saturday morning we got up before dawn and headed up... well, some interstate to state college, pa. i say some interstate because to be perfectly honest i slept from about powhite parkway to breezewood, pa. usually i worry about bryan staying awake but he was so excited about going to see a penn state football game that i knew we'd make it there in one piece. :)
we got to state college around 11:30am, parked the truck and set off for the illustrious beaver stadium. bryan likes to remind me every time this stadium comes up how much better it is than scott stadium in charlottesville. psh!, i say! just because your stadium is HUGE doesn't mean it's better!
although, i must admit, beaver stadium is pretty impressive...
it was a beautiful day for a football game, although i couldn't get over my empathy for florida international university. this is a team that went 0-12 last year. they didn't win a SINGLE GAME. and here they are, come to happy valley to get a royal ass whoopin'. i think i almost got myself sent back to the truck a few times because i just wanted them to do something right so they could leave with a little dignity... but that just did not happen. and it was sad. (little did i know, my beloved wahoos were off in wyoming putting on basically the same show as FIU... thank god i didn't have to see that, i would have probably shed some real tears... but there's always DUKE! and that's all i'll say about UVA football this time.)
so anyway, we had fun, penn state won, of course... and not by a little bit:
after the game we went back and moved the truck closer to the action that is college ave and headed that way for some lunch. i thought i might get a nice sit-down meal in a restaurant, but bryan's eyes began to glaze over when he started seeing all the pizza joints of his college years, so we ended up in a pizza joint where the woman told us we couldn't even order a small pizza because they were "so busy from the game." whatever. that was a line of crap, but we settled for a couple of slices and a one-fill only soda and were on our way.
we decided to relax a bit on the pretty enough campus of penn state (it doesn't compare to UVA, but it's alright... :) ). the sky was blue, the grass was cool and we were tired, a great combination for a nice siesta.
after our little break we headed to the famous penn state creamery for ice cream... you know the ice cream is good when people can major in dairy products!!!finally, it was decision time. we brought with us an air matress and bedding with the thought we might camp out overnight at penn state rather than drive 3 hours to the in-laws or pay $250 for a hotel room. it was 8pm and we were not exactly in the mood for partying with the college kids, but not exactly in the mood for driving 3 hours either. so we drove around the RV parking lot and, once we realized we could stay there for free overnight, decided we'd stick around.
we headed back to college ave where the bars are and headed to the cafe, famous for its long island iced teas. we grabbed a spot on the patio and each ordered one. as we sat there, we debated how much we thought the tab would be when it came. i know alcohol is cheap at penn state, so i guessed $7 for both. bryan guessed $6. keep in mind, had we gone somewhere in richmond and ordered these drinks, we would have easily paid $7 each.
the final tab?
$4.25. for two good-sized cups filled with nothing but hard liquor and a splash of coke or, in my case, a splash of raspberry flavoring that cost me an extra $0.25. unreal!!! i would be very interested to see if people at penn state take statistically longer to finish their degrees, because with alcohol this cheap i don't know how the students are ever coherent!! after our drinks, back to the truck, where bryan proceeded to blow up the air mattress. we have 2 air mattresses--a queen size and a twin size. we've slept on the twin before, but it wasn't easy. so i brought the queen, thinking if we laid it out right in the back of the truck, as we filled it up it would conform to the shapes of the wheel wells. WRONG! instead we had an air mattress valley, and every time either one of us moved all night, the other would roll down into the valley. it made for very sporadic sleeping. other than that, though, it was quite an adventure and a good story to tell our kids one day. :)
sunday morning we got up and headed towards allentown. the klinger family picnic was that afternoon, and we had just enough time to shower and change clothes and head over there. it's always fun to see the extended klinger family. we hung out and ate too much, chatted and bryan played volleyball and football. it was a great time!
monday was travel day, and back to the real world of kids going back to school and me having to race to beat the school bus out of my neighborhood in the mornings. if i leave before 7:06, i make it to the bus stop half a mile away with plenty of time to spare before the bus leaves at 7:15. if i leave at 7:06 or after, i am totally screwed and will most likely be racing the bus down hull street to the next stop. so obnoxious!!
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