This is where I'll be

What a long, strange trip it's been, and I couldn't be happier to reunite with my bed.

My boss said I can have the rest of the week off, so my bed might not be all that impressive, but it's the most welcoming thing I've seen in over a week.

So if you'd like to reach me, you know where I'll be. Please leave a message, note, email, voicemail or whatever and I'll get to you when I feel like poking my head out of the covers.

Seriously, though, this was one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on. I met some amazing people- Buckeye and Gator fans alike. Befriended a Holiday Inn shuttle driver. Went to another country, and visited the 9th Ward that looked like another country within our own borders.

From the emails, phone calls and comments on this board, I feel like many of you took this trip with us and hope you got something out of this like I did.

Now, it's time for a well-deserved rest.

-Ryan

From the eyes of a UF student: The day after

I’m sitting back on “The Couch” right now, as I’ve dubbed it. It’s the one I sat on last night, as UF dominated “the” Ohio State University. I guess it’s starting to set in, but I’m still waiting to wake up in a cold sweat.

Campus was buzzing today. I heard at least six people on their cell phones talking about the game. I was on campus for about four hours, but most of my day was spent watching the ESPN gurus eat pounds and pounds of crow. In one day, the Gators went from a lucky, undeserving, future whipping boy to easily the best team in the country. Apparently the experts make a living at spinning all the misstatements they make. It was nice to see a constant stream of orange and blue on the tube, though.

I’ve had fewer than 24 hours to ponder last night’s outcome, and it’s still hard to believe what happened. I tried to give credit to my blue and orange boxers (a gift from my FSU Seminole girlfriend, by the way), but I think that’s a stretch. I also thought it could be because I didn’t get a ticket to the game, which is probably more credible.

A bumper sticker I saw a few years ago probably describes it better than I ever could:

“God must be a Gator, because the sun is orange and the sky is blue.”

From the eyes of a UF student: Speechless

Words can’t describe it.

Shock. Awe. Disbelief. Euphoria. Elation. That’s probably the closest I can get to the way I and Gator Nation have been feeling since just after midnight this morning. Actually, most of those feelings set in far before midnight. They began to creep in at the beginning of the second quarter, when UF went up by two touchdowns, and they were set in stone as the Gators entered the fourth quarter up by 20.

For me, it was like watching a game in a mosh pit. I was with about 25 other Gator fans piled around two TVs in my friend’s living room. Every time the Gators scored, we erupted in celebration. We high-fived and hugged. We yelled and sang Gator chants. I was tackled at least four times.

At one point, I even took a shot to the mouth and busted my lip, but I didn’t care.

We witnessed the greatest moment a Gator fan could imagine. As the final minutes ticked down, we realized what we had to do next. My friend’s house is about a mile from University Avenue. After changing into tennis shoes, we ran (actually walked and jogged) down to the happiest street in the world. Gator fans covered the streets, trees, light poles and restaurant roofs. Strangers hugged and kissed one another. It was like we didn’t know what to do. We were too happy to make sense.

I tried for a month to do any and everything to be in Glendale, Arizona, last night. At one point I almost paid $1,000 for a ticket.

But thank God I didn’t. You couldn’t pay me enough to not be in Gainesville, Florida, with 40,000 of the most overjoyed people on earth.

are Gators at work and school today?

Today's adventure centered around Ryan and I getting locked out of our hotel room. It was my fault. And as I believe in doing things right, it wasn't the kind of lockout the front desk could solve by giving us a new key.

Kudos to me.

While we were locked out and unable to work I wondered how many Gator fans were no shows at work and school today. Surely the UF campus -- or at least its classrooms -- were eerily empty today.

And I'd love to hear some of the excuses Gators used to call off work today. Did ANY employer actually believe their UF-lovin employees were sick today (except maybe from hangovers)?

Jeff

Finally, our first road-trippers

When we pitched this trip to the T-U brass, we were under the impression caravans of Gator fans would be driving the same route we did across I-10 to Phoenix because of the price and lack of plane tickets coming out of Northeast Florida.

What we found is that generally Gator fans weathered the inconvenience or just didn't go.

And I didn't meet my first roadtrippers until last night- in Glendale.

Jill and Jennie Hornik (pictured at top left to right) made almost the exact same trip we did, with some other pit stops along the way, even leaving on the same day we did.

Jennie, 25, is moving to San Diego to start grad school at the Gemology Institute of America. Her sister, Jill, 21, a senior at Florida graduating in May, decided to kill several birds with one stone to help Jennie move from Miami to San Diego- a road trip.

Here's how the Horniks 2300-plus-mile trip played out, much of it was because they had friends in most of these cities: Miami, Orlando, Gainesville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Little Rock, Texarkana, Dallas, El Paso, Tucson, Scottsdale, and they are leaving today for San Diego.

When asked why they were partying at the promenade outside the stadium, Jill quipped, "We're on our 15th tank of gas, so we don't have any money."

They mostly saw the BCS National Championship as a stop along the way to San Diego, but were happy to be in Glendale anyway.

Jill's classes and an internship at Shands Gainesville have already started, and Jennie starts orientation Wednesday, which is when Jill flies back to Florida.

They celebrated the big Gator victory with several hundred screaming Gator fans- a great stop on a long road trip.

See photos of Gator fans celebrating the victory at the street party outside the stadium.

Big Ten meets SEC, and it ain't pretty

The game is over and here’s the headline: Wow, it wasn’t really a game.

Call me biased because I went to Tennessee. Fine. But it was clear early on that the guys from the Big Ten just didn’t know what they were in for. A season spent blowing out weak teams doesn’t prepare you like the SEC gauntlet does.

I was on the field after the game. My assignment from Times-Union sports writers Mike DiRocco and Garry Smits (see their stories in today’s paper) was to talk to as many defensive players as possible about how the Gators seemed to so easily shut down OSU QB and Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith.

Their answers varied but there was a common denominator: Smith simply hadn’t faced SEC caliber competition. “He tried to keep a smile on his face but after a while you could see he was rattled,” Gator defensive end Jarvis Moss told a group of reporters. “And pretty soon he wasn’t smiling no more.”

As I write this I’m sitting on a bus that’s hauling reporters and photographers back to their hotels, and my cell phone is ringing off the hook. First Coast Gator fans who complained about arrogant Buckeye fans earlier today are letting me know how good it feels to prove them wrong.

Michelle Nixon, a Jacksonville fitness consultant who had great seats for the game, was the first to call. “From the git-go I told everyone: Ohio State, there’s no defense. I’m telling you we’re unstoppable.”

