Things To Do After Beating Michigan!

Victory was sweet and so was our next few days in Michigan. We stayed in Ypsilanti until Wednesday and had a wonderful time visiting botanical gardens, a winery, and a museum that housed the first automobile called the quadricycle built by Henry Ford. After Ford built it in this tiny shed, he realized he couldn't get it out without breaking through the brick wall, so he did!

Before our visit to the museum, we did some other interesting things. On Sunday, the day after our exciting victory over Michigan, we visited the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical gardens. In this conservatory there were over 1200 plant species from around the world. The collection was divided into three houses that reflected three climatic conditions. There was a tropical, temperate, and desert house that hosted plants from many warmer regions in the world.

This was a lobster claw plant located in the tropical house.

Another interesting species in the tropical house was the sausage tree.

A beautiful century plant grew in the desert house.

The desert house hosted many different species that were specialists in surviving droughts by storing water.

This was the MiSo House, a solar home, designed by students from the College of Architecture, Engineering, and the Schools of Art and Design.

This was the Shadow Pavilion, a structure and a space made entirely of holes. It was constructed from 100 aluminum laser cut cones that varied in size. The cones funneled light and sound for visitors to take in the views and sounds of the surrounding area. It was located along a road near the botanical gardens.

The sign in front of the structure said, "Research- Through- Making".

On Monday and Tuesday we visited 'The Henry Ford' that was made up of the Greenfield Villages, the Henry Ford Museum, and the Rouge Ford Factory. The brochure dubbed it as "America's greatest history attraction". There were over 90 buildings and 26 million artifacts on 200 acres that comprised this collection of American history.


This was a steam engine train stopped at the Firestone Station located in an area called 'Working Farms" in the Greenfield Village.

The Farris Windmill is the oldest windmill in America. It was located in the section of the Greenfield Village called Porches and Parlors. In this area was a collection of houses and out buildings that once belonged to the likes of Robert Frost, Noah Webster, and the Henry Ford family.

This collection of the Heinz 57 varities was in the Heinz House located on Main Street in the Village.

The Dymaxion House, R. Buckminster Fuller's all-aluminum house, designed in the 1920's. It was round, portable and environmentally efficient.

This was a Model T pulled apart for easy viewing of it's components.

A bicycle built for ten.

This was a collection of early RV's. I am glad they have come along way since those early days.

We were checking out the stainless steel storage tanks at the Spotted Dog Winery for future reference.

After a long day of enjoying American History we sampled some good Michigan made wines at the Spotted Dog Winery in Saline. Most of the wines were made from juice brought in from all over the world. Some of the wine was aged in stainless and some in oak.


On Wednesday we left Michigan and headed to the Chicago area for the Northwestern game. We have spent the past few days visiting Chicago. I will post on this next week but for now I have to get ready to go watch the Nittany Lions beat the Wildcats!

Go State!

The 'Cubs' visit Michigan

The Lion and I left Pa. on Wednesday and arrived at our campground in Ypsilanti (outside of Ann Arbor) on Thursday afternoon. We will be here until Wednesday and then we will go onto the Chicago area for the Northwestern game. We have planned a few sightseeing trips here in Michigan so I plan to post a few extra blogs this week on our excursions.

Two of the cubs joined us for the game on Saturday and I think they had a good time especially since we won the game! I know it makes for a long trip home if we don't win. One cub who couldn't travel to the game was a bit jealous of her siblings so we bought a Halloween Witch to 'stand in' for her in all the pictures.

This picture was taken during our visit to campus on Friday. We usually visit campus the day before the game to check out game day parking and take a campus tour. However, it was raining again so most of our tour was a drive-by and we didn't see much. No one was that anxious to walk around soaked on Friday, especially since the forecast was for more rain on Saturday.

The Big Ten Network was getting ready for their game day broadcast.




We attended a Friday night alumni pep rally held at the University of Eastern Michigan. This was a nice function put on by the Penn State Alumni chapter of Michigan.

The Penn State Pep Band performed for us at the pep rally. Beyond the glass window was a great view of the football stadium.

The Blue Band practiced on the University of Eastern Michigan's Football field on Friday night. They are allowed to attend one away game a year.

On Saturday we were part of a large turnout for The Penn State Alumni pep rally at the University of Michigan.

After the pep rally we walked to the stadium for the game and we saw this monument that had a bit of prophecy for the Penn State Football Team.

This was the first time the 'cubs' were in The Big House.

They came to see their favorite player.

Good thing that was a practice pass.


We all agreed that The Big House was nice, it was loud, but it didn't compare to Beaver Stadium.

Even though the stadium didn't resemble ours, the sky looked familar. The clouds dumped rain on us as soon as the game started. Hopefully, soon we can retire our rain gear before it wears out!

In addition to rain, there was a fair amount of wind that could be seen as the flag was raised.

A little rain and wind didn't spoil the two F-18's 'fly over' after the National Anthem.


