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Our 2014 Honda Accord has an uncomfortably high number of miles on it.
So much so that I’m not going to tell you but let you know that it is a six digit number and it doesn’t start with a one. A decent chunk of those miles have been spent driving to and from Penn State football games, largely away ones.
It’s what my wife Anna and I do. It’s how we enjoy spending our falls and quite honestly, a big part of our relationship.
And there have been a lot of road trips over the years. So when Steve challenged me to pick some of my favorites, it definitely was, well, a challenge.
Here were the first three that came to mind of the 40 or so that I’ve been to.
Penn State at Nebraska, 2012
We will begin with the first. My freshman year, I had weaseled my way into becoming friends with many of the people who ran both Nittanyville and the Penn State basketball student section, then called Nittany Nation. The Wednesday before Penn State was to head to Nebraska that year, former lineman Garry Gilliam and Donovan Smith offered some of the people in our group player tickets.
The only problem was it was Wednesday, the game was Saturday. In Lincoln. How were we going to get there?
In the back of Dan Arnoldi’s Toyota Camry of course.
Five of us – Dan, Chris Holmes, Gavin Steinhubl, Brad Vasko and myself – loaded up into Dan’s car where the four of us would drive. “Us” isn’t the proper term because as the only freshman of the group, I was not allowed to drive – or sit in the passenger seat except for four hours of the 36-hour round trip.
Penn State would lose but the people in Nebraska still remain the nicest fans in the Big Ten.
Penn State at Indiana, 2013
Before there was the Honda Accord, there was the Jetta. It was Anna’s car that shepherded us on our first true road trip together. Man was that car fun to drive but when the sun would hit it, there was wax underneath the floor that would make it smell like a giant blue crayon.
We would sleep in the car the night before Penn State would take on Indiana at some rest stop somewhere on Interstate 70. We would then wake up to witness Penn State lose to the Hoosiers for the first time. But we discovered the Big Ten’s most beautiful campus on that trip and the world’s best pizza from Mother Bear’s.
IU is now the school I’ve been to the most outside of Penn State with how the schedule has fallen and I’m a little bummed that with divisions going away, we won’t get to make a trip out there every other year – or eat the delicious pizza.
Bloomington, while not a football town per se, is a must visit for any college football fan, especially for Indiana’s bright falls and very fat squirrels.
Penn State at Wisconsin, 2021
Part of the reason why Anna wanted to go to Bloomington was that she missed the Nebraska trip. We were supposed to finish the Big Ten together when Penn State would take on Wisconsin in 2021.
But COVID happened and derailed her path as the 2020 Nebraska game was play behind closed doors. My list was completed with that season opening win in Madison while Anna still waits for the next trip to Lincoln.
Madison is the best college town in the Big Ten – on a list that doesn’t include State College and maybe, probably, definitely does include State College. It is the perfect college football experience, complete with Spotted Cow and brats served at the student union which overlooks a lake. “Jump Around” alone is worth the price of admission.
I do look forward to adding Big Ten schools 15, 16, 17 and 18 to the list in whichever order they appear as much as I don’t like expansion itself. But that win in Wisconsin will always have a spot in my heart.
Honorable Mention
Steve is correct to point out that Chicago must be on the list. It’s a great jumping off point for the Big Ten, whether you drive there or fly there first.
Virtually all of our trips to Iowa, including one with a pit stop at a Davenport Walmart for a new tailgate table, ran through Chicago and its lovely deep dish pizza. A rough morning before a Friday night game in Champaign was brought on after a late but fun night out in the Windy City. And while Northwestern’s Ryan Field is the worst stadium in the Big Ten, I will have a bit of reverence for it if this weekend is the last time we visit it in its current state.
It is cities like Madison, Bloomington, Chicago, State College and beyond that make college football so great. I encourage you to go explore them.
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