If your initials aren't JVA...

...you lose.

That's because in six hours' time, John Van Amburg will land in Sydney and become the first person from the States to visit me in Australia.

John's here until January 4, and we have a great, great few weeks planned.

This upcoming week, John will be doing his own thing during the day while I'm off working. But come next Friday, we're taking an overnight train up north to Brisbane, renting a campervan (basically a very mini RV) and doing a one week road trip up the Queensland coast to the Great Barrier Reef.

We'll figure out the detailed itinerary next week, but the basic idea is to do about two or three hours of driving a day and spend the rest of the time bumming around on the beach or seeing sites. We fly back to Sydney on December 30 in time for New Year's Eve.

I'm pumped. I'm beyond pumped. It's a plan that came together -- from conception to booking reservations -- in about three days, and it's going to be sweet. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures, and once I fully recover (sometime in 2008), I'll recap the adventure here.