Ragnarok’s Top 8 Pac-10 Road Trips
A Guide to Following Cal Football on the Road, highly colored by One Man’s Experiences and Personal Tastes.
Sure, sure, I love Saturdays in the fall at Memorial Stadium as much as the next man who bleeds blue and gold, but some of my favorite college (and post-college!) memories have come via that time-honored college tradition: the road trip. By hitting the road, you get to see the country (or at least the West Coast), meet new and interesting people, cheer on your Bears in the midst of a hostile crowd, and never miss a Saturday of college football. Ever wonder how the Memorial Stadium experience stacks up against the rest of the Pac-10? Ever wanted to taunt USC fans as they file dejectedly out of their own homecoming game? I’ve done it, and let me tell you, it’s pretty sweet.
Still, not everyone can afford (or has the time) to see every Cal game in person. Choices must be made. Thus, for the road-trip uninitiated, what follows is my personal ranking of which Pac-10 destinations make the best road trips. No consideration will be made for the relative strength of the teams involved, which will change from year to year. However, I do take into consideration a Bay Area home base; obviously, if you now live in Southern California, making the drive to the Rose Bowl is no great shakes, but I’ve never lived outside the Bay Area, and this is my list, so I make the rules. Finally, Stanford will not be considered; if you can go to the game and still sleep in your own bed that night, it’s not a road trip.
Aaanyway, with that, let’s take a look at who finished at #8:
#8 - Washington State
The last time I took a trip to the University of Washington, I stopped in their Student Store to check out the merchandise. Inside, they were selling large purple pins that read "All Dirt Roads Lead To Pullman". Big City University vs. State Ag College partisanship aside, it’s a pretty apt description. Pullman, Washington, where Washington State is located, might not be the middle of nowhere, but it sure is in the area code. If all you’re looking for in a road trip is a football game, Wazzu will do you just fine; however, if you’re looking for something, anything else to do, well, good luck with that, son.
There’s a college…aaaand that’s about it.
My first (and so far, only) trip to Pullman was quite an arduous journey. First off, it’s much to far to drive (at least if you can’t skip a couple days of class/work). From Oakland, we had to fly to Portland and change planes just to get to Spokane, and once there, it’s an hour and a half drive south through wheat and not much else.
Reasons to go to Wazzu:
- You’ve never been before.
- Can’t stand to miss a football weekend.
- The game isn’t on TV and radio doesn’t cut it for you.
- The locals are friendly.
- Cougar Cheese is pretty tasty.
- It’s really close to Idaho, in case you’re like me and have a need to visit all 50 states.
- There’s something ‘wonderfully calming’ about Big Sky country. I don’t know why the sky is bigger, but it really is.
Martin Stadium isn’t one of college football’s great venues, but certainly nothing to complain about.
Reasons to stay home and listen to Starkey:
- There’s nothing interesting to do in, around, or anywhere near Pullman. Seriously. Pullman’s Wikipedia page lists Wazzu and the National Lentil Festival as its main — indeed, only — attractions. Myself, I get bored just contemplating a festival devoted to lentil.
- It’s a pain in the butt to actually get to Pullman.
- If the game’s in November, rest assured that the weather will be brutal.
- ‘Wonderfully calming’ is a nice synonym for ‘lull-you-to-sleep boring’.
I don’t want to make Wazzu sound like a bad experience; it’s not. In fact, I’ve never had a road trip I didn’t enjoy (besides the game, of course, and with the possible exception of that trip to Fresno in 2000). It’s just that, well, there’s not a whole lot to recommend a trip to Pullman besides college football. Did I enjoy myself? Sure. Will I ever go back? Eh, probably not.
you seem to be missing 7-1
Comment by bowlbasaur — August 1, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Thus is the lure of the California Golden Blogs.
Who knows when 7-1 are coming? Better check back. And again. And again. Oh and again. Al-riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Comment by TwistNHook — August 1, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Indeed. You could say that this blog has a size limit on posts, so large posts must be broken up into multiple posts. You could also say that by drawing out my list, I’m filling space in the slow period before Fall Camp. Finally, it would not be inaccurate to say that I haven’t written 7-1 yet, although I’ve already set an order and made extensive notes.
I would expect that I’ll finish this list over the next two weeks or so. Stay tuned (or whatever the web equivalent of ‘tuned’ is)!
Comment by ragnarok — August 1, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
of the ones i’ve visited:
1. husky
2. rose bowl
3. coliseum
4. reser
5. stanfurd (lol @ 3/5 stadium cal fans)
wanna go to the desert and autzen, not so much the paloouse
Comment by bowlbasaur — August 1, 2007 @ 10:40 pm
It suddenly occurred to me that with 10 total teams in the Pac-10, one of those teams being our Bears, there are only nine possible road trips. And we’re doing a top 8. Go Bears.
Comment by yellow fever — August 2, 2007 @ 6:12 am
I’m very glad you’re doing this review. I’ve only been to 3 Pac-10 Stadiums (Memorial, Furd and Coliseum) but I decided last year after going to the Coliseum for the first time that I wanted to go to them all at some point. It’ll be nice to get some insights from you.
The plan was to do 2 road-trips a season (this year was UCLA and Oregon) but, my plans got put on hiatus for this season because I done gotten my wife pregnant again, due in December.
Comment by Ken Crawford — August 2, 2007 @ 11:06 am
the great thing about wazzu is its uniqueness. Its unlike any other pac 10 school. The only people who don’t want to be in Pullman are the opponents. Visiting teams hate to play there. Its worth more than a 90,000 seat stadium. Pullman also builds character, and the countries best fans (note the Cougar flag at every ESPN Game Day). In the North West it is well known that some of the best parties take place in Pullman. The students can’t travel home on weekends, like at a lot of schools so they stay and have a good time. I don’t think you tried hard enough. There is no way to compare Pullman to Los Angeles or Seattle at face value you need to dig a little deeper. Go Cougs
Comment by jon — November 5, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
Jon,
Thanks for stopping by, and for leaving a reasonable, well-thought-out comment; we don’t get nearly enough of those from opposing fans.
You make several good points, not the least of which is that “The only people who don’t want to be in Pullman are the opponents.” I can only say that since I was writing a travel guide for Cal fans, many of whom feel that they ARE the opponent, and as such they don’t always appreciate (or get to appreciate) the charms that Pullman has to offer; indeed, many city folk from the Bay Area have no idea what to do when they get out in the country.
I can say that I did observe a decent party scene going on in Pullman after the game, although most visiting fans won’t get to enjoy the numerous keggers going down unless they’re especially gregarious or happen to know someone. Myself, I ended up at a house party that was about 70/30 Coug fans to Cal fans, and my friends and I were pretty much the life of the party, as most of the locals stood around and watched us drink their beer and dance on their tables.
You’re right, I am judging Pullman based on one weekend I spent there several years ago, and perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. If I ever make it back there, perhaps you’ll be kind enough to show my friends and me a good time?
Comment by ragnarok — November 5, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
I was born and grew up in the LA area and moved to the northwest to finish my degree. If you weren’t a football fan coming into pullman, you became one. Pullman is the epitome of a college town. You can’t find that in CA, they are overrun with subdivisions. Then you are a 10 minute drive away from Moscow, ID home of University of Idaho. It’s the same thing there, there is always a party. You can’t fully appreciate the Palouse Region until you get bored of California and decide to look outside the box. There is more pride in this school than any other school I’ve been to. Obviously you wouldn’t be able to appreciate that as a visiting opponent, but nonetheless, that is what makes college rivalries.
Comment by Chris — February 15, 2008 @ 1:52 pm