Hey, I’m a Vols fan so there's no argument from me on that. And while I'm impressed at the Gators' victory, I'm even happier to remember they beat Tennessee by only 1 point.

Congrats, Gator Nation. Savor the victory.

Jeff

it's almost the fourth quarter and . . .

. . . and it's totally nuts here. Gator fans are going berserk. Right now the score is 34-14. I've been up and down this stadium this evening talking to UF and OSU fans. I've been down to the field-level seats and way way up to nosebleeds in search of First Coast people. The noise is deafening no matter where you go here. (The pic above was taken with my phone camera from the press box).

I filed my story about the game atmosphere (see the Tuesday's Times-Union) and I am about to start working for the REAL sports writers the Times-Union has covering the game. After the game Ryan will post a photo gallery and some video from pre-game tailgating. Stay tuned.

Jeff

Either Ryan and I are just lucky or there are tons of First Coast people here to see the Gators play Ohio State.

Initially I wondered how difficult it would be to find Jacksonville-area Gators in Glendale for the championship game. Would it be like finding needles in a haystack?

The answer came during last night’s mega Gator pep rally in Old Town Scottsdale. (See Ryan's photo gallery from the rally).

We hadn’t been on the scene more than five minutes when we found Gator fan Anna Shea of Ponte Vedra Beach. She was there with her father, John Shea, and her sorority sisters. One of them, Michelle Esserman, is a Jacksonville native who lives in Hermosa Beach.

At one point I decided just to walk through the middle of the crowd to see who turned up. Right in the middle of 7,000 cheering fans I came across Gator fan Robert Mouro arguing with Ohio State fan Joe Vowell. Vowell asked me which newspaper I’m from. When I told him, Mouro said, “I’m from Jacksonville.”

It went like that all night.

Ryan and I also had some pre-arranged meetings. That’s how we found Westside resident Reecy Thornton and her family, and Judy and Mark Fore of Neptune Beach. (Pictured at right)

I’m sure we’ll meet more of them today.

VIDEO: Gator fans party at a pep rally in Scottsdale.

Avalanche Delays

We just arrived in Phoenix, AZ. It is 2:00AM, but if it were not for the avalanche, we would have made it here twelve hours ago. Just before we attempted to depart last night, we heard news of one of the largest avalanches in Colorado history. It occured on the corner of 70 and I-40, which directly blocked our path. This disaster may have delayed our trip, but nothing could ruin our experience.

my game prediction

As I walked from our hotel room to the media center today this thought popped into my head: I wonder if Jon Spencer is here?

Spencer is a sports columnist for the News Journal in Mansfield, Ohio, where I worked as an assistant city editor and city editor in the late 1990s. He’s an expert on everything Ohio State, and I figured he’d be here in Arizona covering the championship game for the News Journal and its sister papers in Ohio.

I just couldn’t believe it, though, when I found him standing there in the entrance of the media center. It was great to see him and the encounter brought back lots of good memories from my 12 years in Ohio.

I lived in the Buckeye State for 12 years, including a couple spent in graduate school, a stint working at a Skyline Chili in Oxford and newspaper jobs in Newark and Mansfield, both near Columbus.

They take their football seriously in Ohio – just as they do in Florida. My only prediction for Monday’s game, based on knowing both sets of fans pretty well, is that it will be loud. Very loud.

From the eyes of a UF student: Getting set

My plans are finally set. I talked to one of my equally obsessed Gator friends who just got back to Gainesville, and we’ve planned the day. He gets out of class about 2 p.m. Unfortunately, I have a class until about 4 tomorrow afternoon. I have yet to decide if I’m going. I’m not sure if four hours is enough preparation time.

When we’re both out, I’m going to pick up steaks and hamburgers and then head to his house. He and his roommates are throwing a party, which will begin an hour before the game, but I plan on claiming my spot in front of the big-screen TV as early as possible. We’re going to cook out before the party starts and try to get all the pre-game jitters out. If I’m this nervous the day before the game, it makes me wonder how the players feel.

My friend's house is just off campus, so depending on the outcome I’ll either find a corner of the room to cry in or head down to University Avenue to soak in the insanity (I’ll let you figure out which outcome will produce which result).

Thousands of students are watching the game in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, which is where the basketball and volleyball teams play. The O’Connell Center is right next to University Avenue. If we win, I can only imagine the scene.

I’ll be checking in a few times tomorrow from campus to describe the happenings. It’s only 26 hours away, folks. Practice the Chomp. Rehearse the school song. Put on your favorite Gator T-shirt. Kiss a picture of Urban Meyer. Get excited. It’s coming.

It's not all bad for the media

Sports writers have a reputation of being a rather surly bunch. And for the most part, much of what they complain about is justified- underpaid, overworked, miles and miles of travel, away from family, etc.

But when a big event happens, like a Super Bowl or in this case the BCS National Championship, there isn't a lot to complain about.

The media hotel is located on a sprawling JW Marriott resort called the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona. Rooms here go for about $400 a night, so you know it's a nice place.

Upon arrival, media members must pick up their game credentials in the registration room just off the lobby. Credentials were applied for about a month ago and went through a Homeland Security screening process for approval. So media arriving without a credential are out of luck. BCS organizers can't just give you one when you show up.

A media coordinator told me that was a source of contention from a couple dejected reporters already since this is the first year the BCS has adopted this procedure. Several people showed up expecting to be able to apply and be granted a game credential, and were apologetically denied.

The NFL has been doing it this way for several years for the Super Bowl. I had to apply a month in advance and send in some personal information for a screening.

There is also a media lounge with a bunch of snacks an flat-screen TVs which Sam Borden alluded to in his blog. I haven't found Golden Tee yet, but when I do, I probably won't be in my room very much. The lounge has a wireless Internet connection that some writers and photographers find useful, so they can work and relax and get out of their rooms. (See picture at right of Times-Union photographers Bob Mack [foreground] and Bob Self editing and uploading photos from the media lounge of events they covered this morning.)

Media are transported to various practices and events via media shuttles. All we have to do is call and someone will take us wherever we want to go. That is convenient because Phoenix is a big place, and parking can be an issue and expensive.

So don't listen to anyone complain about how tough this assignment is. Listen to it from someone covering high school sports or traveling with an MLB or NBA team. Those guys have it rough.

Here's a photo gallery from around the grounds of the media hotel.

football as religion, fans as pilgrims

Joe Price has a pretty cool job. A religion professor at Whittier College in California, Price (right) writes books on the spiritual dimensions of sports (From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion and his newly-released Rounding the Bases: Baseball and Religion in America).

