In the time when one first tells a story, I've often heard that the beginning is the best place to start. And this tale is not one of The Young Riders, or the 1860s, but one of a more recent adventure. This, my friends, is the story of how I met an amazing girl by the name of Joanna Phillips.

Sometime around April/May of 1998, I stumbled upon the sites that were dedicated to our favorite TV show. I was ecstatic and excited beyond belief, and it was that very same day that I read my first piece of fan fiction.

Needless to say, I started my first story the next morning…"Never Say Goodbye." Now, I had not had much experience with writing stories of this nature, and imagine my excitement when a woman also by the name of Joanna Phillips (whose story "Ghost of the Past" I had read, and thought she was just the "bee's knees".) wrote to me and said how much she was enjoying my story. I felt like I had just been contacted by a celebrity (LOL…yes, J, did I not tell you this?).

So anyway, I wrote her back, thanking her for her encouragement. Then a few days later, she announced the opening of her page. I was once again excited that she had done such a thing, and I mentioned that I too had been working on one. She supported me in so many ways, and within a few days of her "premier" I announced the arrival of my site.

Okay, so the rest you know…we cried together over messing up our pages, and we laughed over stupid ideas into the very very A.M. hours of the morning. This went on for a month or two, and all I know is that we started new stories and began sending parts of them for the other person to read and comment on. And this my friends, was our first summer as TYR buddies. We talked on and off through the school year, enjoying the holidays which meant that we could stay up late in our customary tradition.

Then, when this spring rolled around again, I realized how much I would love to meet this girl. We talked about the possibility of it, and eventually we made concrete plans. She had never been to Oregon, and wanted very much to see it!

So, on that sunny morning July 26, 1999, I drove to the airport to meet her. Now that it is over, and Joanna already knows, I can tell how nervous I was! Why, I'm not entirely sure…but I was. I got there and shortly there after her plane arrived. There was no doubt in my mind who the smiling girl was that came off of the plane…it was JOANNA! She had finally come, and from the start we picked up where our e-mails had left off!

Cramming ourselves into my car, we drove out to get some lunch and had a picnic at the Portland Rose Garden amongst all of the lovely flowers. It was a wonderful afternoon, and we talked about everything and nothing all at once. (Does that take talent, or is the absence of it? LOL) I showed her around the fair city and by the early evening we were on our way back home.

For the next five days, we covered more of the area than I think I have covered in the past year! It was wonderful…we went up to Mt. Hood and saw the van for the U.S. Ski Team crammed with all sorts of junk and equipment (they use the glacier to practice on in the summer). AND, the two of us rode up on a chair lift to a lookout point on the mountain. It was beautiful to be able to see for hundreds of miles around…we definitely felt like we were on top of the world.

We of course came back to dedicate our evening to movies, writing, and TYR! Although as Joanna's picture shows, I think that we dedicated the LEAST amount of time to writing.

The next day we packed up and headed over an hour and a half away to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum where we saturated ourselves in educational history stuff, and got lost in the book section of the gift shop.

On Thursday, we did a very brave, very exciting, and very stupid thing. We drove to the top of a steaming volcano…Mt. Saint Helens. In a few hours (hours spent with actually writing Same Old Song while sitting NEXT to each other in real life!) we were standing on top of the mountain (as far as they would let you go) looking into the dome of an active, smoking, earthquake-moving, volcano. But it was okay…we knew what to do if it suddenly blew (which it is slated to do) we BOTH saw "Dante's Peak" so the situation was perfectly under control. We drove back down a little bit further, and stopped to have a small picnic amongst the ash.

Finally deciding that we had risked death enough for one trip, we headed back to Portland for a nice, quiet dinner. Of course we boogied back home once again, and began our nightly ritual of snacks, laughing, and movies.

Then, Friday came…the day that Joanna would also be going home. *sniffle* We made the most of our last day together, and took a sternwheel cruise down the Columbia River. Joanna and I actually got to drive the ship (scary huh?), and let me tell you, for coming from a place that only has creeks, Joanna did a mi-ti-fine job of steering us around rocks and windsurfers!

We came back to the house in time to catch some more TYR, and eat some dinner before we headed over to the airport. Joanna and I did our best to make our farewells short as sweet, promising (for lack of a better term) "never to say goodbye" for long (we were already crying in the airport as it was). And, with a heavy heart, but the feeling of a wonderful week, I headed back home.

It was a fantastic 5 days, and a awesome trip that I spent with a truly incredible girl! For those of you that don't already know, Joanna is a special, sweet, giving, and understanding person. I wouldn't trade her friendship for anything in the world…and all I gotta say is Georgia better watch out, because I'm coming out, and we're stirring up trouble all over again!