In total, it would be six of us making the drive from New York to Penn State. We let the two Penn Staters handle all the logistics of renting a car (rented from Hertz at the Newark Airport to avoid having to drive in and out of the city on 9/11 Weekend), lodging (provided by a friend of a friend...of a friend, I think) and tailgating/entertainment. I always think it is fun to see other college campuses, so I was definitely looking forward to a weekend out of the city living like I'm 21 again.
We all dipped out of work early on Friday afternoon with high hopes of getting on the road by 6pm; approximating the drive at 4 hours and having to drop our bags off, we wanted to maximize our going-out time - and with the bars closing at 2:00am, this would be no easy feat. We all met at Penn Station, which was teeming with soldiers and machine guns in preparation for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, to take the NJ Transit to Newark Airport. Once we arrived at the Newark Airport stop, we were then able to make a free transfer to the AirTrain, which then stopped at every terminal before getting us to the rental car area. This is the first time I'd used public transportation to get to Newark Airport, but as with my AirTrain experience at JFK, I discovered that while it is perhaps not the most time-effective way to travel, it is certainly the cheapest (only $12.50 one way) and makes the most sense for someone who travels on a budget like myself. We picked up the SUV and were on our way by 6:45pm. Even though we had wanted to leave sooner, I think everyone was still impressed that we were all able to meet up and leave within an hour of when we wanted to, so we considered this part of the trip a success. Somewhere in the vicinity of Stroudsburg, PA, we stopped at a McDonald's for the first of many nutritious meals we would share together, and by 11:00pm we were pulling into State College.
I never really got my bearings while we were in town, but when we first drove in, we went through a long street of back-to-back bars - it reminded me a little of Auburn's College Street, except there were a lot more bars and a lot more people! Penn State has an enrollment of over 40,000, and with thousands more Alabama fans in town for the big game, there were lines streaming out of every bar as far as the eye could see. I think this would drive me crazy if this is a normal thing, but I got the impression this had more to do with it just being the Friday before a big home game. On the opposite side of the street were residence halls and the actual campus. It was dark and lightly raining at this point, so I decided I'd just have to see this all a little better in the light of Saturday. The weather actually wasn't looking very promising for the entire weekend; in the past day, the chance of rain for Saturday (gameday!) had gone from 30% to 60%.
After dropping by the friend's apartment where we would be staying (I had my own couch so no complaining from my end!), we made our way via the CATA transit system, which only cost $1.50/ride, to the downtown bar area. It's very fortunate we were with people who lived in State College because I never did grasp the transit system or where we were at any given moment. We headed to South Pugh Street to the All-American Rathskeller, a favorite bar of one of the guys we were with. The line only took about 10 minutes to get through, which made us all happy. The Rathskeller was opened in 1933 and is the fourth oldest bar in the state of Pennsylvania. I don't think any renovations have been done on the bar since the '30s to be honest - this was definitely a grungy, beer-all-over-the-floor and cover-band-playing-in-the-corner kind of college bar. We got a big booth and quickly learned we could get pitchers of beer for cheaper than a single beer in New York. Ah, to be back in college! Originally we thought we might bounce around to different spots, but after seeing the lines all over town, decided it was probably a safer bet to just stay put. A fun cover band, Mr. Hand, kept us drinking and dancing all the way until the 2:00am curfew. We hopped back on the CATA and headed back home - our goal was to be out tailgating by 10:00am the next morning, and it was time to get to bed! At the Rathskeller:
On Saturday morning, we woke up around 8:30am - the forecast was still a gloomy one, so most of us chose not to go to too much trouble to get fixed up for the day. I showered to wash off the beer from the night before, and we were out the door a little after 10:00am. I chose not to bring my umbrella so I wouldn't have to hang onto it...but what I definitely didn't consider bringing and very much regretted in retrospect were my sunglasses! The sun was out, it was warm and there wasn't a raincloud in sight. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled that the day was turning out to be a beautiful one, but anyone who knows me knows that not having my sunglasses on a sunny day is very painful for my eyes. Once again, we took the CATA, this time all the way to the stadium and the RV parking lot next to it. This was a nice drive through campus, and we got to see the "Lion's Den," as well as a bunch of classroom buildings. It took us a while to find Matt's cousin, who had recently purchased an RV and invited us to his tailgate for the day. The tailgate area was muddy from the night before, so I was definitely glad I had just worn some old flip flops instead of the cute boots I had thought about bringing. We started drinking and eating immediately, which made what hangovers we had fade away in no time. Hair of the dog in action!