Don't scoff. Many Baptist preachers will tell you that some folks, especially in the South, follow their Gators, Bulldogs, Vols, etc., maybe a little too religiously.

I spoke with Price before Ryan and I began our pigskin pilgrimage. I wanted to know if Gators and Buckeyes traveling to Arizona can be considered pilgrims. I also wondered if it’s valid describe Glendale as the Mecca of college football – at least for this season.

Football taps into the American myth of conquest of territory and victories represent new beginnings, he said. High school, college and even NFL games represent cultural contests, pitting one region’s pride against another’s in a subconscious battle between good and evil. Fans wear the garb of their teams, whose colors and emblems represent tribal totems around which communities rally and identify.

Sounds religious to me.

So, yes, Price said, Gator and Buckeye fans are pilgrims this weekend because they are making a difficult journey (paying a lot of money for tickets, taking time off from work or school, enduring long lines at airports, etc.) to see their beloved teams play. And that means Glendale can be considered a Mecca of sorts, Price said.

We’ll see for ourselves tonight. Ryan and I are headed to Old Scottsdale for what is billed as THE Gator pep rally of the weekend. Some 5,000-7,000 Gator fans will descend on a bar decorated to look just like The Swamp in Gainesville, complete with the same menus and drink recipes. Look for the full story and photos in Monday’s Times-Union and online here on Jacksonville.com.

Jeff

The Road to the Championship: Part 3

Its been three days since we have had an internet connection, so we are just able to post a new blog. We have been in Keystone, Colorado snowboarding in -2 degree weather.

Now we are on our way down to Arizona to our hotel in Tempe. We should arrive sometime around 11pm mountain time.

where are all the Gators??

I’m sitting here looking at my Bentley (the 2007 Arnage, if you must know) sitting in the parking lot. It’s soooo beautiful I just can’t take my eyes off it. With every sip of coffee I have to ask myself if it’s real.

And of course with each sip of coffee the answer is, no, it’s not. The Bentley I’m looking at is shown in a photograph in the latest edition of Desert Living magazine.

Yet there is something else I am finding even harder to believe than a newspaper reporter owning a Bentley: that arriving Ohio State fans far outnumber their Gator counterparts.

Jacksonville resident Reecy Thornton and her family arrived here Saturday. On the plane, she told me, there were way more OSU people than Gators.

Ryan and I heard the same thing on the evening TV news. The reporter was covering a BCS rally and said something to the effect of “. . . we saw a whole lot of Buckeye fans with some Gators sprinkled in here and there. . . .”

Sprinkles? I thought there’d be a gazillion UF people here this weekend with those little Gator tattoos on their cheeks and doing that arm-chomp thing.

What’s up with that? Is it too early in the weekend? Will the difference be made up today and Monday? Or do Gators just not travel as well as Ohio Staters?

Jeff

Gators in the Valley of the Sun

I’ve been impressed with Gator fans here in Arizona. They’re known as “Desert Gators” and they’re a pretty cool bunch.

Example A is resident Frank Thompson (pictured here). We met over coffee at the Starbucks in San Marco a couple days after Christmas during his vacation. He was born at St. Vincent’s and graduated from Orange Park High School in 1972 and UF in 1976. “I was actually raised on Fleming Island when there were no people there.”

He got me up to speed on this part of Arizona known as the Valley of the Sun. “Going from Scottsdale or Glendale to Phoenix is like going to the Beaches from Jacksonville,” he said.

I called Thompson today at 8:30 a.m. for help on a story (see the ticket prices article in today’s Times-Union). He answered the call and helped me tremendously in the middle of a Habitat for Humanity build with Gator and Buckeye fans.

Desert Gators President Gary Manton has been a huge help to Ryan and I, too, hooking us up with fans and keeping us posted on key BCS events going on this weekend. Desert Gators are big on charity here and are famous for adopting abandoned reptiles in Arizona. (They’re on the Web at www.desertgators.com.)

From what I can tell, about the only thing they can’t help with is finding cheap tickets to Monday’s BCS championship.

From the eyes of a UF student: Getting antsy

I’m in the middle of an 11-hour football marathon. It started at noon today with the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and will end somewhere about 11 when the Dallas- Seattle game is over. Despite what should be a relaxing day of football and food, I’m getting anxious.

The national championship is now about 45 hours away, and I think I’ve read every consonant and every vowel that’s been written about the game. I am to the point now that I instinctively mute Kirk Herbstreit. It’s like a reflex. I listened to him talk for a month about how much Michigan deserved to be in the game instead of UF. For some reason, I haven’t heard that since their 32-18 loss on Jan. 1. If ESPN’s College GameDay makes a trip to Gainesville next year, I wouldn’t want to be him.

For now, I’ll walk around the house like an expectant father, checking the Internet every 10 minutes for any scrap of news I can find. This game can’t get here soon enough.

We made it!

With over 2,100 miles under our belt in five days we've finally arrived at our destination, Phoenix, Arizona.

The last 2-hour drive from Tucson to Phoenix seemed like a cakewalk compared to the 8-10 hour drives that started our adventure. 2 hours? That's it? It seemed like a morning commute.

Jeff and I got along great. I only had to sit in the trunk once, and we had very few mishaps along the way. The only bump came today when I missed my exit coming into Phoenix and had to backtrack six miles. Whoops!

We are staying at the Camelback Inn, a JW Marriott resort in Scottsdale, Arizona that is the main hotel for media covering the BCS National Championship game. Rooms around here go for about $400/night and you can tell they spared no expense. Thanks Times-Union!

We'll be here for three nights at least (our flight doesn't leave until Wednesday) looking for Gator fans around the Phoenix area.

There is a big block party in downtown Glendale that I'll be going to this evening, then a Gator pep rally tomorrow.

Look for plenty of photo galleries late tonight and tomorrow evening from all the festivities.

Thanks for following us on this roadtrip of a lifetime and keep checking back the next few days because our work here isn't done. Jeff will be at the game and I'll be out around town. We'll keep you posted!

-Ryan

'No respect' for Gators

That’s a complaint I’ve heard from Alabama to Arizona. Seems it’s just not hip to bleed Orange and Blue outside the Sunshine State.

Duh, right?

In Alabama there’s the University of Alabama and Auburn University. Mobile resident and UF grad Darlene Maltese told Ryan and I that Gators get less-than-perfect treatment in a state dominated by that huge rivalry. “Florida fans don’t get any respect.”

Ditto over in Louisiana, Seth Bloom told me. “LSU fans are extremely hostile to Florida fans.” Bloom is a Jacksonville native who practices law in New Orleans and is the president of that city’s Gator Club.

