(Written by kencraw)

One of the things that has me traveling the country to watch the Bears, despite the fact that they’ve disappointed so many times, is that I get to see so many nice places. Ohio State was no exception.

First of all, we’ve all heard some bad things about Ohio State fans. I saw ZERO sign of them. Before the game we walked to the stadium from about a mile away. We ended up walking most of the way with a group of recently graduated, and quite drunk I might add, Ohio State alums. They were talkative and let us know about a number of interesting traditions, including one where all the freshmen jump in this pond on campus the night before the Michigan game every year.

We didn’t hear a single taunt before the game. We walked all around the stadium taking pictures and all the fans were friendly. Two fans even wanted to take their picture with us. We walked past the student section and the body-painted students wanted us to take their picture. I guess there was one guy there doing a little bit of trash-talking but nothing major.

After the game we heard a few taunts, including one from behind where he said, “Go back to Berkeley you pot smoking hippies!” (if only he knew me) About 4 other guys, all tOSU fans, quickly interjected to tell us to ignore them and that they were impressed with Cal’s play.

When you combine that with the nice fans we met the night before and at the hotel, it was a very pleasant fan experience.

As for the towns, Ohio State has a very nice campus. Lots of brick buildings. It’s big campus, with lots of high-rise buildings.

The stadium is big, but it feels very cozy. Frankly, I don’t know if it’s much bigger than an NFL stadium, but they pack them in, kinda like at Memorial but with a little bit more leg room, so the attendance figures are much higher (106k) for the same size stadium. The concessions were standard affair.

Columbus is a much larger town than I imagined and a pretty nice place. It was a LOT nicer than a lot of the places we drove through in Pennsylvania. Actually, all the way across the board, minus Cleveland which we are in now, Ohio is a pretty nice state (in September anyway).

One last trip blog post after I get home tomorrow afternoon.