The border was big with more than 10 lines it still took over 2hrs to get through. We were lucky as it can take much more. The only delay was one thing was filled out wrong on our customs form and its not allowed to cross things out so the form and its duplicate had to be filled in again. They were all very friendly and patient but very quickly even at this early stage we can see that the old Soviet influnces are still around. 
We have crossed nearly 800km so far and have more to go.
We really didn't comprehend the scale of Russia,  its huge!  
So it is hard to capture even a snipet of what we are seeing, so I am going to start with some photos. . More to come. 

There are road works and other construction going on everywhere and respect for the workers is still visible in the cultural and media imagery we pass. The men working in very hot sun earn our respect too!
There are a lot of long roads to build fix and maintain!