“Certainly you’re always hearing it from Texas fans.” That’s Michael Millet, president of the Alamo Gator Club in San Antonio. Seems like people who worship alligators aren’t welcome in a state where the official religion revolves around a bull with long horns.

We’ve heard these complaints from Arizona UFers, too, but they (and I) expect that to change drastically this weekend. “We’re expecting 5,000 to 7,000 Gators at one pep rally alone,” Desert Gators Club president Gary Manton told us. That would be the rally from 6-9 p.m. Sunday in Old Scottsdale. Check out www.desertgators.com for the 411 on that.

BTW here are some stats on Gators (alumns mostly) living in the states Ryan and I have crossed through on our desert dash. These numbers were provided by the UF Alumni Association.

FL: 274,325
LA: 1,612
AL: 3,237
MS: 982
TX: 9,224
AZ: 2,061

OK Gotta run. We’re headed for Glendale.

Jeff

tumbleweeds in Tucson

It’s hard to believe our dash to the desert is almost over. Ryan and I have logged more than 2,000 miles since Tuesday, and on Saturday morning we’ll arrive in Glendale. In some ways it seems we’ve been gone weeks, in others it’s flown past.

Days like today we’ll never forget. From El Paso we crossed the border into Juarez. For both of us it was the first time in Mexico (see Ryan’s Juarez blog posting and picture gallery).

The drive from El Paso to Tucson, where we are staying tonight, was amazing and caught us totally by surprise. We expected desert, but not like this.

Texas gave us rolling, rock-strewn landscapes. New Mexico’s desert was perfectly flat except for the those hills and mesas jutting up here and there in the distance. In Arizona we saw snow-covered peaks, a cactus or two and our first tumble weed (Ryan first spotted it tumbling casually across I-10).

Nothing out here calls to mind the University of Florida or Ohio State. This land has a prehistoric feel to it. It conjures up images of dinosaurs and woolly mammoths way before it does Gators and Buckeyes.

Hmmm, anyone think that might change the closer we get to Glendale?

Jeff

Just a hop across the Rio Grande

"Don't get into a cab and don't buy anything off the street," Holiday Inn shuttle driver Lorenzo Anchondo advised us as he dropped us off at the border crossing.

And sure enough our first steps into Juárez, Mexico were greeted with offers of cab rides and a variety of items from people on the street.

In fact, it happened so often, we just couldn't say, "No, gracias" anymore. We had to keep walking.

The city of Juárez is just what you'd picture a Mexican city to be. A little unkept, a little run down, but bustling and in constant motion. Smells of cooked gorditas, churros, and enchiladas filled the air as people wondered in and out of zapatarias, mercados and other stores that packed the main drag into of town, Calle Benito Juárez.

What struck us initially was the frequency of optometrists and dentists. It seemed like every other shop sold glasses and pulled teeth. Our only assumption is that people come from the States to these places for cheap treatment.

Jeff and I couldn't stand out any more. Me, toting a camera taking pictures of everything that moved and Jeff looking like, well, Jeff. People looked at us either with distant curiosity or saw us as targets for panhandling or a cab ride.

I wish we could have spent more than an hour and a half there, and even more I wished I had someone with me who had been there before. I felt lost- foreign.

But I definitely want to go back.

Take some time and flip through our photos from Juarez and wish us well as we make the last leg of our trip into Glendale tomorrow morning.

Photos from the border

Jeff and I spent some time looking for Gator fans among the Mexican markets on the El Paso side of the U.S.-Mexican border.

But there were none to be found among the crowds of people shuffling in and out of the many shops that line both sides of the street.

"If they're playing in the Sun Bowl, we care," Holiday Inn shuttle driver Lorenzo Anchondo quipped as he dropped us off at the crossing. Anchondo gave us a fascinating tour of El Paso that Jeff will hit on in his entry tonight.

Regardless, there was plenty to see among the bustling stores and restaurants greeting Mexicans as they cross the bridge spanning the Rio Grande.

See the photo gallery from El Paso here.

Ryan

Back from across the border

Jeff and I made it back to the U.S. from Juarez, Mexico, and we had an easier time getting back then going across.

Some U.S. border patrol officers stopped me as I was taking pictures of the long line of cars waiting for entry to the U.S. Apparently you're not allowed to take pictures of Homeland Security procedures. Oops!

Juarez was an amazing place, and Jeff and I certainly stood out.

We're on our way to Tucson, Arizona which is just a short 4-hour jaunt from El Paso.

Expect a photo gallery from El Paso and Juarez within the hour and a blog entry from Jeff later today.

-Ryan

From the eyes of a UF student: A long two days but still focused

In the last 48 hours, I’ve pulled two all-nighters, driven back and forth to Pensacola airport three times (three-hour each round trip) in hopes of picking up my girlfriend, spent almost 12 hours off-and-on in the airport, saw the sun come up twice, called more than 20 phone numbers in search of her delinquent baggage and gotten about five hours of sleep.

So to summarize, I’ve had something to take my mind off not getting tickets to the game.

Because I am now consigned to my fate of watching the National Championship in Gainesville, the next step is constructing a plan. I’ve made a few phone calls, and I’m trying to decide whether or not I should watch the game in a bar on University Avenue or at a house in town.

Many students and Gainesville residents may face the same quandary. I’m weighing my options. If I go to a bar, I know I’ll have to be there at least five to 10 hours before the game starts to get a seat, which would make for a very long day. I’ll also be paying $12 a bottle for a beer. On the other hand, the environment at the bars next to campus will be amazing. Bar-none, that will be the best atmosphere aside from Arizona.

If I watch the game at a house, the drinks and food will be free, and I know I won’t have to sit behind some drunk and belligerent idiot.

I have some pondering to do, but I’m open to suggestions.

where will YOU watch the game?

I’ll admit I was pretty cranky as we drove into El Paso on I-10 at 12:30 a.m. (Mountain time) today. I had Ryan in stitches as I complained about everything, including how far we were from our exit and how cities/buildings/hills here seem to get further from you the closer you get to them.

I really lost it when we checked in and found our hotel spread over 10 different buildings, requiring the clerk to give us a map to our rooms.

But after a good night’s sleep I’ve realized what a great town this really is. People are friendly. And the El Paso Gators I’ve managed to contact so far have been super cool.

None more so than Marine 1^st Lt. Beau Benedict (pictured here), who is currently deployed in Iraq. I found the 2003 UF grad via e-mail.

