I never get nervous to travel. I love seeing different parts of the country, blogging and talking about my experiences and I really enjoy taking pictures. I depart from Colorado on Thursday for the 2010 World Championships, and I can't help but feel a bit anxious.

It's been a busy month for me here at USA Wrestling. We hosted a successful telethon with the Living The Dream Medal Fund and hosted the State Leaders Summit at Cheyenne Mountain Conference Center. This month just flew by.

This will be my fourth World Championships. I first covered the Worlds in 2003 in New York City, then traveled to Azerbaijan in 2007 and Denmark in 2009, but there's something about Russia that really gets me going. I haven't quite figured out what it is yet.

Elena Pirozhkova was born in Russia, so she's got a natural want to go back. I don't have that type of Russian tie, but my grandmother was born and raised in the Ukraine, which for a very long time was a part of the USSR. I don't have to tell you that, most of you already know. With German and Ukranian heritage, there's a small tie to Russia, but more of it is my own curiosity.

Before going to Baku in 2007, I'd only left the U.S. once, and that was Canada, which really doesn't count. It's like leaving a cool party to go upstairs to see what the neighbors are up to, chatting for a while, then going back. I've been to Canada twice. I'd like to go to Vancouver or Edmonton or Saskatoon, but right now, I have to settle for Niagara Falls and Fort Frances (across from International Falls, Minn.).

Since then, I've been to Azerbaijan, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, Aruba and England. Russia, though, is one of those places that is full of intrigue. I remember growing up in the 80's reading "Scholastic News," a little newspaper distributed to elementary school students to help them get up on current events. I remember seeing one edition with Reagan and Gorbachev staring face to face. I didn't know that the red spot on Gorby's head was a birthmark. We thought it was just a printing press error.

Anyway, it's Tuesday before I leave and I still have a ton of stuff to do. We've got a membership renewal blast to send out, Craig Sesker, Gary Abbott and I have to coordinate who is blogging for us from an athlete perspective and then there's the packing.

I know I'll be bringing a slew of t-shirts to give away and trade from my personal collection. I'm not getting rid of everything, but some shirts that I've collected over the years no longer find themselves in my regular wardrobe. You can chalk that up from having to go into an office each day, rather than doing a Wayne's World wrestling show from my basement, but I digress.

I'll be sure to pack a bunch of throat lozenges as well. We're planning on doing 63 hours of live audio from the World Championships -- and I'll be handling those duties. It's like seven major tournaments in as many days. I hope I have a voice left as we get to men's freestyle.

Athletes and USAW staff will be blogging throughout the trip and posting photos and having fun while bringing you the information. We're 8 hours ahead for you in the Eastern Time Zone ... so while you guys are discussing the days happenings, we'll be getting some much-needed sleep.

I know two Russian words as of now. I should have used Terry Steiner's Rosetta Stone while I had the chance!

Cheers,
JB

I'm not one for public transit. I didn't grow up in a big city and I sure as heck don't like dealing with subways and trains in New York or Philadelphia. But on Saturday, Moscow celebrated its City Day, and I navigated the Metro with extreme ease.

Craig Sesker and I had the chance to zip down to Red Square on Saturday afternoon. With the tournament not starting for another two days, this was really the only chance we could possibly get to see the Kremlin and all the history surrounding the capital of our former Cold War rival.

Moscow is a huge city, with over 10 million people and a cramped network of roads make nagivating the Metro a must. I didn't care for this initially, but with some questions answered from the concierge up front at the Hotel Cosmos, we were on our way.

We took the #6 down five stops, then got on the #1. Two stops later, we were walking around amidst a sea of Moscovites. The drawback -- Red Square itself was closed, but everything else around it was open. So after we strolled through the smelly, but drafty Metro station, we were staring right at the Kremlin.

Many people seem to confuse the spinning blooms of St. Basil's Cathedral with that of the Kremlin. And if you've enjoyed any video games from the 80's and 90's ... the theme from Tetris was stuck in my head all day.

We saw it from the far side of Red Square, then started to walk around the entire structure. I stopped to walk around the park and take some photos of some fountains, while Craig checked out what the price of a Big Mac was in Moscow. Actually, a #1 was about six bucks ... so that wasn't too bad at all. I snagged a few of his fries. Not exactly the same kinda taste.

