T minus....

Twenty, twenty, twenty-four hours to go-o-oh ... well, less, actually. Our flight leaves at something like 1:30 Saturday afternoon, so we're in the final stretch.

The packing got done. No, really. Kristin was a packing machine this time, having absorbed all Lisa N.'s travel lessons over the years they were roommates. You can, in fact, roll jeans into a ball the size of your fist. (Yes, Lisa, we know you can get them even smaller than that, but we're novices compared to the girl who hitchhiked across Albania....)

Zeneba, Karen-Lee and Mark came by to see the chaos in person, and many more friends have called or e-mailed or dropped by our desks to wish us well. Heck, Thursday Night Fever even posted about us. We have a lot of really wonderful friends, and we're honored that so many of you want to follow along on our journey. (Ick. That sounded a lot like the scary woman in that TV ad for Celebrity Cruises. I'll stop now.)

The first stop tomorrow night -- after the Budget car rental -- will be the Jupiter Hotel, which is supposedly a fabulous old motor lodge turned rock 'n' roll boutique hotel. Then we'll meet up with an old friend from Nashville, Ian Demsky, whose writing now graces the pages of the Willamette Week. We'll be in Portland around 7 p.m., so soon after that, we'll be off to paint the town. Hmmm. What color should we paint it? green. Blue. Plaid? We'll see what Demsky has in store.

On Sunday, with Ian's guidance, we're off to somewhere amazing, like this...



Wow... Nice shot, Ian. He says he took the pic at Cape Falcon at the Oregon Coast during one of his walkabouts.

That's about it until we load up and head to the airport with Christian's mom. She's saving us a fortune by avoiding the long term parking! Thanks!!!!

Otherwise, for the most part, we're all set. Ipods. Gear. Underwear. Snap shirts and black cowboy boots. Toothpaste. Plastic Ziploc baggies stuffed with even more Ziploc baggies.

Yaaawn.

Tired. Bed.

Yawn. Sleep.