A Splash of 21 Humor: PSU/Michigan Roadtrip

My friend (read - former professor) Curtis and I took a spontaneous road trip out to Michigan to see the PSU/Michigan game a few weeks back. We had a really fun time just hanging out and taking it all in.

We drove out all day on the Friday before the game and checked into the hotel and had a beer with our neighbors, a crew of about 15 PSU fans. Then we drove into Ann Arbor and walked around town/campus (all sort of intermingled).... we stopped at the student union building to get some advice and directions from the girl at the info desk - she was spectacular. She gave us a bar map and marked the best according to what we were looking for; she gave us some restaurant suggestions; and she gave us a back route into the town for gameday (which was great - NO traffic!). We ate at a restaurant called Casey's which was amazing. Great little burger joint / neighborhood bar. While waiting for a table at the restaurant, we struck up a conversation with a nice woman at the bar. She bought us a round of drinks and chatted up about some stuff we should see in Ann Arbor (turns out she's the Dean of Student affairs or some high up position like that at Michigan). Anyway, her husband ended up being our waiter. He was a really cool guy, too. At the end of the meal he bought us dessert (since his wife bought our drinks). Just a bunch of classy classy people.

Then we hit up the bars. State College seriously overran this town on Friday night - everywhere you went there were people decked out in blue and white. And there was a lot of "WE ARE.... Penn State!" all over the place. Doug and his friends were out for the game, too. He said that in one of the bars they were in, Michigan fans were actually booed out of their own bar b/c so many PSU people were in there. Those crazy Penn Staters!

Gameday was lots of fun. Curtis and I met up with Doug and his friends at the PSU pep rally/tailgate. Grahm Spanier was there and the blue band and the lion and cheerleaders. So fun! And so much PSU pride!

Game was great until the end, obviously. The Big House is really really cool - great food, great fans. Again, I can't overstate how classy these people were. I was blown away, actually. I was expecting taunting, obnoxious fans for some reason.... but they were really great.

We spent Saturday night bar-hopping in Ann Arbor and drinking off our misery. Great bars, beautiful town, kind people. Couldn't ask for a better road game experience.

HOWEVER, I must say that PSU parties harder, cheers harder, and generally has fans that are much crazier (and i'm not just saying that b/c i love psu --- our midwestern friends just seem to be more low-key and subdued. Even during the game, no one was goign ape shit cheering or anything). I think it might be an East Coast vs. Midwest kind of thing, perhaps? We're just a little more intense about the things we do and the teams we love? Not sure.

It was a looooong drive home on Sunday. 9 hours from Ann Arbor to Hbg via State College. But I did stop and grab a Boots sub on my way out of town which made it all ok. :-)