Despite being in constant danger, Benedict wrote me to say he’s been able to watch all or parts of five games (Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas) while in the combat zone. He wrote:

"Some of the games started at 3 or 4 AM here, yet it was still not uncommon to find Gator Fans flocking around the nearest TV watching the game. I have watched games with Marines ranging from Lance Corporals to Lieutenant Colonels here, and there is always a common bond that Gator Fans share."

I asked him if he’d be able to watch Monday night’s Florida vs. Ohio State. Benedict said he doesn’t know yet but if he does it will be "here in Camp Fallujah."

That made me think of people who also can't watch the game at home much less in Glendale. Restaurants, hotel rooms, standing out front of department store windows?

Jeff

Old El Paso, more than just a salsa

Jeff woke up just inside the city limits of El Paso, Texas.

And less than 10 minutes later, he announced, "I hate this place."

The source of his angst was the seemingly endless stretch of I-10 meandering along a northern hill overlooking the city to the south.

"The toughest part of this leg wasn't the desert, it's this city," he said.

In such a flat land your depth perception is similar to floating in the ocean. Looking down on a sea of lights, El Paso seemed vast, and every building appeared to be within a couple blocks but was actually miles away. It certainly was a frustrating final 10 miles.

We were told the market in Juarez, Mexico is the place to visit around here. Tomorrow we are going to explore transportation options across the border and update you on our success.

All I know is we can't get out of this town fast enough for Jeff, so if we have to cross a bridge to another country to get out of El Paso, so be it.

-Ryan

this drive is taking, like, for-everrrr

My brains are mush. Ryan's driving now. It's almost 930 p.m. We're somewhere between Fort Stockton and El Paso. We were warned this drive would seem endless and it does. Geez Louise, how do truckers do it?

To stay awake I've been pounding the Red Bull and sending text messages. A back-and-forth text message conversation is to a bored person what a cool drink of water is to someone crossing the desert.

Here are some texts I sent friends this evening:

* Just tried calling. Cell is poor. In betw San Antonio & El Paso. 329 to go 2night. What's the news?

* brain dead. 17 mi to Fort Stockton 250 or so to EP. just passed giant windmills.

* News flash: Texas is big. I'm starting to wonder if you can even FLY across it in one day.

Etc.

(What Ryan does to stay awake is weave the car between the white lines at 70 mph. Or does that mean he's already asleep? I don't want to know.)

Oh, and a big THANK YOU to Ryan for buying deoderant today (I'll let him explain that one). I'll be your friend 4ever now.

Tomorrow has a few question marks for us. We're hoping to meet some El Paso Gators and we're considering a jaunt into Mexico. Oh, does anyone know if we can take a rental car across the border? Let us know if you know.

Jeff

Texas, where football is religion

Ryan and I are parked at a gas station four miles west of Kerrville, Texas, working furiously to get this blog and a photo gallery online. We just toured the Alamo and San Antonio's hip RiverWalk district and want to get everything uploaded before we lose the cell phone coverage we need to access the Internet.

Our next stop being El Paso, almost 600 miles away, we've been told repeatedly how boring and desolate this 10-hour stretch of I-10 will be. "You'll see a lot of tumbleweeds," Alamo Gator Club president Michael Millet told me today.

Looks like we're finally getting to the desert portion of the Desert Dash.

At the Alamo we met Sgt. Thomas Heimel. He and other soldiers were the subject of a local newspaper story today about decorated troops meeting with high school football players to remind them there's more to life than X's and O's.

We saw that Tuesday when we toured the Katrina-battered Ninth Ward in New Orleans (check out the video). Another reminder is Heimel's Purple Heart, which he earned in Najaf, Iraq in 2004. "I had a mortar land behind me and I caught a piece of it in my hip."

Next we lunched at The County Line barbeque restaurant at the RiverWalk. It's a groovy bar and restraurant district where a faux river runs through it. Over brisket San Antonio Express-News religion writer Abe Levy told us college football is a religion in the Lone Star State. He said he's not surprised to hear that Gator transplants like Millet feel unappreciated here. "We're Texas -- the world revolves around us," Levy said.

My guess is that in the next few days we'll be meeting some Gator and Buckeye fans who disagree. Stay tuned.

While you're waiting, check out photos from San Antonio.

Another note from the 9th Ward

Editing video on a laptop has its limitations.

Yesterday Jeff and I shot some video from the 9th Ward and edited it together with Jeff's interview with Cynthia Partridge who was volunteering in the Katrina-ravaged zone of New Orleans.

I fiddled with this 4-minute package all day yesterday and finally waved the white flag and sent the raw footage back home.

It's on the Website now, thanks to Bill Bortzfield at Jacksonville.com.

You can view it here.

tacos and bold predictions for breakfast

For breakfast at the Taco Taco Café this morning I had the migas w/ cheese. Those are make-it-yourself, soft-shelled tacos with refried beans, scrambled eggs, potatoes and spicy salsa.

I love Mexican food and all things spicy, but the idea of eating refried beans with eggs seemed unnatural to me – especially when washing it down with coffee.

“Everyone outside of San Antonio does,” Michael Millet (pictured here at Taco Taco) told me at the breakfast table this morning. “But here it’s a tradition.” He also explained that Taco Taco is famous state-wide for its cuisine, with Texas Monthly voting its tacos 14th out of 63 “tacos you must eat before you die.” It took only one bite to convince me and both our plates were wiped clean in short order.

Millet is president the Alamo Gators Club in San Antonio. In the hour or so I spent with the 32-year-old Coral Springs native, who manages a furniture store sales force, I could see he is an expert on all things UF, San Antonio and food.

“San Antonio is a food city. You eat your way through this town.”

After recommending a good barbeque restaurant for lunch, Millet said he was confident the Gators will beat Ohio State in Monday night’s college championship football game. The disrespect the Gators get from the media and from non-SEC fans will actually play in UF’s favor in Arizona.

“Ohio State hasn’t faced a team like us,” he said, taco in hand. “We’re battle-tested. I think we’ll win 31-30.”

Gutsy prediction, I said, taco in hand.

“And Chris Hetland will kick a field goal,” he added. “That’s a bold prediction in itself.”

And here’s another one: Ryan and I will visit the Alamo, the famous Riverwalk AND make it to El Paso by midnight tonight. In fact we’re headed out in a few minutes. We’ll post another blog and some photos when we hit the road again.

Jeff

The Road to the Championship: Part 2

Its 4am mountain time and we have just arrived in the snowy mountains of Colorado. After 25 continuous hours of driving, its good to be out of the car. We stopped by every state sign we passed to take a picture. We stopped in St Louis for lunch and spent about 2 hours walking around town. The drive through Kansas starts out with the glorious Kansas City on the Missou/Kansas border and after that....nothing. The next 6 hours of the state..empty. About 100 miles before Colorado we hit snow. There had been a huge blizzard in Colorado and it makes for awesome scereny driving into the mountains. Anyway, no time to type, but we will tag a few pictures and get blog again later.

