On the road again

After an interesting and eventful year in Olympia, WA, I'm moving back to Chapel Hill (well, Durham, actually) starting this weekend.  I'll be driving 4700 miles over the course of 11 days and you can follow all the action here.  The first three days will be spent working my way down the Washington and Oregon coasts along Highway 101 until I get to San Francisco, at which point Tanya will join me for the trip down to LA.  You may remember her from such blogs as Where in the US is Sean's Civic?  We'll probably talk a lot about crappy pop music and gel as we drive along the Pacific Coast Highway.  Planned stops include the International Banana Museum, the home of the greatest cookies ever, and a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live which, if our waitlist tickets come through, would mark the 19th anniversary of my first appearance on a late night talk show.  (Click here and look for the guy sitting in the front row aisle seat wearing a white baseball hat at the 1:05 mark.)

Once we get to LA, I say goodbye to Tanya and hello to my brother Matt, who is flying in from Michigan to join me for most of my 5-day post-dissertation defense college football extravaganza.  You may remember Matt from such blogs as 9498 Days, which chronicled our trip, along with our dad, to Pasadena for the 2014 Rose Bowl.  This time, we'll be hitting four games in four days to kick off the college football season.  First up is Weber St. vs. Arizona St on 8/28.  I'll be pulling hard for Arizona St.  Then it's on to Denver on 8/29 for the annual rivalry game between Colorado and Colorado St at Mile High Stadium, followed by Louisiana Tech vs. Oklahoma in Norman on 8/30.  Matt wraps up his portion of the trip with our visit to Rocky Top for Utah St. vs. Tennessee on 8/31.  Then it's on to Louisville so Matt can catch his return flight and I can catch one last game, Louisville vs. Miami on 9/1.  From there, it's me solo all the way to Durham.

Stay tuned here for real-time updates and nightly recaps during all 11 days!

Until then, it's back to packing.