Relive Onward State’s Road Trip To Minnesota
The last away trip of the regular season was a long one, folks.
This past weekend, Onward State traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to cover Penn State football’s final away game of the regular season. The Nittany Lions defeated Minnesota 26-25 in a hard-fought Big Ten battle, finishing the year undefeated on the road for the first time in James Franklin’s tenure.
This was Onward State’s longest road trip by car since our journey to Auburn, Alabama, in 2022. With over 32 hours of driving spread over the course of four days, there was plenty to see… Well, at least as much as there is to see when driving through the endless Midwest.
Let’s take a look back at our trip to and from Minnesota.
Friday
Since Minneapolis is so far from State College (16 hours, to be exact), we elected for an early departure from Happy Valley. We packed up our things and met at CJ’s Subaru around 5:30 a.m. as snow began to fall over Penn State.
I used my backseat passenger privileges to take a little early-morning nap, waking up just as we were crossing into Ohio. We drove straight through Ohio, other than a brief stop to refuel on gas, before making our way into the Hoosier state.
On our way through Indiana, we briefly detoured off of I-90 to grab lunch at Culver’s in Sturgis, Michigan. Eating a greasy ButterBurger at Culver’s has become a tradition for this era of Onward State’s football beat, so we had to do it one more time on our last midwestern road trip.
We got back on the road, driving the rest of the way through northern Indiana before passing briefly into Illinois, our fifth state of the day up to this point. We skirted around the Chicago area to avoid any unnecessary traffic before passing into Wisconsin. The route up to this point was identical to our road trip from only a few weeks ago.
We made our way north of Madison, officially entering uncharted territory for the blog. This was about 12 hours into the drive and about the point where we all started to collectively lose our minds. We stopped at a gas station to refuel and grab some snacks before continuing north.
After a few more hours of driving through the dark, we had made it to Minnesota.
I’d like to give a special shoutout to CJ Doebler, who drove all 1,000 miles of this journey, unassisted. We offered to take shifts, but this was his “swan song,” as he put it. He needed to do it alone, and he did.
After settling into our hotel for the weekend, we walked across the parking lot to the adjacent bar and grill called “The Well.” We tried some local beer and watched the local 6A high school state championship football game.
After enjoying a surprisingly expensive meal, we made our way back to the hotel and settled in for a good night’s rest after a long day of driving (or passengering).
Saturday
One last Midwestern gameday.
We started our morning at the world-famous International House of Pancakes, more commonly known as IHOP. After fueling ourselves with eggs, bacon, and pancakes, we made our way into Minneapolis.
Arriving at Minnesota about an hour before we wanted to go into the stadium, we took the time to explore its campus a little bit and see what life would be like as a Golden Gopher.
We didn’t get an amazing feel for the entirety of campus, but based on what we saw, it seems like a very nice campus. One interesting thing that we noticed is that the school’s campus spans the Mississippi River, meaning students may need to use a footbridge to cross the river between classes.
After exploring campus for an hour, it was time to work. We headed to Huntington Bank Stadium and spent the next nine hours or so covering Penn State football. Aidan and I took photos while CJ, Nolan, and Mitch covered the game from the press box.
After the game ended and everyone wrapped up their work for the day, we headed right across the street from the stadium to the amazingly convenient Buffalo Wild Wings. We were all starving, so having a B-Dubs so close was immaculate.
We devoured our fair share of wings and cheese curds before waving goodbye to Minnesota and heading back to the hotel for the evening.
Sunday
Time to start the long road home.
Nolan decided the most convenient way for him to get home would be to fly, so we said farewell and “Happy Thanksgiving” to him at the hotel before setting off as a crew of four. Our breakfast for the day was a quick stop at McDonald’s, reminiscing on State College’s recent loss.
We crossed back into the great state of Wisconsin, saying goodbye to the North Star State as we made our way to our allotted “fun activity” for the day. We had decided for our mental sanity to break the drive home up over two days, which gave us a little bit more wiggle room for fun on the way home.
What was that fun stop, you may ask? Two glorious hours at Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Many of you probably know this brewery for its incredibly famous “Summer Shandy” beer, but they’ve got a number of other awesome beers as well.
We spent some time exploring the Leinie Lodge, their gift shop-pub combo. We had registered for a tour of the brewery, and that ticket came with four redeemable tokens for a 5-ounce sampler. We spent an hour before the tour doing some shopping and enjoying our allotted samplers.
After trying some taproom-exclusive beers, we enjoyed a one-hour tour of the brewing facility. We learned all about the company’s German roots, rise in popularity, and the process they use to brew their beers. We also learned, sadly, that after Leinenkugel’s was acquired by Molson-Coors, the original Chippewa Falls brewery would be closing soon.
After a lovely early afternoon in Chippewa Falls, we hit the road. We made our way south out of Wisconsin and into Illinois where we stopped for a midday meal at Chipotle.
After our stop for food, we continued through the Chicago metro area before crossing into Indiana. At this point, the roads were dark and long, making the drive fairly boring as we pushed through to get as far as we could before stopping for the night.
We decided to stop for the night in Fremont, Ohio, booking a last-minute room at a Days Inn and settling in for some sleep before our final day of travel.
Monday
Monday’s goal was simple: finish the job.
We all wanted to get home to our families for Thanksgiving break as quickly as possible, so we got up before the sun and left our hotel around 7:30 a.m.
We stopped at a Chick-fil-A in Youngstown, Ohio, for breakfast. Usually, we can’t stop at Chick-fil-A on our way home since we usually drive home on Sunday, but by extending the drive an extra day, we enjoyed chicken minis instead of the nonexistent hotel breakfast we were supposed to be offered.
From there, we plugged away, back into Pennsylvania and all the way home to State College. We arrived back in Happy Valley right around noon, giving us all plenty of time to stop by our respective apartments before going home for Thanksgiving.
If this really was my last Onward State road trip, which it very well might be, it was a pleasure writing these recaps for three years. From Auburn to Minneapolis, I’m grateful for all the people I traveled with, the memories we made, and the content made together.
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