It was the first road game of the season, so for Penn State football fans that means packing up their things and taking a road trip. I am a senior at Penn State and in my previous three football seasons, I have been on two road trips to other Big Ten schools. In 2007 I traveled to Michigan and last year to Ohio State.

Both of those trips were fun, but this trip was even better. The Michigan trip was dampened by the fact Penn State lost and the fact we didn’t t stay at the school but at a hotel near the Detroit airport. The trip to Columbus was really fun because Penn State pulled the road upset and the stadium atmosphere was great. But the fact that we made it a day trip took away from the overall time we could spend there.

The Champaign trip was neither a loss or too short.

First, when we finally pulled into Champaign at 1 a.m. central time on Saturday morning, I met up with another Penn State fan, which was already at one of the bars. I didn’t feel like changing, since the bar would close in less than an hour, so I just went in what I was wearing, which was a 2008 Big Ten Championship shirt.

To my surprise the Illinois fans did not jeer me or my friends much at all. In fact, we were complaining about how we didn’t think Penn State was that good this year, especially after the loss to Iowa, and one Illinois fan heard us.

He came over and started talking and ended up joking that he wished Illinois could have an eight win season, something we were saying was going to be disappointing to us if Penn State did it.

After catching a little sleep it was time to grab stuff for our tailgate before the 2:30 p.m. central kickoff time. It was also light out and I got to see how nice the campus was for the first time.

Our tailgate started at about 11 a.m. in a field that was filled with Illinois and Penn State fans. Again the fans were friendly and let us join in and use their bean bag game.

Finally it was time for the game. I was surprised to find out that the game was not nearly sold out, as their student section never filled up. Also the top corner of the stadium where our Penn State student tickets were located was mostly empty as well.

It was easy to tell the Illinois fan base was not behind their football team this year. That was one thing that was different from my trips to Ann Arbor and Columbus.

The game itself was nothing special, as the first half left both team’s fan bases thinking it is going to be a really long season if their teams kept playing the way they were. Then in the second half Penn State took control of the game and won 35-17.

After the game we headed back to where we were staying, watched some football and got some dinner. Then we decided it was time to go back to the bars, which again was really fun.

Overall, the trip was really fun and I would say I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It won’t be back to Champaign this year, but I will be heading back out to the state of Illinois at the end of October for the game Penn State plays in Evanston against Northwestern. I am hoping Chicago will be able to live up to the great time I had at Champaign.