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"... I can't move. My legs are growing weaker by the minute. My feet are slowly becoming numb. My lower back is reminding me that it hasn't had to endure this posture in a long, long time. My ears ring from the repetitive screams that come from all around. I check my watch every so often, and it reminds me that this will soon be over -- and I can go back home..."

A Battlefield in Iraq? No.

Boot camp in the Marines? No.

I am trying to win Hannah Montana tickets for my 9-year-old daughter.

It was the middle of the summer when the announcement was made. Hannah Montana was coming to Greensboro.

Easily the biggest Disney sensation of the decade, Hannah Montana, whose real name is Miley Cyrus, the 15-year-old daughter of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, has enjoyed an unprecedented climb to stardom. Since it began airing in 2006, the Hannah Montana television series has entered the homes of tens of millions of adoring young female fans, including our 9-year-old daughter, Alyssa.

We knew there was no way to keep the news of the concert from her. One of Hannah Montana's biggest fans, Alyssa knew the words to every one of her songs and wasn't satisfied until she saw every episode a dozen or more times.

To my wife Liz and me, the path was set. The forces of the ticket gods would soon be flexing their muscles, and given this young star's incredible popularity, we would have to give it our best efforts.

About two weeks before the tickets were scheduled to go on sale, we learned that members of an online Hannah Montana fan club called mileyworld.com would be granted access to an unknown number of tickets ahead of time. Thinking it might improve our chances of better seats, we signed up for the club online, not realizing until afterwards that the membership had to be in effect a certain number of days before the pre-sale tickets could be purchased.

Strike one.

The day the regular tickets went on sale we had the computer on the ticketmaster.com site a half-hour early. Our information was entered and everything was ready. At exactly 10 a.m., the tickets were released, and we immediately chose the "best seats available" selection, filled in a 4 for quantity, and rocketed through the squiggly number verification the site uses to prevent fraud. The order was placed within 15 seconds of the release, so we felt confident that we were in.

All seemed good ... until this message appeared: "There are no tickets available that matched your request."

Surely there's something wrong, we thought. There's no way all the tickets could be sold out that quickly. We tried again. And again. Same answer. No tickets available.

Strike two.

Telling Alyssa that she wouldn't be able to go wasn't easy. Hearing about many others who also couldn't get tickets seemed to lessen the impact, but she was still disappointed.

As fate would have it, Alyssa's mileyworld.com membership materials (a credit card-like membership card, a bracelet and a few other goodies) arrived in the mail a few days before the concert. At about the same time, we received an e-mail with an invitation to see the Mileyworld tour bus and have a chance for kids to sing karaoke and win Hannah Montana prizes.

Here was our chance to make up for not getting tickets. The invitation said the party was to start two hours before the concert, at 2 p.m. Alyssa and I were there at 12:30.

The lines were light at first, but before we knew it, the place was packed. She got her door prize raffle tickets, we took some pictures of Alyssa in front of the mileyworld.com tour bus and we headed to the karaoke stage. We were soon surrounded by thousands of people, all packed in like sardines. There was literally no room to move. It was all I could do to keep Alyssa within reach.

As the festivities began, children were selected from the crowd to sing karaoke. Although Alyssa was right up front, she was passed over once, then again ... and again. "That's OK," I thought. "There are still prizes to be given away."

Sure enough, the tickets were drawn, and one by one the prizes were given away. Dozens of numbers were called, and one by one the prizes were depleted. None of our numbers matched.

Strike Three.

What I didn't know was that there was going to be a parent karaoke contest for those who didn't already have tickets, and the prize was a set of tickets to the show. As a half-dozen or so parents took the stage, Alyssa looked at me and said sadly, "It's OK, Daddy. You don't have to do it." She knew I would be embarrassed. I'll never forget the look in her eyes. No guilt trips. No head games. She really meant it.

That's all it took. I entered the stage, and after a quick round of eliminations, the contest came down to just two parents. One of the moms and ... to our surprise ... me!

A sing-off was next. The mom would take one verse, then I, then she, and so on. Soon, the contest was over, and they had selected a winner: the mom. But the contest hostess had one more announcement. Because we tried so hard, there would be another winner. Us!

Home Run.

Courtesy of the folks at mileyworld.com, Alyssa and I shared an incredible evening that neither of us will ever forget. Miley Cyrus is an extremely talented musician, and the entire production was choreographed and performed as well as any acts I have ever seen.

Yes, Alyssa was lucky. She will always be able to remember her very first concert as one put on by her favorite performer.

But I think I'm the lucky one. I get to remember the look on Alyssa's face when Hannah Montana hit the stage that night. It's something I will cherish forever, and it's something money just can't buy.