Sunday, September 27, 2009
Weekend update
Somehow, through gross overscheduling, I had a great weekend. I returned from a tiring but interesting trip to Europe on Friday afternoon, had drinks with an old friend, picked up the TH Daughter at prep school, and ultimately went to bed 21 hours after I had gotten up. Saturday I popped awake early, drove the TH Daughter to school at 7, blogged for a bit, and then rode 17 miles on the Delaware-Raritan Canal tow path, all before noon or so. Then I jumped in the car for the four hour drive to State College, where I saw my Hawkeyes stun more than 100,000 previously screaming Penn State fans into misery in the early autumn rain. Sweet! Especially in light of the trash-talking I endured for having the stones to wear Hawkeye black and gold into the stands.
Phone camera picture of the "Whitehouse" below:
Bwahahaha! Fifth in the nation my ass.
You have to hand it to Penn State, though. They put on a helluva show. A bit heavy on Neil Diamond for my taste, but they do get that place rocking.
I left after three quarters (and, sadly, missed the Hawkeye glory in the final quarter) because I had to be in Lambertville -- more than 200 miles east of Sad Valley -- by 8 am this morning for the previously advertised "Hops to Hops" 40-mile bike ride to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society (there's still time to give to support this worthy cause via the link in this post). I left State College around 11 still listening to the game on the radio, and drove more than three hours to a hotel room in Plymouth Meeting, which put me within striking distance of Lambertville this morning. Four hours of shut-eye later, and I was back in the car and ready to ride.
It was cool and rainy, but the cause was good, the route was great, the people were fun, and the promise of River Horse craft beer at the end enticing. The start of the ride is below, followed by our "team," which so far has raised more than $3500 thanks to friends, colleagues, and you, our readers.
I'm the dude in the Princeton colors. The others put up with me.
Regular blogging will resume later.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Sep 28, 08:45:00 AM:
At every Iowa/Illinois football game a fraternity brother, a world class distance runner from Iowa, belted out a song the lyrics of which ran something like this:
Iowa, IOWA!
Best state in the land,
We think you're grand,
Iowa, IOWA!
Out where the tall corn grows!
I love it when a real BIG TEN team beats that PSU imposter!
Congratulations to the Hawkeyes!
By , at
Mon Sep 28, 10:51:00 AM:
Dude!
Monsta weekend. Now get some rest.
Crusader
By , at
Mon Sep 28, 12:21:00 PM:
You made it to Plymouth Meeting in three hours? Must have been flying, the backup on the two lane portion of 322 was awful Saturday night in the stinking rain, it must have taken you an hour just to get over the Seven Mountains to Lewistown.
Not that we expected PSU to prevail anyhow...
By , at
Mon Sep 28, 01:52:00 PM:
My congrats to Iowa for beating the hated Nittany Lions. TH, you have more self-discipline that I. I would have stayed for that 4th Qtr. I was tuning the radio Saturday night, looking for the game in southwest Nebraska when I learned of the close score. I was hoping perhaps ESPN radio was carrying it. I found the game but was surprised to hear I was listening to WHO out of Des Moines. The signal was good. The announcers referred to the team as 'The Hawks' and the game was sponsored by Ethanol and Jethro's BBQ in Des Moines, among others.
