What seems like every Halloween weekend, there is a big football game at Babe's alma mater, Penn State, and he and his old college buddies make efforts to meet up and watch the Nittany Lions play, win or lose. This year, I figured I'd tag along to watch my first (?!) live college football game (Illinois at Penn State), and what a place to do it but at the impressive Beaver Stadium in State College, PA, the second largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere and fourth largest in the world.
It was a last minute decision to go (4 days before the game) so we used award tickets to get to Baltimore to cut down costs as airfares were expectedly high. There was availability when we pieced our flights together as one-ways on various websites: a one way ticket on Continental for 12.5K miles, a one-way Southwest Rapid Rewards flight, a 37.5K round-trip award flight on United, plus $25 last-minute award travel fees per flight. Surprisingly, a low amount of miles were needed for this last-minute travel.
Last year, I had helped Babe look for lodging near State College, and there was no availability, causing the guys to have to drive 3 hours to and from the stadium, plus stuck in traffic for extra hours. This year, there were some hotel rooms available, but at outrageous prices, like $350 for a room at the Ramada Inn. I could stay at a Four Seasons for that price! I went on craigslist and found a historic home "bed and breakfast" (basically a room in someone's house) for $135/night. Eileen, the owner, told me that she usually didn't have vacancies this late, but it seemed the weather was not looking good for that weekend and people decided not to attend the game. I got a great deal on a rental car through our company's Hertz leisure rate (something like $19/day including #1 Club Gold benefits; until March 31, 2012, join with no membership fee by clicking here; if it's after that date, search for "#1 Club Gold free" on Google to find other ways to sign up for free). Babe found a good pair of tickets on stubhub.com, so we were all set!
The flights were non-eventful; Babe and I were meeting each other at the airport in Baltimore. I was flying on an economy award ticket, so there were no upgrades, but I was able to get exit row seats. We got to Baltimore around 9:30pm. The rental car shuttle took a long time to pick up, so we weren't able to start our drive to State College until 10:30pm. It was a 3 hour drive, so I had warned Eileen that we weren't going to get there until around 2am, and she seemed fine with it, so that was a relief. The weather forecast was not great, calling for rain and snow. The rain had barely started when we left Baltimore, and we were practically racing in front of the storm. The light rain had turned to snowflakes at the top of the hill approaching State College. We made it to Eileen's home around 2am, and she was still up as she came home from a late engagement, which worked out for all!
We were the only guests at the home; there were three guest rooms, but the people who were going to stay in the other rooms had cancelled due to the weather. It was nice not to have to share the bathroom with too many people. Our room was warm and comfortable. The floors creaked a lot, as expected in an old home. No way that someone could sneak around the house without being heard.
The next morning (I guess you could say it was later that morning), we woke up to a winter wonderland...everything dusted in a few inches of snow. There was more snow in the forecast, unexpected for this time of year. Babe and I enjoyed a continental breakfast with bagels, cereal, fresh cut fruit, coffee, tea and juices. Even though we were paying guests, we picked up after ourselves once we were done eating as it felt weird to just leave the table like that. Eileen had been outside using the leaf blower and when she came back in and saw what we did, she told us we didn't have to do that, but added that at least we felt like we were at home. :)
I did not bring clothes for snow, so we headed out a bit early to do some shopping. The home was about 20 minutes walking distance to campus, which was good, as we did not want to drive and get stuck in traffic. The snow was coming down harder, and all I had on was a thin hoodie, a scarf, gloves, and flat-soled boots that weren't waterproof. We stopped by an off-campus store and bought a Penn State windbreaker and a Polartec headband for me. Then, Babe called up his buddies to find out their tailgate location. It was in one of the campus parking lots as the snow had closed the field near the stadium where people normally park. The group consisted of Babe's friend Tony and Tony's dad, brothers and friends. There normally would have been more people, but the weather made them stay home.
I had never been to a tailgate before, and I think what I experienced was a pretty elaborate setup despite the failing weather. There were a couple of tents erected across two or three vehicles, a portable barbecue, a portable camp stove, abundant folding chairs, and lots of food and beverages (alcoholic and non). This bunch was definitely hardcore, willing to set up a tailgate with wind and snow pouring down. People passing by were looking at us like we were crazy. The roofs of the tents had to be shaken every once in a while to keep the snow from caving them in. It was pretty cold, yet the guys still managed to get a game of ring toss in, hands freezing and all.
