Road Journal - Purdue

Whoa. Finally. Out of the car and into the hotel room.

Greetings everyone, this is Travis blogging to you from West Lafayette, Ind. the site of tomorrow's noon game between No. 6 Penn State and Purdue.

I just took my first shower of the day after riding about 11 hours in the spacious Collegian Subaru from State College and I'm ready for some football.

Our journey to the heartland of America has spanned three states and offered us many different sights.

We had planned to leave at 9:00 a.m. this morning. My phone rang eight minutes later and it was Langenbacher, wondering where the hell I was. We managed to leave State College, with two photographers in tow at around 10:00 a.m.

From there it was the usual whenever I jinx a trip with my tardiness. Rain and fog all through Western PA, which Langenbacher navigated us through like a champ. Eventually, I came out of the pen to relieve the the drowsy right-hander (wheel hand) and took us across the Ohio border around 1:00 p.m.

I had never been to Ohio before today. There was one time I was close, however. I was going to visit an ex-girlfriend who lived in Pittsburgh a few years back. I had never been to the Steel City at that time. The trip was supposed to take three hours, it took me six. I realized the error of my ways when I started to see signs for Cleveland...

Anywho.

I was looking forward to my first trip through the Buckeye State but it really didn't live up to my expectations.

I mean, c'mon. I've seen cows before! And cornfields!

Beautiful countryside though. Probably some nice fishin' in Ohio.

We got a bite to eat at a Hardee's. Who knew they still existed? The curly fries are still top-notch.

Next to the fast food joint was a truck stop. I wandered over to check out the merchandise because there's something that's just so dang honest about a truck stop. Maybe it's all the highway rock 'n' roll?

Anyways, they had NFL jerseys for sale, but they looked like ones made incorrectly. There was a Brett Favre jersey without the striped collar. It was $13.99, marked down from $15.99. I suppose the two-dollar rollback was due to the fact that it was a Packers jersey.

Hm?

We crossed into Indiana with Langenbacher steady at the wheel close to 6:30 p.m. I had nearly fallen asleep at the wheel on the highway when my partner made me pull over.

It was for the best.

Indiana looks a lot like Ohio. At least what I've seen so far. Lots of cows. Lots of corn. Nothing but flat land.

We had to make a pit stop for everyone to go to the bathroom. It was a hoot trying to find the bathroom in that rundown gas station. The lady kept telling me:

"Go out the exit. Take an immediate left."

Each time I took her immediate left, I ran into a big stack of dishes sitting on a rack. Why were they there? Who knows. Maybe I don't know my left from my right, but she eventually pointed me in the right direction.

We saw exits for South Bend and nearly took them just to say we saw Touchdown Jesus. We couldn't veer off-path, however.

So now we're at the hotel. Which is good and bad. Good, because we're off that lonesome highway. Bad because it means an end of sightseeing.

We need the rest.

The hotel-provided soap smells like a cherry urinal cake, but the pillows are soft, the beds are comfy and the internet is free.

And, I could never forget:

There's football tomorrow.

BONUS JOURNALISM:

West Lafayette is still Eastern time. Who knew?

We'll be in touch,

--TJ