Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to travel out to West Lafayette, Indiana, to see Rutgers beat Purdue 27-24 in person. I wanted to dedicate this article to telling my travel experience for anyone who
might want to make the trip out there.
The Roadtrip
The road trip itself was not that bad, taking 76 and 70 most of the way through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana before switching to 65 around Indianapolis. The traffic itself was light, with the worst of it coming in New Jersey and around Philadelphia, as expected. We ended up staying at a hotel farther away from campus because of family members who lived in the area; however, the college itself had a lot of hotels around it for people looking to stay on campus.
The Tailgates
While at Purdue, I had the pleasure of participating in some tailgating thanks to a few family members who went to the school. Purdue fans take tailgating seriously and already had parking lots full of people grilling and cooking by the time we showed up at 8:30 am. The game was a noon kickoff, by the way. They had entire parking lots filled with campers painted in black and gold. The most interesting thing about the tailgates is that most of the people at the tailgates chose to stay at them throughout the game, despite the stadium still being almost full.
The Fans
Purdue fans were some of the nicest home crowd fans I have encountered. Granted, I have only been to a few road games, but I feel the need to say just how welcoming they were when I had the chance to interact with them.
The College and Surrounding Town
The college itself is a very nice looking area, with plenty of older buildings that give off that “higher education” feel. In addition to that, however, they also have more modern-looking areas. The best part about the university itself, coming from a Rutgers alumnus, is how walkable the campus is. A good 15-20 minute walk can get you anywhere on the campus. When I told the few people I met on campus that at Rutgers, you have to take a bus everywhere, they were pretty shocked.
If there was one drawback to my experience at the university, it was the town that surrounded it. Neither West Lafayette nor Lafayette itself has much going on. Additionally, I had asked several fans for a good spot to eat near campus, and their suggestions seemed underwhelming. For example, there are a few places around the Rutgers campus that fans would immediately suggest if someone were asking them where to eat. These places might include restaurants like the Olive Branch, Old Man Rafferty’s, Stuff Yer Face, or Harvest Moon. The Purdue fans I met, on the contrary, did not have much to name when it came to special sit-down restaurants around the campus, and a few suggested some chain restaurants as well.
