This past weekend, Penn State men’s hockey made the trip up to the promised land of Albany, New York, for the NCAA Tournament Regionals. And, naturally, the Onward State hockey beat did too.

While the team’s season ended abruptly after a first-round loss to Minnesota-Duluth, the beat still managed to make a few memories during its 22-hour journey to the Empire State’s capital city.

Friday

Alex left on Thursday, but Ella, Tessa, Ryan, and I all traveled up to Albany on Friday. With the game slated for a late, 9 p.m. puck drop, we decided to leave State College at 1 p.m.

Luckily for our bank accounts, Alex lives in the Albany suburbs, in Cambridge, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were gracious enough to host the five blog members on the trip.

Before we even left town, Ella nearly ran a red light, so I knew I had to brace myself for the six-hour trek that awaited us. After almost rear-ending an SUV at the stop sign to merge onto I-80, we were finally on our way.

To my knowledge, none of us had ever driven through “Northern Pennsylvania” before. We’re just a bunch of New Yorkers, Floridians, and Massachusettsans, after all. But let me say that it was quite scenic.

The first real civilized area that we drove through was Grover, Pennsylvania. We admired the houses and locals, but the town gave us a bad vibe. We appreciated the hospitality, but were in no hurry to return. If any Grover natives are reading this, please take no offense.

After a couple of hours on the road, we finally made it to the great state of New York. Much to the dismay of the Red Sox fans in the car, I briefly turned on Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” as we crossed state lines. Go Yanks.

My dad is a Binghamton University alum, and our route happened to take us right near campus. I made sure we stopped to explore, and I was hoping to buy a piece of merchandise in the bookstore as well.

To our luck, we arrived at 3:59 p.m., only to find out that everything closes at 4 p.m. The students were all heading home for spring break, and the restaurants in the student union building were all closing, except one.

I decided to treat myself to bubble tea at the lone open spot on campus. However, they were out of boba, and I was, somehow, convinced by the worker to order lychee jelly in my drink. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. “Slimy, yet satisfying,” as Simba would say.

Since the whole car was still hungry, we pit-stopped at a Wendy’s just off campus. Tessa ordered a large cup of Red 40, while Ryan and Ella decided to indulge in ice cream-based treats.

With two hours to go, we decided to keep occupied by passing around Tessa’s phone, taking turns queuing up songs in alphabetical order by title. Our music taste was diverse, but Ryan clearly had the worst.

We decided to drive straight to MVP Arena, instead of first going to Alex’s house. As we neared our destinations, vibes began to rise. We stopped to get gas, as well as a gift for Alex’s parents. I was hoping to get them a bottle of wine, and maybe some flowers, but none of us is 21. We, mortifyingly, bought them kettle corn, garlic parmesan pretzels, and some peanut butter candy instead.

At about 7:30 p.m., we arrived in Albany, blasted Zombie Nation, and parked. After getting lost in the concourse trying to find the media room (the arena was WEIRD), we met up with Alex and settled in.

The dinner buffet for media members was actually quite fancy. There was a pasta primavera, steak, chicken cordon bleu, Caesar salad, French onion soup, and more. There was also coffee and extremely watered-down lemonade available.

Once Alex, Ryan, and I wrapped up dinner, we headed up to press row. And my goodness, what a setup that was. Our desks consisted of plywood boards drilled into normal stadium seats. We were located about a mile up from the ice and had to climb behind other media groups on a narrow ledge to get to our seats. It was good character building.

During one of the intermissions, Tessa asked a random man on the concourse if she could taste a piece of his fried dough. He shockingly obliged. I also witnessed the person working the cotton candy machine spin the sugar around his fist, as opposed to a cone. Strange stuff here in A-Town.

As for the game itself, well, you know the story there. After jumping out to a 1-0 lead, Penn State ultimately fell 3-1 to Minnesota-Duluth, ending its season. We attended postgame media and divided up into two cars to drive back to Alex’s place. We got home at almost 2 a.m.

Saturday

I was awoken by the unbearable noise of Alex’s contractor, Sal, operating a buzz saw and blasting Flo Rida in the bathroom. What a time to be alive. Ryan, somehow, remained asleep.

Mrs. Smith graciously prepared bacon and coffee for us in the morning, and I believe it was Alex who made the scrumptious chocolate chip muffins. With the Onward State reunion that evening, we hit the road at 11 a.m.

As was the case on the way to Albany, the trip back began with another Ella driving blunder. As we drove off from Alex’s house, we later realized that she had left her jacket on the roof. It fell off the back and onto the road, but luckily, good ‘ol Sal was there to toot his horn and notify us.

The drive wasn’t too eventful. We stopped at Shake Shack, and I napped for about an hour. We listened to the Panthers-Islanders game on the radio, as the teams represented Ella’s and my respective rooting interests. The good guys from Long Island won 5-2.

We pulled into State College just after 5 p.m., as our very short but entertaining weekend came to a close.