Big 10 Football Tour

Below you'll see some summaries of our experience at Penn State.  Click on the links in each section to read more about that section.  For example, in the section below, click "flights" to read more and see more photos on our flight.

Before you read through our blog you should read about our experience with the Penn State Front Office.  It promises to be interesting.

Labor Day weekend had arrived!  We headed over to the Milwaukee Airport and had one of the best flights of our lives to Baltimore, MD.

After Baltimore, we drove to York, PA and then on up to State College, PA.  Can you believe that?  The name of the town is actually State College!

Upon arriving in State College, we wasted no time getting out to meet the locals and of course check out the night life.

Before we knew it, it was tailgating time.  It was early, but we still fired up the grill and began our first tailgate of the season.  Check out our recap.

Soon after, some football would be played between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Akron Zips. Hint: Penn State won by more than a few!  More game photos and thoughts - get them here.

Right outside Beaver stadium is a great photo opportunity.  You and a larger than life Joe Paterno.  What's even better?  They don't charge you for the photo!

Who knew it was a religion?  Wow, did we stand in line for a good 15-20 minutes just to get an opportunity to take our photos with this Lion.  It was surprisingly fun to get up there and tame the wild beast.

We loved the ice cream served here.  Even better were the prices!  We were a bit disappointed that they were out of their premier flavors such as Peachy Paterno, but we still survived.  Get there early on a Sunday morning, or you'll be waiting for a LONG time.

Many of you advised us to stop by the Diner.  We did.  The Grilled Stickies are great.  Just great.  But the rest of this place is ov-er-rat-ed.  Wow!  We might have had the worst service ever experienced at this restaurant.

Jeff Harris: "Where's my water?"
Drew Cieszynski: "Who do I have to slap to get a coffee refill?"
Wes Givens: "It's nothing to write home about"
Blake Suhar: "It was okay...not good...but okay"
Andy Westhafer: "This chicken tastes...artificial"
Jason Cobaugh: "I can't finish this."

Stop in, try the Grilled Stickies and move on...

This one was a no-brainer. This goes to PSU Blu Hair.  This guy was driving around Friday night showing off his hummer.  Paul is his name and he's a graduate of the Penn State class of '65.  Check out his sight here to learn more about his phenomenal tailgate.  We hope to meet up with Paul at Illinois and Michigan as well.

This guy was our winner. Mostly because it looks as if he was in a bad accident or recently lost a fight, but his shirt resonates with the Penn State fans. WWJPD?  What would Joe Pa Do?  I'm sure there's many people who think for a moment and ask themselves, "What would an 80+ year old do in this situation?"  If this guy paid any more than $4.99 for this shirt, we're taking the award away from him.

These guys were great.  One looked just like Joe Paterno; he might have been his brother or something.  The other guy was that jock that never let go of his high-school career and continues to wear his pads to this day.  In all honestly, these guys were great and we were thrilled to have met them.  Anyone who can take a photo with a shirtless Jeff & Wes is a winner in our book.

Driving up 322, we ran into our runner up, some kid driving a Dodge convertible with sweet hubcaps, but the title goes to the Australian couple driving the great ride shown on the side.  Both passengers were wearing headphones so that they could hear one another.  It was clearly a convertible weekend!

On our way home, we decided to check out the Statue of Liberty.  No, not that green one in New York.  How about a white one on the Susquehanna River (near Harrisburg).  By the way, check out some of our Harrisburg highlights here.

One last stop before heading home to Milwaukee.  Check out a short recap on Baltimore here.  Time to start planning for Michigan State!

All in all, it's going to be tough to find a more unforgettable weekend than this.  Wow, we had such a great time at PSU.  There were only 2 major negatives. 

The first being that every Penn State fan complained, "You should have come to the Iowa or Ohio State game!"  We understand that a higher calibur opponent puts some more excitement in the air, but come on, it's kickoff weekend, you guys should be hyped for what very well could be a Big 10 championship season!  Besides, if OSU or Iowa was visiting, the traffic would be miserable and the bars would be overcrowded, so we'll take Akron.  Taking Akron allowed us more time in PSU than any other school will get.

Secondly, the lack of professionalism by the front office will prevent Penn State from achieving our top meaningless honors/recognition.  It was as simple as clicking the respond button and saying, "We're sorry, we can't help you out" or taking 5 minutes out of their schedule to give us an opportunity to get a photo with the mascot. Drew has now worked with 30 MLB teams, 30 NBA teams, and most Big Ten schools and never has he experienced a lack of professionalism to this level.  If you haven't already read about "the snub," by the Penn State front office, click here.

Air Tran Airways staff - bought us a round of drinks
Chris/Ron - providing the Wild Turkey victory shots
Cieszynski, Brad - for the grilling, the oschestrating, and the flying elbow on Kent
Cieszynski, Connie - ride to the airport for departure flight
Family Clothesline, The - the best merchandise in Penn State
Hickey, W.R. Beer Distributor - for being the only place to get beer in State College
Morrow, Dave - putting us up for two evening and pestering us with that bulldog of yours
Phyrst Pub - waiving that cover charge for the Big Ten tour
Sutton, Ted - arranging our lodging
Swenor, Chad - ride to the airport
Wagner, Matt - buying drinks, getting shirts, being the great guy that you are