Yours portly is heading to see his older brother down in the Lowcountry this weekend, so it seemed like a good time to look back at this series of classic posts about road tripping around the Southeast and beyond. I’ll be back “on the soulless, boring Interstate Highway System”—specifically the particularly dreadful I-95—but there’ll be some good backroads, too.

I’ve got quite a bit of driving ahead of me. In a couple of weeks I’ll be presenting a couple of workshops at the South Carolina Independent School Association’s (SCISA‘s) annual teachers’ conference. I’ll be covering two topics: how to create a DIY garage band music program; and how teachers can make extra money teaching private music lessons. Naturally, I’ll be sharing the slides and resources with my paid subscribers once they’re done! But I’m looking forward to some open road and checking out the Upstate.

Yes, it seems September will see me all over South Carolina. I should write a book about that (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you).

With that, here is 4 September 2025’s “TBT^16: Road Trip!“:

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All the recent fracas over Cracker Barrel changing its logo (an incredibly stupid move—people go to Cracker Barrel because it’s kitschy Americana with old photos hanging on the wall and Uncle Herschel leaning against a barrel) brings to mind another all-American institution:  the road trip (naturally, the best place to eat on a road trip is Cracker Barrel).  Yours portly hasn’t been able to do much of what would technically be considered “road tripping,” but I have been driving a lot.  Between going to see Dr. Fiancée, attending family events, playing piano in another town on Sundays, and running distant errands, I’ve been keeping the road hot.

Of course, here in the United States we just observed one of our major road trip holiday weekends, Labor Day.  It’s the last big vacation weekend before we slowly creep into autumn.  I can attest that the cars and the cops have been out in force.

These days, I only really want to take road trips with Dr. Fiancée, but those will have to wait until she finishes residency.  Otherwise, I’d much prefer just driving to and from work—and to see her!

With that, here is 5 September 2024’s “TBT^4: Road Trip!“:

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