Dispatches from Columbus: Day Two

"This isn't the coldest I've ever been in my life, but its definitely in the top ten"

I said this sometime during the first quarter of the Ohio State-Indiana game. Our seats were good, down the visitor sideline, 18 rows up, looking straight out at the back line of the end zone. We had packed into them after wandering campus for a couple hours; long enough to realize that despite our best efforts to wear layers and prepare for a typical November Big Ten game, that this was not a typical Big Ten game and we would have serious issues with the cold.

Earlier in the morning as we shook off the hangover from too many pale ales and porters the night before, we talked about the game over breakfast. Hampton Inn had a nice spread of food that covered just about anything you could want from yogurt to waffles to bagels to eggs (I had biscuits and gravy). Adam's concern was that he had forgotten to bring a winter hat. He wanted to buy one as long as he could find something that didn't include a block O or something of that ilk. I had my hat and gloves packed, as well as a thick fleece, a pullover, a flannel shirt, and long johns. After we got dressed we went outside to wait for the cab. In those five minutes we realized we were dealing with cold surpassing what we were expecting, but decided to soldier on.

Once we got to campus — a bit late due to a mix up with the cab we called — we had just enough time to walk through the parking lots and streets thick with tailgaters north of the stadium on our way to Buffalo Wild Wings, where I had been assured by one of our readers that the Michigan game would be on and with sound. We watched the first half of the Michigan game there (so you can blame us for Michigan tanking once we weren't watching) with a couple of Adam's friends before setting off for the tailgating once more.

Unfortunately, we missed one of our goals for the weekend — to see the Ohio State marching band perform the Skull Session — as we got mixed up on where exactly it would be happening. Adam said it was at "the basketball arena" which I took to mean "at Value City Arena", and not the old basketball arena where the Skull Session actually happens. We set out in the wrong direction and missed it. Do your homework, kids.

But we did double back for tailgating close by the stadium, and did our best to stay warm before heading into the game.

The game went as expected. Indiana looked over-matched and Ohio State quickly jumped out to a fast lead. The Indiana offense found a little success, but not enough of it sustained to show up on the scoreboard. At halftime we wandered around the stadium concourse to see what the Shoe looks like from the inside (and also buy some hot chocolate, which we had trouble locating). We watched most of the second half in those monitors making our way around the concourse, avoiding the snow and howling winds. Midway through the fourth we decided that we needed to seek some sort of shelter. Adam and I met up with his friends and we went to The Varsity Club for a brief respite from the cold. When we left there we circled around south of the stadium to check out campus on the way to the car. The snow continued to swirl in the winds. The raucous crowds were kept warm by the thrill of victory and the chants of "we don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan." Adam and I were just cold.

By the time we made it back to the hotel, I immediately cranked the heater up to 76 degrees and got in a hot shower. to try and raise my internal temperature to levels capable of supporting life. The weather was awful, but I was never happier to have a nice hot shower and clean bed to crawl into than I was after that cold day in Columbus.

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