Schnauzer
Pretty Sure You are Wrong
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2009
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This is just random stuff in no particular order. I’d love to hear about the experiences from others that made the trip.
- I found the toll roads from IL to PA to be a pain. I am so glad we don’t have toll roads here. Literally off/on again construction for the entire length. And it seems the only point of these projects is to move a lot of barrels around to close lanes and lower speed limit with no other visible evidence of repair/improvement. We were so annoyed that we took a different route home with “normal” interstates and it was so relaxing by comparison.
- we brought ALL our tailgate stuff and set up in lot 14. There was a line two blocks long to get into the lot at 7:30 AM, for a lot that opened at 8:00 AM, and a game that didn’t start until 7:30 PM. And that was just our lot. There are mowed field lots everywhere. Truly impressive.
- if you haven’t tailgated at an away game yet, DO IT. So much fun. People are so engaging and nice. We were the only Gopher tailgate in our lot and we were like zoo animals. Lots of people stopping by to hear our story. Probably the “worst” thing was the guy who asked my wife “who shit on your shirt?” And even that was good natured and worth a laugh. We’ve tailgated Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska previously and all were fun and this one ranked right up there, perhaps at the top.
- this ran my away game in person record for Gopher football to 0-6.
- the culture, especially among students, about getting to the stadium AND STAYING THERE is at a completely different level. Everyone was in their seats an hour to 45 minutes before kickoff and more impressively, the students in particular were still there, preferring to watch football instead of hitting the parties/bars late into the fourth quarter of a blowout win at a night game.
- I’ll take the pride of Minnesota over the Blue Band any day. The Blue Band pregame is effective and fun. It is also much shorter and easier to pull off compared to what our band does pregame. It is a damn shame Minnesota crowds have such a late arrival tradition because they miss out on a pregame that puts PSU to shame. Perhaps it is due to the sheer size of the stadium but the blue band doesn’t play as much in-game, and when they do, their sound is often amplified through the stadium sound system.
- Attendance was over 109,700. Yet, we got into the stadium (at prime time, when everyone else was arriving too) MUCH faster than any home Gopher game this season. No metal detectors. Security in general much less visible.
- for a stadium that large, it is really tough to know what is going on. No continuous board listing team stats (like we have at the bank) and very little in terms of out of town scores. On top of that, only two small boards (very hard to read from nosebleed seats) showing the standard stuff like time, down, distance, and ball on (yard line). Ribbon boards mostly limited to ads and the two big video boards only rarely offer game info, which gets you in the habit of not looking there for much beyond which ever ex player happens to be yelling “we are” over the speakers and on camera during breaks.
- A lot of this is perhaps because of the white out but truly a tough place to play. The crowd knows what to do when the visitors are trying to hike the ball.
- most of our group was in the 22-25 age range and the bar scene was like Disneyland for them. Very fun college town with beautiful surrounding landscape. For older people like my wife and me, it was still fun to be out dining and drinking (just farther out than where all the kids were) Friday night.
I’d love to hear the opinions of others.
- I found the toll roads from IL to PA to be a pain. I am so glad we don’t have toll roads here. Literally off/on again construction for the entire length. And it seems the only point of these projects is to move a lot of barrels around to close lanes and lower speed limit with no other visible evidence of repair/improvement. We were so annoyed that we took a different route home with “normal” interstates and it was so relaxing by comparison.
- we brought ALL our tailgate stuff and set up in lot 14. There was a line two blocks long to get into the lot at 7:30 AM, for a lot that opened at 8:00 AM, and a game that didn’t start until 7:30 PM. And that was just our lot. There are mowed field lots everywhere. Truly impressive.
- if you haven’t tailgated at an away game yet, DO IT. So much fun. People are so engaging and nice. We were the only Gopher tailgate in our lot and we were like zoo animals. Lots of people stopping by to hear our story. Probably the “worst” thing was the guy who asked my wife “who shit on your shirt?” And even that was good natured and worth a laugh. We’ve tailgated Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska previously and all were fun and this one ranked right up there, perhaps at the top.
- this ran my away game in person record for Gopher football to 0-6.
- the culture, especially among students, about getting to the stadium AND STAYING THERE is at a completely different level. Everyone was in their seats an hour to 45 minutes before kickoff and more impressively, the students in particular were still there, preferring to watch football instead of hitting the parties/bars late into the fourth quarter of a blowout win at a night game.
- I’ll take the pride of Minnesota over the Blue Band any day. The Blue Band pregame is effective and fun. It is also much shorter and easier to pull off compared to what our band does pregame. It is a damn shame Minnesota crowds have such a late arrival tradition because they miss out on a pregame that puts PSU to shame. Perhaps it is due to the sheer size of the stadium but the blue band doesn’t play as much in-game, and when they do, their sound is often amplified through the stadium sound system.
- Attendance was over 109,700. Yet, we got into the stadium (at prime time, when everyone else was arriving too) MUCH faster than any home Gopher game this season. No metal detectors. Security in general much less visible.
- for a stadium that large, it is really tough to know what is going on. No continuous board listing team stats (like we have at the bank) and very little in terms of out of town scores. On top of that, only two small boards (very hard to read from nosebleed seats) showing the standard stuff like time, down, distance, and ball on (yard line). Ribbon boards mostly limited to ads and the two big video boards only rarely offer game info, which gets you in the habit of not looking there for much beyond which ever ex player happens to be yelling “we are” over the speakers and on camera during breaks.
- A lot of this is perhaps because of the white out but truly a tough place to play. The crowd knows what to do when the visitors are trying to hike the ball.
- most of our group was in the 22-25 age range and the bar scene was like Disneyland for them. Very fun college town with beautiful surrounding landscape. For older people like my wife and me, it was still fun to be out dining and drinking (just farther out than where all the kids were) Friday night.
I’d love to hear the opinions of others.
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