These guys entertained the Penn State fans before and during the game.


Everyone was all smiles after Penn State defeated Michigan for the first time since 1996 at The Big House.

Crazy Weather

Crazy! That describes the 2009 Penn State football season so far, not the actual games, but the weather! The die-hard Nittany Lion Fans have been subject to everything from blue skies and warm temperatures (Akron), to wet and cold conditions (Iowa), to this week’s frigid weather (Minnesota), which reigns as ‘king of the craziness’! Rain, ice and snow, broken tree limbs everywhere, and power outages were the main event of the weekend at least until game time. Other notables were no tailgating, no parking in the grass and no throwing snowballs in the stadium.

Who would have imagined snow on October 17th. Not since 1901 has there been snow in State College this early. Aren’t we supposed to be having Indian Summer, that period of time after the leaves have changed, but before the first snowfall? I’m not sure if this mixed- up weather is associated with ‘global warming’ or if Mother Nature was just playing with us to see if we are… die-hard Penn State fans.

Well according to the PR machine at Penn State there were over 107,000 people at the game. From my observations, there were many less than that in attendance. Ticket sales may have topped over 107,000, but the stadium was not at capacity. I can’t say I blame people for not coming to the game. If it were not for our ‘favorite player’, we might have decided to enjoy the game from the view of the recliner in our motor home.

We did go to the game and enjoyed seeing our ‘favorite’ make a fine, one-handed catch, and run for a nice gain after the reception. He also had a good game blocking and caught two other balls, although one was called back due to a penalty. This game was a good confidence builder for him and the team, especially as they prepare to take over hostile territory in Ann Arbor.

The Wolverines of Michigan own Penn State at the Big House. We have lost there since 1996. During those years Lloyd Carr (who must have mentored Kirk Ferentz on how to consistently beat our Lions) was the coach. The upside is that Rich Rodriguez is now the coach and Carr doesn’t feel the same love for him, so as a second year coach, Rodriguez is on his own to figure out if he can beat us.

Our own Evan Royster has confidence in his team. He told the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette on Tuesday, “I think we feel like we’re the better team and we can go out there and still beat them.” Those words must have sounded like a challenge to Brandon Graham when told by AnnArbor.com of the comment. His response was, “Prove it.”

So ‘prove it’ we must. We know we can handle the weather forecast of: 30% chance of showers with highs in the 40’s. We know, their Big House is not Our White House, and their Maize-out is not a Whiteout. And for certain we know, our team is as good as they believe they are. So ‘prove it… we will’.




Beaver Stadium on snowy October 17, 2009.



Coach Paterno is the first one off the bus for the game.

Pregame in the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Lionettes entertained us.

The men's basketball team scrimmaged and had a dunk contest.

Ruger and the Snowman.

Karah bundled up in her colorful attire.

Our 'favorite' before the game.



Post game celebration.

Pap and Jody relaxing after the game at Damons



The rest of the 82 crew at Damons

We are...half-finished!

We are now officially half- finished with the 2009 PSU Football season. What do you think so far? Are we as good or as bad as you thought prior to the season? I have mixed feelings, but I’m thinking positive. Possessing a 5-1 record could mean we are good, but as we all know, four of those teams weren’t in the same league as Penn State. Illinois, the only Big Ten team we have beaten so far, doesn’t help us gauge who we are because they are not that good. Sure we lost to Iowa, but right now it’s hard to put that into perspective because we haven’t played ‘like teams’. So how do we know what to expect for the second half of the season?

Wouldn’t it be great if we had an instrument like a barometer to predict the future of this season? Meteorologists use barometers to measure air pressure tendencies over a period of time to predict weather. If the air pressure drops for a few days, the weather usually gets worse or remains poor. If the pressure rises, the weather is likely to improve or remain good.

Right now if we had a ‘football barometer’ I sense the arrow would point up, indicating ‘high pressure’ with conditions likely to improve. I think that for two reasons. First, there is a lot of pressure on the team to find reliable players to replace those that graduated. It seems like after six weeks we have made progress in some questionable areas, but there is still plenty of room for more improvement. Second, there’s a heavy weight on the Lions to win the next six games for a chance to be crowned ‘Big Ten Champion’ or at least secure a ‘good’ post- season bowl game. Unfortunately, we don’t have that football barometer to predict the forecast for the next six weeks so what happens is anyone’s guess. As for The pride, we believe the outlook for the Nittany Lions is good.

There’s an old proverb that says, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”. Translated that means, the quality of something is uncertain until it has been tested directly. The test begins this Saturday. The pressure is high. The forecast is good!

Go Lions beat the Golden Gophers

Eastern Illinois Pictures

Pregame shotThe Penn State Glee Club

Part of the '82 Crew'

Beautiful sky over Beaver Stadium

Students passing The Lion through the stands

Our favorite player leaving the field after the win




The 'fav's' 23rd birthday party

Sunset over Beaver Stadium