Alexa, play “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson.

For the second time in three weeks, Penn State football traveled west for an away game. This time, instead of heading all the way to sunny California, the Nittany Lions headed north to America’s Dairyland: Wisconsin.

With this game back in traditional Big Ten territory, we returned to our traditional road trip style: driving. After over 20 hours in the car together over the span of three days, we certainly have a lot to share. Let’s take a look back at Onward State’s road trip to Madison, Wisconsin.

Friday

We had heard pretty great things about Madison. Its claim to fame is that it is the “best college town in America.” We had to see for ourselves.

So, with a long drive ahead of us, we left early. That way, we’d get to Madison with time to explore. We shipped out of State College around 6:45 a.m.

The first couple of hours were fairly uneventful. To put it plainly, I slept for a while and missed most of western Pennsylvania, waking up somewhere near Cleveland. We kept driving, all the way through Ohio before finally taking a break in Indiana.

Efficiently got through Ohio as fast as possible, and now we’re in @stutzhailey ‘s favorite state pic.twitter.com/p5CxgfoS3X

— Nolan Wick (@nolan_wick) October 25, 2024

Our stop for lunch had to be the Midwest staple, Culver’s. It’s been a pseudo-tradition for this era of Onward State’s football beat, and since the chain is based in Wisconsin, it felt like an appropriate stop. With our bellies all full of cheese curds, burgers, and custard, we hit the road once again.

Today is a good day pic.twitter.com/VPF6lxQaaZ

— Hailey Stutzman (@stutzhailey) October 25, 2024

We crossed into the Central Time Zone and passed through Illinois, going around Chicago to avoid rush hour traffic. Before long, we had crossed into the great state of Wisconsin, the blog’s first trip back since 2021. We dropped our things off at our hotel and headed into the state’s capital.

We started our evening at The Double U, a bar that had a very Brothers-like feel. We went on the earlier side, so it wasn’t super crowded, but we still enjoyed the vibe in there. The bar had darts, plenty of TVs, and a rooftop bar.

We tried Spotted Cow, a popular ale from New Glarus Brewing Company, a brewery that only distributes its beer in Wisconsin. I had heard incredible things, and to be honest, it’s widely overrated. It’s…just beer.

A few years ago when the Onward State crew came to Madison, they found out that you could play Penn State songs on bars’ speakers through the TouchTunes app and they wouldn’t get skipped. Former staffer Ryan Parsons said while hearing Zombie Nation was fun, it was odd to hear bars allow rival songs to get played.

It’s been three years since then, so we were curious if anything had changed. It turns out, it has. Someone tried to play the Penn State fight song two times at The Double U, and both times the bar manually overrode and skipped the song. I guess the Penn State-Wisconsin rivalry is a bit stronger now.

We then headed to Dotty’s Dumpling Dowry for dinner, a place that was highly recommended to us by several people. It was a super cool vibe inside, with Wisconsin-themed retro decor covering the walls. We even ran into Onward State contrib Sam Balkansky and his family!

We split an order of cheese curds (of course) and got a combination of brats, burgers, and fish for our entrees. Everything was delicious, but the real highlight was the vibe.

We finished our night at Red Rock Saloon, a spot recommended by Mitch’s friend who goes to Wisconsin. We debated a few spots, but once we heard Red Rock Saloon had a mechanical bull, we were in. This bar was located on State Street, a road that runs right from Wisconsin’s capital building to the heart of the university.

I’m sure the other bars in Madison are great too, but I’m glad this is where we ended up because this place ruled. The country-themed bar, in addition to the mechanical bull, brought in a live band that drove all the way from Nashville just to perform at this place.

A few of us took a spin on the bull, which was a blast. State College definitely needs a mechanical bull. We also met some Penn Staters who recognized the blog from the merch we were wearing and bought us a drink. Shoutout to those guys! After a great night, we headed back to our hotel to rest.

Saturday

Gameday.

I’ve been covering Penn State football for Onward State for three years. Looking back, it’s been rare that an away game I’ve covered wasn’t a noon game. It was honestly awesome to wake up and have time to explore the campus on gameday without having to rush to the stadium.

We woke up and headed to Parkway Family Restaurant outside Madison for some breakfast. The food was delicious and got the Onward State crew all fueled up for the day ahead of us.

We then drove into Madison and parked at the press-assigned parking garage. From there, we took a stroll through Wisconsin’s campus. Trying to put my biases towards Penn State aside, the campus was awesome.

Having a lake right on campus is incredible, and I’m sure that during the summer months when it’s warm, that’s a great place to hang out. The hills probably get annoying for students who walk them every day, the terrain provided some cool views of the lake and downtown Madison.

The campus is also extremely integrated with downtown, with the main lawn bleeding right into State Street. We did a bit more exploring of downtown Madison before heading towards Camp Randall Stadium.

After checking in at the media entrance, we headed down to the field to take a couple of quick pictures in the iconic stadium. From there, it was game time.

As you know, Penn State beat the Badgers 28-13 in a gritty win. Camp Randall Stadium was a pretty awesome night environment, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Beaver Stadium in terms of road games.

By the time the game was over and everyone had finished their post-game assignments, it was about 12:30 a.m. Exhausted from a long day, we waved goodbye to Madison and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday

The long road home.

Sunday was, admittedly, the most boring day of the trip. We headed south out of Wisconsin and into Illinois, this time driving right through the heart of Chicago before making our way into Indiana.

We briefly detoured into Michigan for a lunch stop at Popeye’s. Our food took forever to come out, so we didn’t linger too long in Sturgis, Michigan, before admiring the famous Howe, Indiana, water tower and continuing on our road home.

We drove and drove until we eventually made it back to Pennsylvania, thus concluding another amazing Onward State road trip. We’ll see you in a couple of weeks, Purdue!