Next stop, Nashville.
Those are the words I can already hear myself saying as my 11-year-old daughter and I sit in front of the computer, mapping out something of a dream vacation. It'll just be the two of us, giving us some great windshield time, just talking as I drive us from one minor league baseball park to the next.

It's a trip we've been talking about for a couple years and we just decided to sit down and actually put pen and paper to the notion, to bring it to life. This, of course, will make us accountable: me to her to actually follow through with the trip and both of us to the rest of our family ... to actually follow through with the trip.

We're beginning at the home base here in central Arkansas. We're planning to leave early Sunday afternoon, in time to catch a 2 p.m. start of a Memphis Redbirds game at their still-seems-new AutoZone Park. From there we'll head south into Alabama and catch the Huntsville Stars on Monday night at Joe W. Davis Municipal Stadium, then head to Chattanooga's BellSouth Park to see the Lookouts in action on Tuesday night. Wednesday night will find us in Nashville, watching the Sounds do battle at Greer Stadium.

On Thursday, we'll head to Jackson, Tenn., for a West Tenn Diamond Jaxx game that night. After the game, we'll drive the three hours on home. If we're feeling really ambitious, we might just head on into Little Rock for an Arkansas Travelers game. Probably not, though, as we can catch the Travs just about anytime.

So, that's the plan. Five games in five days, which probably doesn't strike the die-hard as the end-all, be-all baseball dream trip. For us, though, it's more about the time spent together in a car that's starting to smell and could probably use an oil change. It's about bunking with whatever friends we happen to have along the way and it's about eating ballpark franks at each and every ballpark we visit.

And, for her, it's about the souvenirs.

The tricky part is that the budget for this trip isn't exactly astronomical. Part of the reason is that we relish the challenge of making the trip on as little money as possible. The bigger part of the reason is that my wife doesn't want us spending much money on the trip. So, how are we going to do it?

We have friends just outside Memphis that we'll be staying with after the Redbirds' game, which will save a night of hotel charges. We'll pay for gas and something to eat at the park, something that would cost about half as much if purchased beforehand, of course. If we have friends in Huntsville, we've forgotten about them, so an adjustment is needed there. It's only 120 miles on to Chattanooga, though, which means it's worth it to drive the two hours after the game for a free place to sleep in Chattanooga.

That also means we can sleep late since we're already in our next host city. Perhaps there will be time to visit some of Chattanooga's attractions, like the Choo Choo, Rock City or the Tennessee Aquarium.

After spending another night in Chattanooga, we'll make the easy (two-hour) trek to middle Tennessee, where we'll spend the night with more friends and take in the Nashville Sounds game. The roughest part of the journey, we figure, will be after Thursday night's game in Jackson, Tenn., which involves the aforementioned three-hour drive.

Friday will be a day for rest. And, yes, possibly, the Travelers' game.

The tricky part of all this, besides keeping the cost down, is matching up all the appropriate teams' schedules to fit your own. If you have five teams involved - as we do - odds are there are only a couple times during the course of a minor-league season when it would be possible to catch every team at home - on the nights you need them there.

Then again, the planning is usually the best part.