My recap from this weekend:
-Apart from the weather and score, Camp Randall was just as fun as I expected it to be. Jump Around was awesome (and a good workout!!), and the Build Me Up Buttercup was epic! (they did an entire kickoff while the student section was still singing) The majority of people left after the Jump Around. I sat in front of some friendly, knowledgable older UW fans and a high schooler who apparently brought a bunch of her friends to their first game (she explained some of the traditions to them). The stadium seemed to have a double corridor where I entered around the back (the first part looked like the underbelly of stadiums where they drive service vehicles, and then went through doors into an actual inner concourse).
-I stayed for the 5th Quarter despite being soaked to my socks. It was organized chaos in the silliest form! The band and cheerleaders split into smaller groups after playing both fight songs and Varsity. Some played instruments while lying down, others danced around cops standing on the field, others trying to serenade a few individuals. Then they did the Chicken Dance and ended with Varsity again. The scoreboard had the countdown clock on and actually said QTR 5.
-One highlight of the Les Mis halftime show was how they all knelt down except for a trumpet soloist playing Do You Hear the People Sing, and slowly more band members stood up and joined in until everyone stood. They play their alma mater at halftime instead of after the national anthem. Just like our band, they send smaller groups to play around the stands. I must have heard On Wisconsin dozens of times that day.
-Leaving the stadium, I ended up running into the band as they marched back to the building where they keep their equipment. They are crazy, in a good way! Some of them had crazy ways to cross railroad tracks in the middle of a road, and I was behind one band guy who marched on the sidewalk, arguing with some others before running into a pole. (One of my Uber drivers dated a band member and said they pick out someone to do that every game.)
-There's a nice big arch and some little exhibits around the stadium grounds about the site's Civil War camp significance (that was the original Camp Randall).
-UW has their own sports drink called Badger Max. It's fruitier than Gatorade.
-Bucky Badger wore several Halloween costumes during the game (Superman, Transformer, pirate, and a few more).
-Some UW people swore RU had beaten them before. I said they must be confusing the team or the sport, because they shut us out last year in worse rain!
-Freakin' Corey Clement and Tanner McEvoy. My best friend is friends with Clement's dad, who stops at my friend's liquor store.
-All the Badger fans rightfully complained during RU's pick-6, but it was a bright spot for our team.
-I thought Rettig had more poise out there, despite overthrowing.
Non-football related stuff:
-I sat near PiscatawayMike on one of the flights out. There were a bunch of RU fans on all my flights. Connected in MSP, where I saw a mouse by a neighboring gate on the way home.
-Despite the warnings here about Badger fans being assholes, the ones I met were all friendly and welcoming! I had great conversations with people who moved to Madison, and they all liked it there whether they came from a small Wisconsin farm town or Chicago. (It is a different culture from the Northeast, though.) I had dinner at the Old Fashioned on Friday night, and the bartender gave me a sampler of quintessential Wisconsin beers when he found out I wasn't from the area. (I said I was told to try the Spotted Cow.)
-Spotted Cow is an "inoffensive", smooth farmhouse ale. It's the go-to beer in WI, and only sold there. The Old Fashioned bartender said the New Glarus brewery is the 17th-biggest brewery in the US.
-PBR was proudly listed among lists of great WI beers.
-I stopped at the Dane County Farmers Market around the State House on Saturday morning before the game to pick up some local cheese. Most of the cheese sellers had samples. I ended up buying cheddar curds and juustoleipa (Scandinavian-style bread cheese that gets a toast-like crust when grilled).
-Freakfest was a blast! There were some amazing costumes, including zombies on stilts, a giraffe, mascot suits, two Jamaican bobsled teams, and a banana stampede. I packed a costume (a green and yellow parakeet kigurumi/ fleece onesie), ate, drank, took pictures of people in costume, and listened to some of the musicians. There were 3 stages set up down State Street. One was by the State House, another was at the opposite end of the street, and another was a few blocks down from that. The main stage artists could be heard pretty far down because they faced State Street and not a side road. I had some people ask me about my costume. Because I have an RU silicone card holder on my phone case, some people recognized me, including a UW student I had talked to at the Old Fashioned the night before (she was with a very clever group dressed as seats on a Packers emotional rollercoaster). Two other dudes yelled "GO RUTGERS" as I was taking a video of the crowd. I was exhausted as it ended, and the end of DST was to my advantage that night.
-I went to State Street Brats before Freakfest and joined a bunch of RU people who were Cook College grads, and one of them lived in East Brunswick! They had two Wisconsin ladies as tour guides, and I ended up bar-hopping with them. They took us to Mondays for shots and dancing, and then to Wando's for a fishbowl... and that fishbowl must have been 1/3 bigger than the ones at Stuff Yer Face!
-Stopped by the UW Arboretum before my flight home to check out one of their restored prairies. Their arboretum is bigger than Rutgers Gardens, and the visitor center is nice with windows overlooking that prairie. It was a gorgeous day on Sunday.
Overall, I had a great time in Wisconsin. I highly recommend the trip to anyone, 2018 or later.