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| the snow's a-pouring |
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| cute little barbecue |
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| that camp stove was able to make some good grub! |
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| ghetto ring toss, get it in the PVC pipe for double points |
I was very impressed with Tony's dad's cooking ability, able to whip up a pot of delicious seafood bisque, perfect for the cold weather, and fry up bacon-wrapped potato wedges with that camp stove. He even had a bottle of homemade limoncello, which hit the spot. I hadn't understood the references to drinking whiskey and hard liquor in cold weather (or St. Bernards with whiskey barrels), but when that limoncello hit my tummy and warmth emanated from my body, I got the gist. ;) I didn't even get a buzz! I think my body was digesting the alcohol to fuel the shivers. We spent a few freezing hours here, with a couple of warming intermissions consisting of going to the bathroom in a nearby classroom building and getting a cup of hot chocolate from the Hub on campus.
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| a stately tree on campus |
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| watching people make a snowman through a window in the Hub |
Finally it was time to head to the game. It was a 10 minute walk to the stadium from where we were, and the snow was not relenting, becoming slush on the ground. My boots were soaked by this time, and I regretted not having some plastic bags for my socks. (or having proper snow footwear) I wasn't the only one suffering as the women's bathroom was full of ladies sopping up their socks with paper towels.
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| brrrrr! |
Our seats were not near to Tony and the group so we made our own way to our section. The ticket taker/usher directed us in the general direction of our seats, but we found there were people sitting in them. We pointed this out to the usher, and he pointed and said "sit here", with "here" being front row seats right behind the Nittany Lions. We were close enough to hear them talking and using flowery language when plays didn't go so well. ;)
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| sitting up front right behind the team |
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| the student section, all dressed in white |
The snow was scraped off the field (and piled up on the Illinois side...), so it was fit for playing. I had thought that the football game would be delayed or cancelled due to snow, but I learned that games were played rain or shine. The stadium was made up of mostly metal bleachers, so it made for a rather chilly time. Babe had to buy mugs of hot chocolate and a poncho for us to sit on to relieve our frozen butts, as the game seemed to drag on endlessly with snow pouring down and no score from either side during the first half! During halftime, Babe and I walked the ramps up and down the stadium to get the blood pumping. I was hoping for lots of good plays by Penn State in the second half so the band would play and we would be able to jump up and down to warm up. That didn't happen until the 4th quarter, when the snow relented some and Penn State finally scored a touchdown and a field goal. (they had missed an earlier field goal). Illinois scored a touchdown, and in the final 5 seconds of the 4th quarter, the Fighting Illini had the chance to tie the game with a field goal. The white-clothed Penn State students all moved close in behind the goalpost to create a distraction for the opposing team's kicker. Would that even work??? I was hoping that the game wouldn't go into overtime, so I could go back home and warm up!
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| the students move in |
The ball is snapped and set up, the kicker kicks and the ball sails...and hits the goal post, bouncing out. Penn State wins! I had never seen Babe so excited. (in TV footage the next day, it was revealed that the ball was not held "laces out"...)
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| no Joe Paterno on the field though...he was in the press box due to a bad hip |
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| the field goal attempt wasn't super far, I was shocked it was a miss |
We stopped by the tailgate once more to grab a bite to eat, help pack up and say goodbye. Then Babe and I walked back to the house and took a very hot shower...ahhhh! The next morning, we had breakfast, then took off right away without any time to sightsee as we had a 3 hour drive back to Baltimore to catch our flights in the afternoon.
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| scraping the hard snow off the rental car |
Babe and I were able to fly back on the same plane from Baltimore to Denver, then we parted ways on the second leg back home. The weekend was already memorable enough, but the following days made it even more noteworthy: the snow-kissed Beaver Stadium was featured on the front page of CNN.com, and the week following, the Sandusky child abuse scandal broke out, and Joe Paterno was fired from his job as Penn State's head coach for the last 46 years. We had seen "Joe Pa"'s last game. But this was not the last of Pennsylvania for me...I would return two weeks later to attend Babe's sister's wedding...stay tuned!
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