MOSCOW, Russia - I've had datelines from stories I've written all over the World, but I never thought I would ever have one with Russia on it.

Well, that just changed late this morning when our 10 hour, 12 minute flight from Atlanta touched down in Russia for the World Championships.

We left Denver 30 minutes late on the flight to Atlanta, so we had to hustle down to the gate to narrowly make our flight to Russia. Jason Bryant and Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling were with me, and officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett joined us in Atlanta.

Tucci was sitting up in business class and I ended up in the worst seat on the plane - in the middle seat in the very back row.

I told Gary I wasn't going to complain, and I managed to do that for 10 hours as we flew across the Atlantic Ocean and part of Europe. I know I am very fortunate to have the opportunities I have in my position as communications manager for USA Wrestling.

I watched the three movies they showed on the flight - Karate Kid, Bounty Hunter and Quantum of Solace - and all of them were decent. Tom Clark and I were joking how surprising it was that the Karate Kid won the tournament on one leg and how James Bond killed all the bad guys. I never would have guessed that would've happened!

We were picked up in a van at the airport, and it took us about two and a half hours from the time we landed until we arrived at our hotel. The traffic was pretty bad, similar to New York City. We finally checked into our hotel - the Hotel Cosmos - and went up and ate lunch in the hotel. We then received our credentials, and were lacking access to the warmup area. Gary and I will have to talk to the event press chief to straighten that out.

I exchanged $100 of U.S. currency for 2,700 Roubles, so I could pay $55 for 24 hours of Internet access at the hotel. This is a very expensive city. Jason put $30 in a machine to try and get Roubles, but the machine ate his money. You're not in Virginia anymore, Son!

As I type this late in the afternoon on Friday, Gary is asleep on the bed in our 11th floor room and sawing a few logs. He didn't follow his own advice where he said to stay awake as long as you possibly can to adjust to the time change. We are 10 hours ahead of Mountain Time here in Russia. I am going to try and stay awake as long as I can so my body adjusts, but it won't be easy.

We plan to check out the competition venue tomorrow and we also plan to go check out Red Square.

The U.S. Greco-Roman World Team was scheduled to arrive in Russia on Friday night. They had been training in the Czech Republic for the past few days. The Greco boys start competition when the event begins on Monday.

The travel to Russia was relatively smooth for us. A lot can go wrong when you are traveling overseas, and we made it here relatively unscathed.

Looking forward to a great tournament!