Quick update: As expected the beer is already fermenting away. Usually when I brew and get the wort down to the 70 range I won't see any airlock action until the next morning. But sure enough, when I got home about six hours later I saw a very active airlock. ...and, hopefully this is a good thing, the recent temp. is 76 F; so at least I'm 1 degree away from the fermentation temp (i.e. 59 to 75 F).
I wanted to have it sit longer, but my main concern was contamination or other problems resulting from the wort being cooled slowly.
In general, what is the longest time you want a 5 gallon batch to get from boiling to pitch temp? ...and yes, I know it is suppose to be "asap", but what is the longest that is acceptable?