Game on: PDX to SAN. May 1.

Starting weight: 120 lbs
Base Pack Weight (BPW, weight of pack without food or water): 18.1lbs(this will need to be trimmed down within the first week, and no, it does not include my 600-page paperback novel. I'll even admit that I sent the second book in the series in a box for later in my trip. Ok, so maybe I was a little ambitious. Neither of these will likely be read until I return to Portland. They're going home. Buh-bye.)

Made it to PDX this morning with some time to spare. (thanks for the ride and the coffee, Jill) Wrapped my backpack in a turkey roasting bag (in order to keep the various straps and loops from getting caught in the airport luggage belts) and taped it up with duct tape. I have a small carry-on bag holding all critical components in individual zip-locs: toiletries, toilet paper, notebook and pen, maps for Section A.) Stood in line with a few hundred people going to Hawaii, looking fresh, coiffed, made-up and vaca fashionable. Their bags were not wrapped in turkey plastic and tape. They only had one ziploc in their carry-ons. I'm fairly certain that they were not toting around their own toilet paper or a contact lense case filled with ointment for armpit and butt chaffing.

I feel liberated from all the planning now, although a little sloppy and vagabondish in normal civilization. Tshirt, desert shirt, Velcro dork watch, straw cowboy hat and blindingly white sneakers. Not that any choice of clothing is particularly outlandish in Portland. I still went through the "I'm an elite flyer, therefore i am better than you"security line to a variety of awkward stares. Wait until i stop putting on deoderant, people.

Time to relax, journal and inhale a few good meals before tomorrow's 4:30am departure for the border. Ugh, I'm already sweating.

Just flying over Lake Tahoe now....I'll cover all the remaining distance of this two-hour flight by foot over the next two months. Less than 24 hours to MX. Nothing left to do but walk.