Rutgers

group photo

Friday

Saturday

Tailgating at the house started with Bacon and stuffin’ muffin casserole. There was one gift exchange before the game, but it was quickly time to head over to the game at around 10:30. We took 3 cars: Early, mid and late. As you may have guessed, I was drive the late car and stopped by Smitty’s tailgate before heading into the game.

This week's game was the annual Military appreciation game and began with a C-130 fly over. Our offense got off to a slow start, but rolled along to a 28-0 final. Most folks didn't stay the whole game. Game Recap

Chuck’s brother was at the game and told us that he was home taking care of his mother this season. He should be back next season. We stayed for the blue band's post game show and drum corner. When we left the game, we ended up following the band down the road until they crossed over Park. It took a little over an hour to get to Suz’s after we departed the game day lot.

When we got back, I was greeted with a question of “Where’s the dog?” since he was not imediatmelty visible in the basement among all of the guests. “I know exactly where he is.” I said while pointing to the pile of blankets on the couch. 100% correct.

Penn State	Rutgers
28	0

We savored the wildly anticipated Nacho bar with many seasoned meat and topping options. We watched more games. Toby spearheaded the Second “blue and white elephant” gift exchange which also had a trivia component. Maddy and Suz also handed out “Beer-y” awards to various tailgaters for season-wide accomplishments. Chad received a John Deere advent calendar. He shared photos of the piece by piece assembly of a plastic tractor during the next month. Everyone called it a night at midnight.

Sunday

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Michigan

In a continuing theme for this season, this weekend got off to a rocky start. Chad drove to my house with his RV, but the ping box on his hitch broke on the way up to my house. With some assistance from a floor jack, we were able to get his RV unhitched from the truck in my yard. We called Suz to change plans and stay at her house for the weekend.

This change of venue caused us to do some repacking as we both had to remove items from the camper and move them into the truck. About an hour after our intended departure time, everything was repacked and we took off.

We stopped at Gios for a BBQ dinner in Clearfield on the way up to Happy Valley.

Officially at Suz’s house for the first planned house gate of the season, we told stories and caught up with everyone at the house.

One of my favorites was one of Suz’s new co-workers who kept calling her “Susan.” He interrupted her and asked if she could finish, he said, “No.” Seriously, who does that? So the quote for the weekend was “Susan’s an A-hole.”

Saturday

Only 4 folks ventured to the Beaver Stadium for the game, Me, Chad, Todd and Nick. as the light rain turned to flurries.

This was the first time for a Helmet strip game. The majority of the stadium was in white with the center sections on the east and west sides in blue. There were a lot of empty seats this week but the helmet stripe showed up well on TV. We converted on a fake punt, but weren't able to do it again or hold off a better Michigan team.Game Recap. jordan Stout made the longest field goal in PSU histroy at 57 yards.

The Blue band’s halftime show was TV show themes.

Penn State	opponent
17	23

After the game, it took us 1.5 hours to get back to the house with traffic, but at least we were warm. Back at the house, we enjoyed a Seafood boil and sausages in the warm and dry confines of Suz’s basement.

Due to Chad’s work schedule, we left Suz’s around 9:30 PM and got back home around 12:40 AM.

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Homecoming '21

Thursday

In a rare opportunity, we were allowed to park in the lower section of the RV lot next to the preferred section (like the Friends tailgate in 2017) because the addendants couldn’t be bothered. A guy in the lower lot told us that we were parking in the wrong spot, because only half of the lot was for us. Once finally settled, we enjoyed some drinks in our RV.

Official Stats

Guests:	6
RVs:	2

Friday

After putting the meat away, we headed Downtown to Federal Taphouse for lunch. Our waiter was completely stoned, but the manager said at least he showed up. Honestly, he wasn’t that bad of a server.

After lunch, we headed to Hintz Alumni center for an Ice cream social. Alaina and I got a photo with the Lion. Next, we went to SBS and Family Clothesline. I dropped into Citizens bank and got the last button. We took the Loop back to the RV lot.