We wandered to a few other tailgates and eventually found some nice Alabama fans (with an Auburn fan no less!) who were getting ready to turn on the Auburn/Mississippi State game. We had definitely found our spot for the next few hours! In addition to the food we had gotten at our own tailgate, our new friends also offered us drinks and food. Oh, the joys of college football and how I have missed this! At halftime of our game, we made our way back over to the Penn State tailgate and decided those of us who didn't have tickets to the Alabama/Penn State game yet would try to find some to buy off a scalper around the stadium. The walk out of the RV parking area to the stadium was approximately a mile, but in that time we did actually find someone selling tickets for just a little over face value, so we scooped them up and headed into the stadium. The Penn State fans were pretty amused at the Auburn fans in town cheering for them, and the Alabama fans were unimpressed. Mission accomplished.
Beaver Stadium is a massive stadium with a capacity of nearly 108,000 - almost 20,000 more than Jordan-Hare on Auburn's campus holds. And it was LOUD! Penn State had designated this as one of their "white out" games, where everyone in the stadium wears white. It makes for a pretty impressive shot on TV - and on my camera:
We had great seats near the 20-yard line, and even though Penn State choked and let Alabama roll over them with a big win, just being at a college football game was lots of fun! After the game, cell phone service was sporadic at best, so we had just decided to meet everyone back at the tailgate, where we refilled on cheeseburgers, sausage and beer. If everyone was half as tired as I was, we would have all be totally fine to go straight home and to bed, but this was the only night we had left in State College, so we were not going to nap it away! We made a rather long trek from the RV parking, past the stadium and the Joe Paterno statue all the way to the downtown bar area.
This time, we went to the Phyrst, which normally has an amazing band called Phyrst Family playing on Saturday nights according to our friends. The line at the door was monstrous, but within 20-30 minutes we were in. For some reason, this Saturday a random band was playing, but they were still a lot of fun. There were long wooden tables that we could hardly walk between - it had a definite beer hall vibe, with lots of dark German lagers on tap. We spent the next several hours drinking and dancing the night away!
Miraculously, the rain managed to hold off the entire weekend until right as we were leaving Phyrst - not bad timing...but if it had only held off for another 15 minutes! We were drenched by the time we got onto the CATA and headed home. I took a quick shower to get the tailgate mud off my feet, and hit the sack in complete exhaustion. I definitely enjoyed the gameday experience at Penn State, but I still don't think Auburn's gameday atmosphere can be touched. Perhaps I am biased, but I just think the layout of Auburn's campus (admittedly much smaller than Penn State's of course) and the many special traditions we have absolutely make it the best! Penn State felt more like an NFL game - there were really no cheers or callbacks provided from the band, and most of the stadium stayed seated for the entire game. Auburn is the total opposite, and I much prefer our gameday to Penn State's. But we still had tons of fun. :)
We had decided to get an early start the next morning and be back on the road by 9:00am, and somehow we were all up and somewhat-ready to go at 9 on the dot! We were all dragging - hungover and still desperate for sleep - but it was good to go ahead and be getting back into the city early. We stopped at a Subway for breakfast and were back at Newark Airport shortly before 1:30pm - another uneventful drive that took just over four hours once again. We returned the rental car and then hopped on the AirTrain (apparently the AirTrain is free going from the airport back to the NJ Transit), and approximately an hour later I was back home on my couch watching some recorded football games from the day before and drifting in and out of consciousness. Now I need a weekend to recover from my weekend!
My trip:
"WE ARE! PENN STATE!" - Penn State cheer, heard ad nauseum this weekend!
Miles Traveled Today: 474
Total Miles Traveled: 24, 100
