It is 1:20 am pacific time, 4:20 am my time, and I have finally made it to Eugene Oregon. I am not sure what day it is. I left my office at 6pm yesterday evening and it is now almost 6 in the morning two days later. a full day and a half traveling around trying to get to this strange place. this morning I awoke very early in Las Vegas and just started on both phones trying to get a ticket out of there. had a hundred good leads but every time I would go to book something it would cancel out or turn out to be a prop plane or be overbooked. Literally from 830 till 230 just sat on the phone trying to get to Eugene. Finally found a way through delta. But had to fly back east to salt lake city Utah first. And then switch planes to Oregon. which would put me there about 930/1230est. approximately 30 hours after I left Manhattan the day before.

[For salt lake city let me say this: this is middle America at its most pure. All these connecting flights to cities I have only heard about. places like billings Montana, and Boise Idaho and Oklahoma city and Sacramento and Seattle Washington... you should have seen the people in slc. Total Americana. Mothers with messed up hair and with like three and four and five children. All the guys wearing baseball caps and baggy jeans. Totally different than Miami or New York. but this is another story.]

But unfortunately this trip didn't quite work out either. There is something called fog here in the northwest. So as we flew over Eugene tonight, we heard the ominous voice of the captain come over the radio and tell us that we would circle Eugene a few times to see if the fog lets up. so I did see Eugene. Three times in fact. We flew over it. But it didn't happen. we finally started running out of fuel and we had to go on to Portland. At that point I was told once again, for the second night in a row, that I would not be going to Eugene but rather stay overnight in a city called Portland this time and maybe I could get to Eugene in the morning. Where I stayed and how I got there was up to me.

Luckily I had befriended a really cool fifty year old gentleman who was seated next to me on the plane and he happened to be a self professed conservative republican who works in of all things the logging business. when he heard that I was flying into his hometown to interview anti-logging activists for a TV show he was very eager to give me the other side of the story from a third generation Oregonian. Which he did. for three hours. And we talked about everything else social and political and in between. And we had three or four aisles of people all caught up in our arguing back and forth. But it was all in good humor. Whenever anyone got too heated I would just turn up the appreciation and the tone would simmer down. Whenever one side would get too heated I would shift my understanding over to that side in order to calm them down a bit and we all learned a lot. Really recognized, all of us on the plane tonight did I believe, how polarized our country is right now.

So anyway, here we are in Portland Oregon not Eugene at midnight and I'm stuck again, but this guy tells me he is going to his company’s satellite office in Portland and grabbing a car and driving to Eugene. He asks me if I want to come along to keep him company and continue our conversation. So I thanked him profusely and went along for the ride. another two hours and I finally made it into Eugene. I'm actually here now. sitting outside of this beautiful little old Victorian house that has been turned into a bed and breakfast. It is 4;49am my time. just about 36 hours later than when I first hopped into a taxi in Manhattan to get here. I am to say the least exhausted. Fog is a bitch I guess in the great northwest. I was very lucky indeed to meet this guy or else I would be writing this from a hotel room in Portland and still not be in Eugene.

But allow me to talk about Las Vegas, for I was afforded a few hours there in my travels. Before I could leave for slc Utah, first I had to find a shoe repair shop in Las Vegas to get my briefcase strap fixed, which had broken last night. So I circled a bunch of shoe repair places in the phone book and went to go look for a cab. So I have my briefcase tucked under my right arm because the strap is broken, and I have this huge Las Vegas yellow page book tucked under my left arm and I'm walking down the streets of Las Vegas. Funny image right? thought so myself and so did everyone else I'm sure. All the more reason why I believe this TV or movie idea is a great idea. like Dasher says, ‘man I just don't know what it is with you Fishy, but crazy things just happen to you. I've lived in New York for three years and you're the only guy I know who’s gotten a ticket for how he throws out his trash or been approached by prostitutes while sitting minding his own business typing on his laptop. let alone twice. Let alone within one month of moving here. that's why you're gonna make good TV. If we can just get our arms around what it is exactly that this show is about and why we’re doing it....’ [of course I already had the answer for Dasher as always and assure him that a reality show or a movie about a rock singer who goes on a mission to learn more about the world and discover the meaning of life by traveling around interviewing people both famous and infamous and not so famous is a great idea in and of itself. And all we have to do is just have cameras follow me around.... he's getting there in understanding how easy it is actually going to be. unscripted and real life. just the way real life is.... I assure him that real life, not reality TV as it is today, is very very interesting...]

so yes I thought of these things as I made way through the Las Vegas streets searching for cabs to take me to some shoe repair place. Well I finally found a cab. And boy was she a pistol. A real talker. The funny thing is that the repairing of the strap on my briefcase was only two dollars but the cab ride cost me twenty-five to get there and back. Las Vegas cabs are even more expensive than New York. but I got to see Las Vegas a good deal and she showed me all around. What a strange place Las Vegas is. basically a big desert with a bunch of local folks who are not too unlike regular old American hicks, real nice folk, but there is this big strip of land in the middle of their town with all these huge hotels and casinos. On one block they have replicas of a pyramid, the Eiffel tower, and the statue of liberty. Its just that surreal. Its like a giant toy store or something. well I made it out of Las Vegas without even playing one slot machine. Call it what you will, but that stuff just doesn’t appeal to me yet.

now I will sleep. 36 hours and five cities later I made it to Eugene Oregon. tomorrow I spend all day hanging and interviewing deforestation activists to try to get to the bottom of this whole logging/lumber/environment issue. Should be interesting. And just wait till you see the footage of this quaint little bed and breakfast.