Day 1--Bend, Oregon

Team Sabo warmed up for its march across the midriff of America with an easy three-hour jaunt through the Cascade Mountains to the highfalutin' hotspot of Bend, Ore. As you may or may not know, I grew up in Bend when it was a mill town. Now it's like a drunk recovering from a bender. Bend hit it big in the real estate glory days, with the housing market exploding like it was on steroids and people making wads of cash flipping houses, the money so fast and easy they were practically giving it away on every street corner. At one time Bend was way up there in the rankings of one of the most overvalued real estate markets in the nation. Not anymore. There are foreclosures everywhere and smoking deals abound on houses here. If you can find work.

I digress. We left Canby, Ore., this morning under somewhat suspicious circumstances. Let's just say the neighbors were probably calling the cops because some crazed students from Cornerstone School of Ministry -- the perpetrators being Sarah Nagel, Ahnalise Murray, Jen Weiss and LJ Wilson -- showed up outside Grandma and Grandpa Young's house with a banner we literally drove through as we rolled down the street. It was an exit like no other. I can imagine the 9-1-1 call from the neighbor peeking out his window went something like this: "Get some cops down here right now! We've got some crazed Christians on the loose! On the streets of Canby!"

We'll get some photos of the hooliganism when we can. And where we can. The drive was OK today. Just some hollering issues from precious Olivia, but other than night fairly smooth sailing. Tomorrow we head for Utah. We'll venture through Prineville, our old stomping grounds in the '90s, then on through the magnificent John Day River Valley, with a stop to see some dear friends in Fruitland, Idaho. Adios.