Rich and I took a walk through the main RV lot in the evening. Chad arrives later in the evening.

Saturday

Nate didn't want to have his picture taken, so he's behind Nell in the group photo. Chad is pointing at him. It was quickly time to head into the Game, where the rain continued.

In our extermely subtle throwback uniforms for homecoming, this low scoring game was memorable for the way it ended. The Lions scored first with a touchdown and field goal before the Illini could get their first 7 on the board. The Illini tied it up with about 9 minutes left in the 4th. Which is where it stayed until we were pushed into overtime.

Penn State	Illinois
18	20 (9OT)

This was our first game under the new OT rules that were designed to shorten the game. That didn't happen here as this ended up being the NCAA's 1st 9OT game. Just check the link if you want to see the rules, but it was a mess. It dragged on seemingly forever with team trudging back and forth between the north and south end zones until PSU missed the 2 point conversion in the the 9th and Illinois caught their 2point conversation. Game over. Game recap on Youtube

Back out at the RVs, it was more of the same damp and cold weather throughout the evening. We stayed outside as long as we could with the propane heater to keep us warm.

Sunday

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Tailgating in Tiaras

Finally, a week with no major changes due to weather.

Friday

Saturday

This week was the annual Oktoberfest tailgate plus “Tailgating in Tiaras” for Suz's birthday. This was the first time in 16 seasons that a tailgate weekend fell directly on her birthday.

We had an Inflatable pretzel for photo ops and German versions of pop songs on the stereo. Everyone had a Tiara for Suz’s birthday.

The day warmed up quickly into the 70’s, which felt much warmer on the pavement.

We tasted bratwurst sliders on pretzel buns with sauerkraut and mustard and shnitzels.

The group ate and drank almost everything that we had. At the end of the day, all the food was eaten except for a bag of sauerkraut and the sour cream. The cooler only had 1 naterdays left when I picked it up on Sunday.

The day went by quickly and it was time to pack up. Game time weather was perfect. Beaver Stadium gates were still slow to get in and Jessi still managed to sneak in a beer in her hand.

While the Lions were never in any danger of losing this game, the shutout never really felt secure until well into the fourth quarter. The Hoosier were often able to string together a series of big plays and drive into the red zone. Our defense was able to get the takeaway each time. We were also able to block their lone field goal attempt.

Penn State	Indiana
24	0

The girls left at half time. We stuck it out until the bitter end and watched the Blue band before returning to the RV lot.

Sunday

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Villanova

Another week and another weird closure of the RV lot. We were impacted this week. We found out beforehand , so we planned to stay at the grange on thursday night, rather than deal with being shoehorned into the parking lot at Walmart or potentially have to move in the middle of the night. Thursday

Alaina, Mom and I left our house at 3:30 PM. We met up with the McArdle’s on the road as we pulled out of the Sheetz in Ebensburg.

We arrived at Home depot at a few minutes after 7 PM. The Fetcho’s arrived around 7:30. We conveyed out to Grange fair, since RV lot was closed again. This week, it was due to heavy rains.

Official Stats

Guests:	6
RVs:	2

The experience at the Grange was interesting. They were super friendly and had a ton of questions for us. It was $75 for the night to park. Since we planned to leave tomorrow AM, they didn’t give us spots with electric and water. The staff tried to sell us on staying there for future games, touting the lower costs and mid week storage. Rich retorted that they can’t see the stadium from the grange and the attendant remarked, “We have a picture of the stadium.”

We hung out in Rich and Nell’s camper while the boys played outside for the evening.. Everyone’s trailers were really full, since we had all of the gear for tomorrow still inside. I think we called it quits around 11 PM.

Friday

To guarantee the best spot in line when the ORV lot opened at 10 AM, we opted to leave the grange at 8 AM. We arrived at around 8:25 and were RV’s 12-13-14 parked on the ORV staging area road across from the Nittany medical center. Folks set up chair and we had a few shots while we waited.

