It's 3 p.m. Friday as I write this. This time Saturday, I'll be on the road to Santa Fe, my overnight pit stop. Today, if all goes well, I'll be in Denver.

In case you didn't know, there's going to be a huge party there.

About 50,000 visitors are expected to be in Denver for the Democratic Party Convention, at which, barring the unexpected story of the year, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), will accept the nomination of his party for candidate for president of the United States. Obama is scheduled to speak Thursday.

Of course, there are multiple storylines. How will supporters of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) react? What will she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, say in their Norma Fisher-Flores.

The El Paso delegation is weighted toward Clinton; El Paso voted overwhelmingly for Clinton in the Texas primary, giving her almost 70 percent of the vote. You might recall, there also were some local races in the mix. Among those were the primary for state Rep. District 78; Joseph Moody (D) and Dee Margo (R) will slug it out in the general.

The election generated some hard feelings that linger for the El Pasoans, who split along various lines – newcomers v. party regulars, younger v. older voters, and, in large part, state Rep. Norma Chavez and her supporters v. outgoing state Rep. Paul Moreno and his. Some of it was straight-up Obama v. Clinton, and some of it was the result of years of political jockeying.

I'll do my best to keep track of all things El Paso, mostly as relates to the convention, but also other observations that might relate. For example, the convention takes place in and around Downtown Denver. That might be instructive as we see changes in our own Downtown, the subject of so much controversy.

And while Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Dallas are most often mentioned as destinations for El Pasoans looking to live elsewhere, Denver has its fair share as well. Maybe we'll run into a few (feel free to e-mail me if you know any).

The trip is somewhat spur of the moment. Denver is only a 10-hour-or-so drive from El Paso, unlike the Republican Convention, in Minneapolis, Minn. (which we are not going to cover). One of the advantages of being in a small, adventurous news operation is our flexibility. We can move quickly.

I'm not sure exactly what we're going to get from Denver. Credentials to get inside the convention hall events may or may not be available. But half the story is going to be in the salons and streets, and it's sure to be interesting.

In El Paso, we are living through a historic change, with big events within local control (to varying degrees) such as Fort Bliss, the Medical Center of the Americas, the Downtown Plan, and the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, and events outside much of our control, such as border and immigration issues, the drug wars, the impact of rising fuel prices on international shipping and the concurrent attractiveness of the border for manufacturing.

As this is being written, on Friday afternoon, the U.S. is waiting to hear Obama's choice for vice president. [update: Obama picked U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, (D-Del), a choice made public late Friday. You can read the NY Times here and the Wall Street Journal here.] Whoever he picks, history is being made at the national level.

NPT has been proud to document the living history we're part of in El Paso. Looking at history being made in Denver, well, that's just going to be cool.

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Sito Negron can be reached via e-mail at sito@newspapertree.com