Gophers and Buckeyes

Over the weekend Jason and I crammed in a car with my dad, stepmom and some friends and made the trek to Columbus to visit my baby sister and cheer on our Gophers against the Buckeyes. We left our house on Thursday evening and made our way to Janesville, Wisconsin for the night. The 5 hour car ride went really quickly thanks to Wedding Crashers and a fun group of peeps. 

Once in Janesville we ordered up some Chubby Bubba's pizza and had ourselves what we call a campfire in the hotel lobby, but, it was a tame night as we planned on hitting the road early on Friday morning. 

After the 7 hour car ride to Columbus, everyone was ready for action! We checked into our hotel, cleaned up and promptly made our way High Street to Mad Mex where I finally got my beloved Barbacoa Nachos that I have been dreaming about since we were there in August, and got to see my sister!

We finished up the night at Eddie George's where my crew was in rare form. Gotta love being the only sober one in a group of crazies. Thankfully, I was there to get all these clown back to the hotel safe and sound. 

The alarm went off a tad too early on Saturday morning, but it was totally worth it. Jeff Boals, the assistant coach of the OSU basketball team had invited us to come to practice and it was definitely an opportunity we didn't want to miss. We got a behind the scenes look and the basketball facility which was SO COOL. Most intriguing was the giant underwater treadmill - I REALLY wanted to give that thing a try. After our look at the locker rooms, game film room and weight room we got to watch the practice. It was super cool and really fun. I guess you could say I'm a bit of a OSU basketball fan now. Whoops. 

After practice it was time to get Gopher-fied and head to the streets. But not before our friend Ole attempted to "foam roll" on a full beer - I'll let you guess how that worked out - and I had the task of brushing Colin's beard which was weirdly really fun. 

We made our way to the West Lot of Ohio Stadium and cracked some beer {non-alchie for me}. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and the weather was perfect for tailgating. 

Next, we mosied across the street to the Varsity Club where the DJ was so on point I was getting sweaty from dancing - not kidding. We had some drinks, ate some pizza, I got Cream of Potato Soup from a food truck and my sister and battled it out over our teams. 

At promptly 5pm we went to The Nut, which is a privately owned bar on campus that we were lucky enough to be on the VIP list for thanks to a work friend of Jason and Colin's. This place was awesome. All you can eat and drink {for free}, giant TVs playing football, country music blasting....I mean, does it get better? Well, actually it does because while there I got to hang out with The Katie Krysh! 

Katie and I have been following each other for what feels like forever! And after some previously failed attempts to meet we FINALLY got the chance. Katie was so sweet and her friend Lindsay was equally as fun. Our time together was too short, but I am so glad we got to meet and am excited to hang out again in the future! 

And then just like that, it was game time. Thanks to the awesome OSU basketball coaches, Kara and I got to sit front row, 40 yard line, right behind the team. It was pretty bananas. 

 My Gopher squad did not win {which truthfully we all kind of knew would be the case} but we played a great game and didn't get blown out which is both exciting and encouraging after what has been a very frustrating season. Despite being major underdogs, I was cheering for my team as I always do and even got "shushed" by one of the Buckeye players. A kid sitting next to me snapped a pic and sent it to us because it was just too hilarious not to document. 

Sunday's car ride home was a long one but surprisingly the 12 hours back to Minnesota went pretty fast thanks to listening to the Vikings game, watching The Sandlot and eating our leftover Piada {holy smokes I love that place}. Overall, it was great trip and fun weekend with family and friends. I am now 2-3 on the road with my Gophers which kind of bums me out, but I look forward to returning to The Shoe in two years and evening out my record!