The lot opened early and we scrambled to be ready to move.

Once at the lot, we were told the list of rules for the lot and received a pop quiz from the parking attendant:

1. Don’t touch the cones
2. Stay on the road
3. Wash your camper (just for me apparently)

We were parked in Row 1 spaces 5-6-7, since many spaces were roped off. Once parked, we set up for good. The location had the best view from our “front porch” of the fields and Mt Nittany.

Due to the late start on the day, we skipped the meat lab and headed downtown for lunch at the corner room and flair shopping. I hit up Citizen's bank for new football buttons. McArdle’s did their own thing, so we had to crowd into Rich’s truck to get back.

Went to Suz’s to pick up chairs, but only Cari was at Suz's house.

Back in RV lot, we did some setup for tomorrow and tested out Rich’s new satellite dish I hung up the blue velvet ropes that we had purchased almost 2 years ago for BWW 2020 (which didn’t happen). We made dinner of odds and ends from everyone’s RV. Shawn and Shari visited briefly during the very cool evening. We called it an evening around 10.

Saturday

There were very few Villanova fans, and they were hard to spot as their colors were also blue and white.

Villanova player Tyler will was hurt, but OK later College Football: Villanova’s Tyler Will doing well at home after scary hit – Delco Times Game Recap. No 4th quarter heart attack this week. we were solidly in the lead the whole time.

Postgame and back in the RV lot, we fried up sausages, kielbasa and brats.

In the deep frier, tater tots, fries and crowns were cooked. There was so much food for our nacho and hotdog bar.

Penn State	Villanova
38	17

In the afternoon sun, we sat between the RVs and played with Puzzles, corn hole We watched other afternoon football games. NC state upset Clemson.

We watched Super troopers on the TV outside, took our Straggler photo, then headed to bed.

Sunday

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Auburn

The most anticipated out of conference game got off to a rocky start when bad weather rolled into town. The overnight RV lot was closed Thursday due to storm damage that resulted in downed power polls. It reopened Friday before we got there.

Chad and I left my house Friday after work at around 5 PM with my RV. There was a truck honking at us on turnpike pointing down at us. We couldn’t reach him on the CB. When we pulled over to inspect, there was no damage.

Official Stats

Guests:	30
RVs:	1

We stopped at Suz's house to drop off the cooler and then headed over to rv lot with no wait at 10 PM. We parked in Row 5 east. I took a solo lap around the rv lot and went to bed

Saturday

Chad and I cooked breakfast at RV then walked over to lot 41. Cari and Suz passed us on the walk in. We tailgated in Spots 550 and 551, which were just south of the jumbotron and the velveeta stage on the south end of the stadium.

The weather today was beautiful and sunny all day. There were many great treats today, including a sean clifford cookie (which was attacked by bees)and “all the meats.”, which included pulled pork nachos, Korean chicken legs, Brisket and Kielbasa

The day went by quickly and we were able to enjoy a concert by Velveeta which was only 3 rows away from us. Around 6:30, It was time to pack up and head into the game. Majority of fans were in seats about an hour ahead of time.

The stadium was super loud for this prime time white out. Our section stood up for the entire game, which I don’t remember happening before. They also took a gigapixel photo of the crowd during the game. Game recap.

The referees cheated us out of a down in the 2nd half.

Due to late hour, there was no post game blue band concert.

Penn State	Auburn
28	20

We headed out and back the RV lot, but couldn’t go to sleep for about an hour since the game was so exciting.

Sunday

We packed up, picked up the cooler and headed home.

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

At Wisconsin

It’s been a long time since fans were in the stands. Welcome back to College Football! We made the trip to Madison for the Lion’s 2021 season opener. The weather was nearly perfect all weekend at around 70-75 during the days and 60ish at night.

