Even then, the delegates were not awoken until the eve of their trip to the surface.
This approach, I was told, nearly ended one romance in the making, when on the eve of the couple's first trip, his extra books broke the zipper on her suitcase.
But now on the eve of Mr. Bush's first trip to Europe since re-election, the question hangs pungently in the air.
On the eve of Mr. Manglapus's trip, explosives were found in the conference center where the meeting, the third in the association's 20-year history, is to be held Dec. 14-16.
Releasing that memo on the eve of Mr. Baker's European trip was inept.
Some thought the decision came from the Central Committee - that, as with my visa for Moscow, it was a public relations move on the eve of Gorbachev's trip to Washington.
And he took issue with a suggestion that on the eve of his trip to Asia, his Administration is perceived as lacking a foreign policy.
On the eve of his trip a Japanese Government official publicly compared prostitutes in Tokyo's notorious red-light district to blacks who move into white neighborhoods and "ruin the atmosphere."
On the eve of his trip to Washington, his authority at home seems to be dissolving under him.
The President and his close political advisers sensed disaster on the eve of his trip to Europe.