When it comes to traveling, I love seeing a new place for the very first time. It always fills me with such inspiration and sparks my creative pilot light. I imagine all the possibilities and try to take in as much as I possibly can while there. 

Unofficially, Kris and I are on a tour to see as many NCAA stadiums and college towns as we can. We love seeing different schools when Georgia is playing a game, within reason of course. If it’s something short notice, anything under two hours of travel is doable; however, if we plan in advance, realistically any distance is feasible. We consider ourselves part of the Road Dawg community and have traveled for soccer and football games so far. 

The place we’ve visited the most is Jacksonville, Florida for the annual World’s Largest Cocktail Party. It’s always a great time seeing Georgia beat up on the Florida Gators. We’ve attended the last three years and we try to switch up the vibes each year to create new memories and discover more of what the city has to offer. If you haven’t already, check out the recap of this year’s trip. 

We’ve also been to Auburn, Alabama for a football game and it was scorching hot! It was a 2:30 PM CST game in early October and I swear the temperatures were still in the high 80’s. We ended up sitting in the sunlight for a vast majority of the game, but it was such a relief once the sun dipped down for some shade. One unique thing that Auburn has is a lemonade restaurant and store called Toomer’s Drugs. It’s a historic landmark and features some of the best lemonade I’ve ever had. The line was literally out the door when we got there after the game, but the wait was well worth all the effort. 

We recently traveled for the first time with the soccer team to Clemson where they played a hard fought NCAA Third Round game. Unfortunately they lost in penalties, but I can honestly say they had a phenomenal season. They went further than I imagined they would and definitely ended up streaking a few victories, especially at the end of their season. I’m really excited to see their growth over the next few years. I would imagine they are going to get exponentially better as they recruit better players and get more experience playing in bigger games. 

Kris had visited Clemson before and was even thinking about going there for college up until he received his acceptance from UGA. I, on the other hand, had never been, so being able to watch a great game and visit the area was a fun way to kill two birds with one stone. 

We drove through the campus and Kris showed me where ESPN sets up when they visit for College Game Day. Their soccer complex was really, really nice too. You can tell they invested decent money in making sure that facility had a great presentation. And, of course, we had to drive by the main attraction - the football stadium. It definitely looked waaay bigger than Stanford Stadium does, even from afar. 

Since a rough draft of UGA’s 2024 football schedule has dropped already, we’re scoping out our next traveling opportunities. We definitely want to go to Tuscaloosa for the game against Alabama on September 28th. A little less feasible but still possible, is going to the Texas game in Austin on October 19th too. If we want to attend a speciality game that’s basically a home away from home, we could go to the season opener against Clemson in Atlanta on August 31st. That one is less likely since we’ve already been to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Clemson probably won’t be that good of an opponent. And finally, the annual neutral site game in Jacksonville against Florida is up in the air. I think we might skip that one and instead go in the next few years when they play at the University of Florida in Gainesville. 

While it’s definitely great being surrounded by fans of your favorite team, it’s also super fun going into a hostile environment and rooting for the road team. It brings another meaning and appreciation to other college teams that you’d otherwise never get staying at your home stadium. It’s fun seeing the tourist locations, but you also never really know a place until you spend a significant time living there.  

Signed, 

Jessica Marie