Hello from soggy San Antonio

Well, we made it. San Antonio, Texas.

I feel great from the drive, but Jeff is a little worn out from sitting in the trunk. Hey, someone was going to end up there one way or another, and better him than me.

Actually, he drove the entire leg without complaint while I fought with video I wanted to edit from the 9th Ward. I still hope to have that online sometime tonight or early in the a.m.

Tomorrow Jeff is going to breakfast with a local Gator fan, and we're going to explore the city a little bit, hit the Alamo, Riverwalk and the like.

Then it's off to El Paso where one New Orleans reveler highly suggested we cross the border and visit Juarez, Mexico. He said it's better than the U.S. Now, I'm not exactly sure we're going to take advice from a dude Bourbon Street, but it does sound like an interesting adventure.

Should we hop the fence or what? What does one do in Juarez, anyhow?

From the eyes of a UF student: All hope is not lost

Well, it’s official. I’m sitting here on my couch, and I’ve just logged on to Orbitz.com and cancelled my flight to the West Coast. Although my hopes of seeing the game in-person have now been dashed, my spirits are still surprisingly high.

Gainesville looked more like Mardi Gras on steroids after the basketball team won it all last year, so I think I have something to fall back on. And let’s face it; UF’s a football school. When Steve Spurrier won it all in 1996 it was on Jan. 2, and almost none of the students were on campus.

This time around will be different. Florida’s spring semester begins on Monday. If we win, pandemonium won’t come close to describing Gainesville.

I may be saying all this just to make myself feel better, but how can I really be sad? In a few minutes I’ll be eating a two-pound T-bone steak. I’m about to watch LSU put a beating on Notre Dame. And in four days, the Gators are playing for the National Championship.

Life is good.

Bourbon Street Slideshow

This morning I had trouble posting a slideshow from Bourbon Street, and wanted to make sure it got to the top of the blog.

We got LSU and Notre Dame fans predicting scores and a local explaining what a hand grenade is.

Click here for a slideshow from Bourbon Street

Finding hope in the Ninth Ward

Just when it seemed the BCS and the college football national championship mattered, there’s the Ninth Ward.

That’s the below-sea-level New Orleans community that was the most ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. You know the story. The winds howled, the levees broke, thousands of people died, many more were stranded, displaced and otherwise made miserable.

What you may not have known, unless you have a relative from the area or just happen to pay a lot of attention to such things, is that this low-lying area looks much as it did immediately following the storm, minus the flooding and rotting corpses.

Roaming its streets today Ryan and I found flood- and wind-damaged homes, some of them destroyed and condemned, others requiring intensive rehab. There were FEMA trailers, debris piles in the streets, abandoned apartment buildings. The gloomy sky seemed to reflect the mood of the blue-tarped neighborhoods below it.

But there was a ray of hope in the form of Cheryl Partridge, a Jehovah’s Witness from Twin Falls, Idaho. She and some of her family are in New Orleans this week rehabbing houses and spirits. Ryan and I found her outside a damaged home on Andry Street not very far from the levee that was breached on Aug. 29, 2005.

Just as other faith groups have done and are doing, the Witnesses have adopted the Ninth Ward as their own, embracing its people, absorbing their pain.

Partridge said she cried when she arrived here. She had heard the damage was still widespread and intense, had even seen pictures. “But it’s totally different to look at it and to be in the middle of it,” she said.

Most disturbing she said is that the school yards and playgrounds are empty. “I don’t see any children.”

But she hasn’t lost hope. If anything, she said she is more encouraged by the strength and determination she sees in the survivors. It fuels here desire to help them and even makes her grateful.

“This gives you a way to tell people what you believe because you’re doing it. You’re living what you’re preaching.”

See a photo gallery from the 9th Ward

Jeff

news and notes

Ryan and I just left New Orleans. We toured the Ninth Ward, where we found conditions much as they might have been a week after Katrina, only less wet. We'll be putting up a photo gallery and video and a blog on all that as we make our way to San Antonio.

In the meantime, here are some news and notes from the Dash to the Desert:

No mothers: Ryan wanted to have lunch at the famous Mother's Restaurant on Poydras Street in downtown New Orleans. But we found a long line outside, were already behind schedule so we headed west on I-10. So now we're lunching at a Huddle House, and Ryan's face is as long as the road ahead because of it.

Time warp: Seems like the time stamp on our blog was way wrong for most of the day Tuesday. A blog posted at noon, say, would say 9 a.m. Around 5 p.m. editors were calling us because it looked like we hadn’t posted anything since 10:30 a.m.. The problem was fixed and Editor Pat Yack e-mailed us this morning. “We didn’t figure you were slacking…we figured you were on the beach in the panhandle knocking down some Bud Long Necks while reading Rumi poems.” (Actually, they were Coronas.)

Check lost and found: yes I lost my sunglasses briefly on Tuesday. It was mentioned in blog post filed shortly after our departure from Jacksonville. “dude how did you lose your sunglasses already?” a friend/neighbor e-mailed me. All I can say is, dude, I’m sorry. I lose things, OK? (It turns out the sunglasses were in my cargo pants pocket).

News flash: the coffee in hotel rooms. It isn’t very good.

Music: Thanks to my colleagues for making road-trip music suggestions. Sports writer Francine King, cops reporter Bridget Murphy, columnist Laura Capitano, assistant features editor Tom Szaroleta, food editor Dan MacDonald and education writer Tia Mitchell all made great pitches (Tia: Merle Haggard, really?) Oh, and, yeah, Galnor, I’m still waiting for those songs you promised like nine years ago.

Readers write: Mucho gratitude for all the e-mails from those of you keeping up with our blogs. A great one was from Phoenix resident/Jax native Dennis Little who offered his assistance when we arrive in Arizona. Best of all, he suggested a good restaurant: “one place to try out to eat here is a place called ‘Honey Bears’ barbeque...Tennessee style pulled pork and not too bad.”

Not too bad of a suggestion. We’re so there.

Jeff

vibrant city

The last time I was in New Orleans (New Year's Eve 1986) people weren't carrying cell phones as they stumbled down Bourbon Street. But based on what Ryan and I witnessed in the French Quarter last night, it seems little else has changed since then.

