Left at 6 am and flew, making it in 3 hr 20 min with only a 10 minute slowdown getting into the Nitanny lot which was nearly empty. Had a nice walk around downtown and a great breakfast at Irving's. Not too many RU fans but also only a 60 percent full stadium at 11.44. Go RU!!
The ride home was just as easy, taking about 3 hours and 40 minutes, including a 15-20 minute stop at Mickey D's. One tidbit: on 78E in NJ we saw a bunch of police lights ahead of us and it turns out it was a convoy of buses being escorted by a host of cop cars - presumably it was the team/supporters. Was also able to get the hoops game on my phone, so my buddy watched and I got to hear it and get a few peeks at some great plays - nice win. Got home as the game ended.
So glad we picked that Nittany Deck - was only $40 for the day and being further away likely saved us a huge amount of time getting in and out, based on looking at our traffic apps at traffic much closer to the stadium before and after the game.
The downtown area was attractive and walking through campus was enjoyable. It's nice having one cohesive campus with everything in one place. Lots of interesting buildings and loads of well designed open space for recreation and just hanging out.
Enjoyable game, which was obviously much closer than the score indicated. Hard to beat more talented, deeper teams when we make more mistakes (penalties and TOs) than the other team. 1 penalty the last two weeks on our opponents is ridiculous though. We're getting closer though.
Not particularly impressed with Beaver Stadium as a stadium - very industrial looking and unattractive, but it is freakin' huge and the crowd, even at 75% full, like today, was pretty impressive. However, a few things they do really well: i) they have far more entrance lines than we do (per ticket holder), so zero wait to get in; ii) one can actually hear what people are saying on their PA system and iii) they have much better on-field camera work for their in-game entertainment (cheerleaders and stuff).
Thought it was interesting that they play nearly all the same DJ songs we do, including Bruce and Bon Jovi, which they shouldn't be allowed to play, lol. And they have canned music about as much as we do, which I'm ok with.
Wasn't heckled once walking around town or in the stadium, although there was one point midway through the 4Q, where a PSU fan was standing by a railing blocking our view and he turned to our area and asked if he was blocking our view and then offhandedly and douchily added, "not that it matters" to which I replied yeah, it matters. Had a few people asking how we liked our experience and if we needed any help, which was nice. A little disappointed more RU fans didn't show up, though.