There's just something to be said about good ol' American grease. You can't duplicate it. I've eaten at McDonalds in Amsterdam, London, Baku and a few fries in Moscow. None of those places can equate the taste of salty McDonalds fries because their grease just ain't up to snuff.

As we were about to leave, we ran into the U.S. crew of officials, Tom Clark, Rick Tucci, Zach Errett and Ardeshir Asgari, an Iranian-American who wrestled at Cal State-Fullerton and is coaching the one Nicaraguan entry.

Our day then got extended a few more hours, which included picking up some Russian nesting dolls, called Matruskha's. My former boss, Pat Tocci, has been bugging me about picking him up one (as has Tammy Tedesco) ... I added another to my collection, bartering down to a reasonable price for three dolls. So note to Pat and Tammy - you're taken care of.

Coming back, we run into some Canadian coaches, the same ones I was talking shop with the night prior, then Tech-Fall.com's Tony Rotundo. In this crowded Metro in the middle of one of the world's biggest cities, I see a short bald man with thick-framed glasses -- "Hey Rotundo!"

Sure enough, it's him. I mean, this guy is unmistakably easy to spot in any crowd, even if he is in a sea of very tall Russian women. Yes, they are tall here.

I snapped nearly 150 photos that I posted on my facebook site, I tried to add a few here to the Nation, but only about 40 showed up. We'll post some on our facebook site soon, too.

I've also found a small grocery store near the hotel. So buying $5 quarter-liters of Pepsi Light (they don't call it diet over here), is over. Now, I can get four liter-and-a-half bottles of water, two powerades, an iced tea and a Coke Light for 10 bucks.

Nice.

Oh, for those wondering how the room assignment is, I'm with our Polish everyman, Paulie Kieblesz (Kee-blitz). This guy can speak several languages and is as good of a negotiator as I've ever seen. This guy can literally get anything, anywhere.

Blogs are a funny thing sometimes. I've written short ones, I've written long ones, I've written ones I didn't want to deal with and I've written ones that no one wanted to read.

But from the 2010 World Championships, blogging has become a way for the U.S. contingent to get exactly what's going on across in a less than sterile format. Basically, we write how we feel.

That can affect how one writes ... how you feel, that is. Right now, it's Wednesday, September 8 around 6:20. We're just over an hour from the start of the medal rounds and it's not one I'm looking forward to. The U.S. got blanked today, and in Greco overall. It really sucks right now. I feel really bad for our team, especially Alyssa Lampe. She was tooling the Polish wrestler before getting taken right over to her back with a 5-0 lead. Since it was just minutes after Greco-Roman wrestler Jake Fisher lost, it took all the wind out of the proverbial sails.

My tone and inflection changed on the webcast and generally, the rest of the first session stunk. I tried to keep people up to date, then the chat room crapped out, so I was really in a lurch.

Now, we're three days in, about 20 hours into the live webcast and my throat is outright shot. I'm trying to not talk at all and tonight, I'm just going to go to sleep right away rather than stay up and mingle.

Last night, Gary and Craig and I took the metro back. I took a few pictures from my phone and posted them here on the Nation and its photo gallery. Here's some notes from yesterday and the tournament as a whole  ... in pictures.


We took the shuttle bus in the morning on Tuesday. There was the head of a stuffed cat on the wall. I mean, I'm all for honoring the memory of ones passed, but this was either a really, really close cat or it was a scrumptuous dinner that the bus driver wanted to remember. Either way, it was creepy.


I have no idea what this is, but it's cool. Hammer and sickle


Here's the outside of the Olympskiiiiiiiy (however you spell it) Sports Center. It was built for the 1980 Olympics. It's gigantic really.


I haven't decided whether or not this is Cyrillic for something or just a normal translation. Crapdogs? Really? Nice.


McDonalds ... I hate fast food, but this place has been the savior from a world of "the trots." That's all I'll say about that.


This is a VERY long escalator. Good practice for the incline, I guess. That is, if it didn't work.


TETRIS!


This one's for DF.