This weekend I will be traveling to Albany, New York for the National Catholic Forensic League Grand Nationals, one of high school debate’s season-ending national championships. In order to save money, we will be sharing two coach buses with several other schools. This is quite an undertaking: Google Maps estimates that the trip will take 14 hours and 37 minutes, but we are planning for something closer to 17 hours. Assuming we will be taking the I-90 E route (and not the I-94 E route, which would cross through Canada), the trip take us through Chicago, South Bend, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, and all places in between.

Much of this area will be new to me—and although I’ll only see most of it from the windows of a bus, I am nonetheless looking forward to seeing these parts of the country for the first time. I will be taking photographs with my new digital camera and posting text updates to my Twitter throughout the weekend. If you’d like to follow the NCFL National Tournament, you can also search for the hashtag #ncfl on Twitter.