks on the street proved far more interesting. Some vodka was consumed.

In the photo, the Kremlin is to the left rear. St. Basil's is in the center, and Red Square lies behind it. For the uninitiated, the K & H Cafe was my 1980s local in Lanesville; younger generations might know it better as Hogg's.

Big thanks to Mark Bliss for copying the photo, which came off the K & H's wall back around 1993 when Mark's wife Patty's family sold the business.