The Oregon Trail, Prologue

March 26, 2011, 10 am: Tickets for Death Cab for Cutie's San Francisco concert go on sale.

March 26, 2011, 8 pm: I log on to Ticketmaster and am surprised to find that I can't buy a ticket to the concert.  "This is odd," I think.  "Surely this concert hasn't sold out in less than a day."

Late March-Early April 2011:  I stalk Ticketmaster (and Stubhub and Craigslist) several times a day... and no luck.  I come to find out that the concert had sold out not only in less than a day, but in less than an hour.  Ticketmaster isn't doing it for me because there are literally no tickets left, and the resale markets are essentially useless because the tickets are will-call, photo-ID only.

But I'm not about to give up on this concert.  I've been a fan of Death Cab for six or seven years, having never seen them live, and they've easily worked their way to the top of my Bands I Need To See In Concert list.  On a whim, I look at the rest of their tour dates, curious if they'd be playing a show elsewhere in northern California.  They're not... but they are playing at this sweet-looking venue called the Les Schwab Amphitheater in some town called Bend, Oregon.  That's "only" eight to nine hours away... and The Decemberists are playing the exact same venue only two days later.  Better yet, all of this happens over Memorial Day weekend, so I could easily make a weekend of it: drive up Friday, stay through Sunday, and come home Monday, only missing one day of work.

Late April 2011: I convince my friend Josh and his girlfriend (now fiancee!) Sonia to come along.  The Oregon Trail is going to happen.