The route
Where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.
Sep 21 – Sep 25, 2026Lake Perris, California — Build Week
United StatesIn on Monday to help build the thing before anyone else sees it. Four days of hauling, rigging, staking, and standing around in the heat waiting on a forklift. The lake is empty and the hills are brown and the whole site is just pallets and zip ties and people you only ever see this one week a year. It's the part nobody buys a ticket for and it might be the better half.
Sep 25 – Sep 28, 2026Lake Perris, California — Same Same But Different
United StatesGates open Friday and the site I spent four days building fills up with people. LSDREAM, Of the Trees, Gramatik, Andy Frasco. A reservoir sitting improbably blue in the middle of dry brown hills, and sound carrying across the water long after dark. Out Monday morning, north toward Pasadena — and then the long haul up the coast begins.
Sep 28 – Sep 30, 2026Pasadena, California
United StatesA couple of days with Mom and my brother before the wheels start turning. The trailer sits packed in the driveway getting hotter by the afternoon. Out on the morning of the 30th — the last day of September, which feels like the right day to leave.
Sep 30 – Oct 2, 2026San Simeon, California
United StatesTwo nights here, and the second one is the gift — a whole day with nothing required of me. Hearst Castle sitting up on its hill looking faintly absurd. The elephant seal rookery at Piedras Blancas, where a few thousand animals lie around in the sand bellowing at each other like a bad party. Moonstone Beach in the afternoon. Then out to Ragged Point at dusk to look north at the coast I'm about to drive.
Oct 2 – Oct 3, 2026Pescadero, California
United StatesThe Big Sur day. Ninety miles of cliff edge at thirty miles an hour, second gear most of the way, the Pacific dropping away on the left and nowhere to pull over when you want to. McWay Falls. Bixby Bridge. The long empty stretches in between that are somehow the best part. Then Carmel, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and up to ranch country above Pescadero as the light goes. Six hours to cover a distance that should take three. Worth every minute of it.
Oct 3 – Oct 4, 2026Ocean Cove, Sonoma Coast, California
United StatesThe night with no reservation. Everything on this coast was spoken for months ago, so the plan is to show up early on a bluff north of Fort Ross and hope. Out of Pescadero at first light, over the Golden Gate before the weekend thickens, and up the coast with time to spare. There's a backup if it doesn't work. There's always a backup. But I'd rather it worked.
Oct 4 – Oct 6, 2026Here nowWestport, Mendocino Coast, California
United StatesTwo nights, and the only ones where work follows me. Which rules out the pretty options — the loveliest spots on this coast sit down in redwood canyons where you can't see the sky, and I need sky. So instead: an open bluff on the edge of the ocean north of Fort Bragg, nothing between me and the horizon in any direction. It will be windy. The trade is worth it.
Oct 6 – Oct 7, 2026Humboldt Redwoods, California
United StatesOff the coast and inland into the biggest stand of old-growth redwood left anywhere — seventeen thousand acres of it, with the Avenue of the Giants running thirty-two miles straight through the middle. The road narrows, the light turns green, and you stop caring about how far you've come. A short day for once. No signal, no sky, nothing to answer. After two days of working, that sounds exactly right.
Oct 7 – Oct 8, 2026Brookings, Oregon
United StatesCrossing into Oregon. Old-growth groves on the way up, the kind where the trees were already old when anybody thought to name them. Then out to the coast, where the sea stacks stand offshore like leftovers from a different and rougher coastline. First night in a new state. The light changes here — colder, cleaner, more north in it.
Oct 8 – Oct 9, 2026Bandon, Oregon
United StatesNorth through the Samuel Boardman stretch, which is a hundred pullouts and no time to take them all, then Gold Beach and on to where the Coquille River meets the sea. Last night alone on the road. Face Rock at sunset if the fog holds off, and if it doesn't, the fog is its own thing worth standing out in.
Oct 9 – Oct 12, 2026Beverly Beach, Newport, Oregon
United StatesThe one stop I didn't choose. My son picked it and handled it, just north of Newport where a creek runs under the highway and out to the sea. An easy half day up the dunes coast to get here, which is the right way to arrive anywhere — unhurried, with the afternoon still ahead of you. Then the whole weekend, which is the actual point. Nine nights and twelve hundred miles to get somewhere I have no reason to leave for three days.
Oct 19 – Oct 26, 2026Amsterdam, Netherlands
NetherlandsThe week is built around ADE — the Amsterdam Dance Event, Oct 21–25 — the biggest electronic music festival on earth, with 300+ venues turning the whole city into one dance floor. Days for the canals and the old city, nights for the music.
Oct 26 – Nov 20, 2026Lisbon, Portugal
PortugalThe city month, timed for the mildest, most golden early weeks. Basing in Santos on the riverside — trams up the hills, tiled façades, the light coming off the Tagus, and a serious late-night scene when the mood strikes.
Nov 20 – Nov 30, 2026Marrakesh, Morocco
MoroccoDown for the Marrakesh International Film Festival — free public screenings out in the great square of Jemaa el-Fnaa, the whole city lifted a notch. Souks, riads, mint tea, and the Atlas mountains on the horizon.
Nov 30 – Dec 5, 2026Setúbal, Portugal
PortugalReal, working-town Portugal just south of Lisbon, where the Arrábida hills tumble into clear turquoise coves. Some of the best seafood in the country, and dolphins in the estuary.
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Dec 5 – Dec 29, 2026Lagos, Algarve
PortugalThe December home base — the warmest, sunniest corner of the mainland, gold sandstone cliffs and hidden coves, deliberately saved for the coldest, wettest stretch of winter. Side-trips out to Tavira and Sagres when the mood hits.
Dec 29, 2026 – Jan 12, 2027Funchal, Madeira
PortugalFlying out before New Year's, then settling in for two weeks. Subtropical and evergreen — one of the warmest, sunniest spots in all of Europe in December — and a record-breaking fireworks show over the bay to ring in the year. Levada walks, sea cliffs, and Madeira wine.
Jan 12 – Jan 15, 2027Lisbon, Portugal
PortugalA few last days back in the city to wrap up — a final round of the places that made the first month.