COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Howdy yall, we've made it to Columbus, and after a long night on the town, finally made it back to our hotel, more on that in a moment.

We left around 1 Friday afternoon, our scheduled departure time was 10:30, but 1 worked fine. It was a pretty uneventful drive, save for some good ole' PennDOT construction on I-80, so we sat and played I-spy and duck duck goose.

After a brief lunchstop in picturesque Clearfield, Pa., the trip took us through the bustling metropolis of Youngstown, Ohio, nice place, if you're into factories and soot (actually a lot like Columbus).

We tried to stop at Daryll Clark's house, but nobody was home. It started to rain but it wasn't too bad. Ohio drives on the other hand, pretty friggin awful.

There was a small stretch during which I think I invented at least 27 new swear words, each new one worse than the last, to describe the drivers with Buckeye flags on their license plates. They don't know how to merge, they don't know what the passing lane's for, but they do know a lot about cutting people off.

After we got to Columbus, some passengers in the car who shall remain nameless told me I was yelling so loud and forceful that they feared for their lives a little bit.

Anywho, we made it to Columbus and after picking up a 12-pack of Buckeye beer and a bag of Buckeye chips (we're in Ohio, we gotta do it) and a small cocktail hour, we headed for the mean streets of C-Bus.

Our first stop was at former Ohio State heisman trohpy winning running back Eddie George's bar/restaurant. For some reason they didn't have any pitchers, but they did have very nice women, including one who talked with Travis for a good 15-20 minutes.

The bathroom in the place was pretty boss, over the urinals there was a window that looked out over the bar, but from the bar side it was a mirror. Pretty cool, but at the same time pretty disturbing and vouyerific.

After a beer there, we decided it was too swanky for us, it was all art-deco and whatnot, so we started walking down High St., C-Bus's equivalent of College Ave.

We were told by some locals, who for some reason were a little disturbed by a group of five guys coming up to them and asking them where the place to be was, to head to the "Little Bar."

Well after walking a good 5 or 6 blocks, we asked someone again if we were close and they started laughing and said it was another 15 blocks or so away. So we forgot that and dove in this nifty little place called "the O." O is for Ohio State, get it? These Ohioans are so clever.

Well the O had a pretty neat set up. The actual bar itself was inside, but there was a patio that had removable walls and there was a giant fire pit in the middle. It was warm and there were a pretty good amount of people. There was a decent number of Penn State fans in town.

After a couple of beers and a quick gander at the banner advertising kegs and eggs starting at 5 a.m. the day of the Michigan game, we left the O in search of a cab.

But then we found an Insomnia Cookies, same place they have in State College. The boys wanted some cookies, so they went inside. Eller got kicked out for touching almost every single cookie in the joint right.

We flagged down a cab and told the cab driver, his name was John, that we were staying at the Crown Plaza North hotel.

So we get in the cab and John starts driving. We were a little rowdy, nothing vulgar or mean, we were just telling jokes.

Then we asked John about the weirdest passenger he's ever given a ride to and he said he once had a guy who said he saw a guy with a riffle sitting on the hood of the car. John guessed the guy was tripping on acid or something, but judging John, and the way the ride proceeded, I'm not sure if he was totally with it.

So anyway, we pull up to the hotel, but the ride felt like it lasted a lot longer than our ride into C-Bus. We get out, pay John 50 bucks for the ride and he takes off. We walked into the Crown Plaza Hotel and realized we were at the Crown Plaza Dublin Hotel, not North., which is, according to google maps, 7.7 miles from our hotel.

Luckily there was a folk festival in the Dublin hotel and they had some nice leather couches because we had to wait about 45 minutes for another cab, and the lady behind the desk wasn't too happy with her unhappy college visitors at 3 in the morning.

Finally another cab showed up, from a different cab company, and got us where we needed to go. The price for the second ride: 40 bucks. So we spent $90 on cab fair in roughly an hour.

He was real cool, forget his name but he was born in Boulder, Colo. We got back to the hotel and stayed up until about 5 or 5:30 singing koombya and working on homework.

Saturday morning was, in a word, rough.

I got up at 10:30 to play basketball with a group of the Penn State beat writers. We had five-on-five and we played at the Columbus YWCA. This game was better than the one in Madison, we're getting better.

After basketball, TJ, JL, Eller, Shorts and I went to Skyline Chili. Apparently the place is considered famous, so TJ and I ordered together, we each ordered a small bowl of chili and spaghetti, a chili cheese dog and an order of chili cheese fries. TJ didn't like his chili and spaghetti so I had two bowls of that, and my insides are making me pay for it.

And the Chili really wasn't that great but they piled on the cheese pretty high. Basically I'm going to need an angioplasty by my 25th birthday. Then we hopped in the pool/whirlpool for a quick dip and we're here at the stadium.