Thursday

I met Chad and we left Chester, WV around 4:30 PM. We took the slower back more scenic route 30 west across Ohio. We stopped for a BBQ dinner at cheers 2 u in Upper Sandusky.

We stopped for the night at the RV/HM Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart, IN. It’s the RV capital of the world. Driving around the town before stopping, you could see many of the well known manufacturer's assembly plants and component manufacturers: RV’s everywhere.

Official Stats

Guests:	2
RVs:	1
Miles:	1234.6

Friday

After breakfast in the RV, we ventured into the RV hall of fame. It was a surprisingly interesting museum with around 50 RVs ranging from new just off the lot to 1908 RV that were hand built.

Next, we took a tour of the Luxe RV plant. Our personal tour guide was Erin. We spent about an hour and a half walking through their manufacturing plant making their ultra luxury 5th wheels and toy haulers. The amount of detail and craftsmanship that went into these units was amazing. The price tags also reflected it too.

A light rain started as we left Elkhart and continued on our journey westward. We grilled burgers for lunch at a truck stop in Michigan City, IN. After taking a wide berth around Chicago, we stopped for dinner at FireHouse pub in Roscoe, IL.

We arrived around midnight central time at Walmart in Madison and parked next to a tractor trailer.

Saturday

It’s finally game day! The morning in Madison was foggy. We woke up at 7 and started the 15 minute drive to lot 64 at 7:30. The attendant was shaking his head at us as we turned into the lot at 606 Walnut St. Apparently. We had the right pass, but there are no travel trailers allowed in the lot. No one told us that and it doesn’t say that on the website. The attendant said that we can stay in the lot if we unhitch and parked the truck 2 blocks north for $5, even though we were shorter when still hitched together than the motorhome parked next to us. 10 minutes later, we’re unhitched and cooking breakfast with about 40 others RVs which appeared to be mostly Penn Staters.

Around 9:30, we started to head towards the stadium, because the noon eastern time game started at 11 am in our time zone. We walked toward and along Lake Mendota and onto campus. Folks were mostly nice to us. We only saw a few “Ped State” and “sandusky” banners hanging from the frat houses on campus.

We took a picture at the fire engine outside the stadium before heading in. It was still foggy and kinda barely raining for the 1st and 4th quarters.

The away section was split in 3 sections; KK, AA and players' families in the lower bowl. Camp Randall stadium holds 80,321 fans but only appeared to be about 60k full. Unlike the TV announcer said, it wasn’t that hostile for our players as it wasn’t that loud. The UW fans were pretty nice to us.

The game started as a defensive struggle. We had no meaningful offense but our defense did an amazing job keeping the badger offense from gaining any points during their trips to the red zone. The 1st half ended in a 0-0 tie.

Penn State shows some spark after half time and leads 7-0 wisco misses a field goal, but later, The badgers tie it up 7-7. They go ahead with a field goal. We get a touchdown, but miss the PAT16-10. with 3 minute left we have to hold back a drive and let them get to the 30 where we intercept. we can’t make a first down, and hand them the ball back. They stall out on time and we win.

We walked back to the RV and stopped to look at a Frank Llyod Wright house in the neighborhood near the stadium. Back in lot 60, We grill up burgers and chicken fingers. stayed until about 7 PM and started the drive home. Met some folks to talk about the 5th wheel. The clouds finally cleared and the sun came out just before we left.

We took I-90 through downtown Chicago which looked like a giant wrap around painting against the finally clear. We had issues with the EZpass on the Chicago skyway toll road and some other tolls in Illinois.

We stopped for fuel, pizza and the night at a Flying J in Lake Station, IN.

Sunday

Notes for next time

• Where are trailer trailers supposed to park?
• double check that EZ pass works for all tolls. It does, but it took a while for all to come in.

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Virtual BWW 21

For the Glory,
-Rob, Tailgating Coordinator

Diesel Tailgate: Get Big! ^TM