Hi All,

I got a call from a girlfriend of mine yesterday asking me if I wanted to join her to go see Mt. St. Helens erupt. I told her, "of course I want to go, but I can't." That twice now in the past two weeks I've had to say that. She said she had this intense feeling that she absolutely had to be there, so today she went.

Tonight I'll start the first of several days of reporting this "On the Road with Melanie" from El Cerrito, CA story.

She started her journey at 6:30am today and said she was out of California in a snap, but crossing Oregon took a whole lot longer. Around 4pm today she took a detour off of I-5 about 20 miles east and caught a glimpse of St. Helens and Mt. Hood, which she said was a breath-taking view. At the time the mountain was quiet and the skies clear.

She hit Portland at rush hour of course and spent 45 minutes going just a few miles. She said that commute was worse than the Bay Area. (Hard to imagine). After she stopped for gas in Vancouver a woman told her to get off in Longview to get a bite to eat and so she did as she was told and got lost. Eventually she stopped and bought a map and got some solid directions on how to find the freeway and landed in Kelso around 8pm, grabbed some dinner and found her motel.

She's pretty tired, yet quite excited. She's going to get her computer set up, sit back and enjoy a tall cool drink and then hope tomorrow she'll be there when it happens.

Petra