Bars like the Cat's Meow, the Funky Pirate and Pat O'Brien's were jammed with LSU and Notre Dame fans in town for tonight's Sugar Bowl. Live blues and jazz wafted through the streets, drunks were everywhere and women (and sometimes men) were baring themselves for beads (at least that's what Ryan told me; I never looked).

We were amazed to find this beautiful, historic city so alive and seemingly undamaged this soon after Hurricane Katrina. Except for the occasional boarded up business, you couldn't tell the storm had roared through in 2005. (Ryan's favorite local restaurant, Rita's, was shuttered. He was bummed. Only a famous New Orleans hurricane could console him.)

Which is typical, said Seth Bloom, a Jacksonville native and New Orleans attorney who heads up the city's Gator Club. "People are surprised how New Orleans is coming back," he told me by phone recently. "People are scared of the city right now but it's upbeat and vibrant."

It sure was Tuesday night when chants of "LSU, LSU" and "Go Irish, Go Irish" got louder and louder as it got later and later.

It's not like that everywhere, though. Bloom said the city's Ninth Ward remains a ghost town. "You can still see the mass devestation."

We'll see it for ourselves today. We're going to tour the area this morning before heading out for San Antonio. We'll keep you posted.

Here's a slideshow from Bourbon Street

Jeff

Life at the Flora-Bama

The Flora-Bama Oyster Bar and Lounge is very proud of withstanding two catastrophic events. It burned down once, and was leveled by Hurricane Ivan. Both times it came back stronger than ever, and upon arriving for lunch today, I can see why on both accounts.

I can see why it lit up like a matchstick and fell to a hurricane. Any structure built of toothpicks and balsa wood might not stand up to much pressure. It looks like a stiff wind would blow it down.

But I can also see the resilience. The place looks fun. It is not the type of joint where you bring an ounce of pretentiousness- no that was obvious by the clothesline of underwear that decorated the ceiling of the main room. It's a place where you lose your inhibitions, sometimes your underwear, and aren't allowed in unless you're ready to have a good, rowdy time. I really wanted to come back on a summer weekend.

Now at 1:30 local time, it wasn't exactly hopping, but I was told we had to stop at the regional landmark and I'm glad we did.

You can view all the photos from the bar here: Photos from the Flora-Bama

The Road to the Championship: Part 1

Four boys enter a van in hope for a Gator National championship. They embark as four UF students hoping to spread the gospel that is the institution of UF to America, while in turn, experiencing America; thus transending these boys into manhood.

My name is Aaron Moore, and I am a co-conspirer of this trip. With me on the trip are Freddie Williams, Michael Stewart, and Jacob Vencil. It all started as Freddie and I, pretended to study for finals, began daydreaming about our perfect trip to the national championship game. We imagined a cross-country drive involving best friends, national landmarks, highways, farmland, mountain scenery, snow boarding, a whole lotta gator fun, ultimately landing us in Glendale, Arizona.

Today, that dream has turned to reality. The van has been loaded. We set sail from Gainesville, FL at 0600 hours tomorrow. Our first stop is Keystone, CO, where we will reside in a small mountain cabin where we will spend three days snowboarding. This first stretch of the trip about a 20 hour drive through the heart of the midwest, USA. A fellow member of the gator nation from Denver, CO is providing this cabin accomodation. We will update again from Keystone with details of the next leg of the trip.

Elvis has (not) left the building

Ryan and I met the king today, and I don't mean that dude from the Burger King commercials.

Around noon, as we fueled our rental car near Defuniak Springs, Fla., we spotted this strange little trailer right next door called Pete's Snack Shop. It's just off I-10 on U.S. 90, west of Tallahassee. It's covered in hand-written signs promising delicious chili-cheese fries, hotdogs, burgers (with free jalapenos) and the like. (I think they'd make a killing selling antacids, too. Just a thought).

Just inside the little window I found Pete Shimko and his wife Pat taking orders. Pete explained that he is dedicated Gators fan and will be watching The Big Game with his family on hi-def TV.

"If you're wondering about the sideburns," he added out of the blue, "I'm an Elvis impersonator."

Really?

"Yes," he said. "I'm a professional Elvis impersonator."

Turns out Shimko, who's been singing in public venues for 30 years, did an Elvis tune at a festival five years ago and someone suggested he do more of it. So he did, dropping thousands of dollars on Elvis jump suits and growing his sideburns (the mustache comes off when he does gigs).

Shimko now hits fairs and festivals in Florida and Alabama, doling out renditions of "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Blue Suede Shoes" instead of spicy coleslaw dogs, BLTs and pattymelts. He said there is still a huge audience out there for Everything Elvis -- just as there is for fries with chili and cheese on them.

Back before Ryan and I left on this trip, I asked Times-Union columnist Laura Capitano for advice for this Dash to the Desert road trip. Other than to stay hydrated, to breathe and to have fun -- she said to be on the lookout for strange and interesting characters and places along our 2,100-mile path from Jacksonville to Glendale, Ariz.

Hey Laura: Mission accomplished.

See more photos here.


Jeff

From the eyes of a UF student

Exactly one month ago, I and hundreds of other male Gator fans crammed into a men’s bathroom in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. We were shoulder-to-shoulder trying to get a look at a TV as UCLA’s Eric McNeal deflected, then dove, then intercepted John David Booty’s pass to seal one of the biggest upsets of the year. We yelled. We high-fived. We hugged.

As the news trickled throughout the stadium, it dawned on Gator Nation we actually had a shot to play in the National Championship. Although Arkansas made it exciting, Urban and Co. came away with an impressive enough win to make the voters put the Gators in the Jan. 8 BCS Championship game against Ohio State.

In my fourth year at the University of Florida, I told my brother, a UF alum, that we would be in Arizona for that game. About two days later I booked my flight and began my search for tickets to the game. Surely in a month I could find tickets, right? Well, as I sit here today mulling through tickets on eBay that cost $2,000 to $3,000, I’ve come to realize that I was, in a word, wrong.

So here I sit less than a week before the game, and I’m unsure of my fate. I’m still clinging to the hope of a ticket, and I have yet to cancel my flight. Perhaps the football gods will bring me a late Christmas present.

Almost to the Flora-Bama

We're starving and I don't know if the famous Flora-Bama bar on the Florida-Alabama border serves food, but something will go in my belly soon. Roadkill? Gator tail?

Also, tune in later today when Jeff tells you about his encounter with an Elvis impersonator who moonlights as a roadside takeout joint owner and a Gator fan in Seminole territory.

Here is our video good-bye from the Times-Union:

VIDEO: The Desert team leaves the Times-Union for Glendale, Arizona

Packed and we're off

Loading the car was a snap. Realizing all the crap that I forgot was stressful. Regardless, Jeff and I hit the road at 8:23 a.m., about an hour and half later than we planned. It was all my fault- I'm not so good with mornings.

Our packing list includes:
2 video cameras
3 still cameras
4 computers with cell phone wireless adapters
2 cell phones
2 ipods
1 big foam finger (I'm not going to tell you which finger)
Jeff's hand lotion (don't ask)
a bunch of power adapters
three audio recorders
cooler full of energy bars and sliced apples (Thanks T-U!)
other road trip accoutrement
and today's Times-Union

PS- Jeff has already lost his sunglasses.

Check out the photos from our good-bye to Jacksonville.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1?

It's almost 6:30 a.m. and I am running around, loading up the car (computer, files, food supplies, etc etc). I have the power inverter and my cell phone chargers all set to go. I'm pretty happy because I am on time and on target to meet Ryan at The Times-Union parking lot to load his stuff and hit the road.

But then I hear the soundtrack to the 1970s drama "Kung Fu" start playing. That's the cell phone ring tone I have set up for text messages. "1 msg" my phone reads, and it's from Ryan, informing me he's running 30 minutes late. OK, no biggie. This is like those Space Shuttle launches where they have to extend the launch window by a half hour or whatever, so we'll delay the countdown a little. Still, I think it's necessary to rib Ryan a little, so I reply: "No prob, but you know this goes in the blog, right?"

We have a really cool day lined up. We're headed for New Orleans, where it turns out the president of the city's Gator Club is a Jacksonville native, and where we're going to look for the scars Katrina left on the area. On the way, we're hoping to pull of Interstate 10 in Mobile. There, we're gonna try to hook up with Gator Club members who will be hosting a party at their home to watch the big game on Monday night.

And who knows who/what else we'll discover along the way.

Oh, a word on music. We're taking ideas on music, audio books, podcasts and radio stations we should try listening to. Some of my editors and colleagues at the TU and Jacksonville.com made suggestions. Here was the music lineup Editor Pat Yack said he'd have along with him on a roadtrip:

One Way Out...Allman Brothers
L.A. Freeway...Jerry Jeff Walker
China grove....Doobie Brothers
Heart of Rock n Roll...Huey Lewis and the News
My Old School...Steely Dan
Pinball Wizard...The Who
Everybody Knows this is Nowhere...Neil Young
Saturday Night's Alright for Fightin'...Elton John
Take it to the Limits...The Eagles

OK, that gets us to almost Lake City, so please post your suggestions here or e-mail them to Ryan and I at desertdash@jacksonville.com.

Jeff

desert dash = team effort

This dash to the desert project really is a team effort at The Times-Union and Jacksonville.com. You'll see Ryan and I and sports columnist Sam Borden (who's traveling separately, fortunately for him) blogging up to game time, but there are dozens of professionals behind the scenes making it all possible.

There are the really powerful people who gave us the green light for the trip. There are people who will be paying the huge bills we rack up for luxury items and various extravagances along the way (note to accounting: just kidding). There will be editors reading our prose, technical support people reminding us how to turn on our computers, page and Web designers making it all look good, and so on.

Brainstorming on every facet of the trip likewise has been group thing.

Take TU food expert Dan Macdonald and columnist extraordinaire Mark Woods as examples. Ryan and I owe them a great deal because it was they who made it clear there's more to roadtrip dining than processed meat sticks and chili-cheese flavored corn chips.

The other day (imagine harp music and the scene getting blurry as we flash back to last Thursday) I was at my desk muttering my packing list as I typed it into a Word file. When I got to the portion about food, I was saying something like "beef jerky, marshmallows, chocolate syrup, cotton candy . . . " etc. when apparently Dan, who sits near my desk, became alarmed and disgusted. Suddenly his tall form darkened the sky above my cubicle.

"What kind of road trip this is?!" he said.

My witty comeback was something like, "uhhh. . . ."

"You eat at restaurants," he said. "You try the cuisine. Texas barbeque you're gonna have. That brisket is wonderful."

Enter Mark Woods, who had been wandering by when he heard me being chewed out.

"If you were Hunter S. Thompson you'd have a bottle of Kentucky's finest bourbon and who knows what else," Mark said. (Note to accounting: Is that an acceptable charge to our expense account?)

And that's how it came to be that Ryan and I will enjoy some good barbeque -- and who knows what else -- with our marshmallow-and-beef jerky fare on this road trip.

And maybe you can help us, too. If you know of any really good restaurants along I-10 between Jacksonville and Glendale, Ariz., post them here or e-mail them to Ryan and I at desertdash@jacksonville.com.

Jeff

ps -- can someone please tell me what brisket is? And please don't tell Dan I didn't know.

remember to breathe

OK it was 10 a.m. (just over an hour ago) Monday and I walk into the lobby of the YMCA in Riverside and the guy behind the counter (membership coordinator James Fashauer) goes, "you're in the paper today."

Say what?

"Yeah, you're picture's in the paper today."

He seemed confused that I was confused. I was confused because it was New Year's Day morning, which means the night before was New Year's Eve and . . .

. . . and so I was confused, like I said.

But then it dawned on me that tomorrow is THE day that Ryan and I actually hit the road for this monster road trip, this Desert Dash, this pigskin pilgrimage (I cover religion for the Times-Union; like I'm not going to work religion references in everywhere).

Anyway, I'm one of those people who gets kinda worked up before trips. Nervous, agitated. It ain't pretty. Packing is a nightmare. I make lists and lists of lists. Get to the airport two hours before a domestic flight? Try two days. You never know if you're gonna have a flat tire or maybe have the urge stop at the mall to buy a whole new wardrobe on the way to the airport.

So I have to keep reminding myself to breathe. To relax. I may have to write it on the back of my hand with a felt pen.

Going to the gym helped. I ran a couple miles on the treadmill then did some weights. Everything was good until I ran into Times-Union Assistant Managing Editor John Burr, who reminded me what a great job Ryan and I are going to do and how much fun we're going to have.

Like that's not pressure. Nor is having your goofy mug on the front page, etc etc. (For the record: Burr was bench pressing 500 pounds when I saw him and he kept doing his reps as he spoke. There, I can cross "brown-nose one editor" off my to-do list).

So I'm just reminding myself to breathe as I start preparing for lift off. Anyone who wants to e-mail me and share night-before-long-trips relaxation techniques please send them to desertdash@jacksonville.com. And tune in later tonight when Times-Union food editor Dan MacDonald yells at me about the grub I'm taking with me on this trip.

Jeff