Road Trip to Purdue?

Submitted by jcgold on

Not to get off topic, but a couple of my friends and I were thinking about a road trip to purdue after losing the student lottery on ND, PSU, and OSU.  Besides, I'm looking forward to watching shoelace grease through the purdue defense like snake oil.  We are planning on buying tickets in the Michigan allotment still available.  

I have an idea of how far it is, but I was wondering about the other things:  parking, food, experience, etc.  If anyone who has been before could share some insight, that would be awesome.  Thanks.

MGoBoard
Football

timtebro

September 6th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^

5 hour trip from Ann Arbor (give or take some minutes)... The atmosphere sucks against any subpar team, but it's great for the likes of ND, OSU, UM, and IU. I will say that I don't know much about parking since I'm a student here at Purdue. Places that are good to go.. Scotty's Brewhouse and Brunos Pizza are great! Especially Brunos...

Joined: 06/08/2010

MGoPoints: 12111

Wolverine318

September 6th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^

I am a Purdue grad. I could help you. It is about a 5.5 hour drive from A2. I would take I-94W to Chicago and pick up I-65S in Gary, IN.

The standard parking for the game is to park on the intramural fields across from Shreve and Hillenbrand Halls. It is about a mile from the stadium but it where normal fans (have not donated to the John Purdue Club).

As for food, the Chauncey Hill area on E. State is pretty good area. You should stop at XXX. They have great homemade root beer. The burgers are awesome. I usually get the Dwayne Pervis, which is a cheese burger with peanut buttter. At the bottom of the hill are more bars and resturants next to the Holiday Inn Express. The Neon Cactus is one of the favorite bars on campus with a piano bar. They have great drink specials. Think of Scorekeepers but with a piano bar. On the Friday before games alot of visiting fans go to this bar.  At some point during the evening there is usually a contest between Purdue fans and visitors to see who will tip Bruce Barker more to play their respective fight song. My senior year at Purdue, I got Bruce to play the Victors and was booed pretty badly and called a Benedict Arnorld. Jake's and brothers at the top of the hill are my favorite bars. Both are very chill. Jake's has free hot dogs from 10 am to midnight. Lafayette Brewing Co is a microbrewery at the bottom of Chauncy hill across from the neon cactus and B Dubs. Across the Wabash is Lafayette. There are few good bars in Lafayette, but it is mostly townies. You can take US-26E towards I-65 and there are your usual collection of TGI Friday's. There is also a Chik-fi-la on US-26 next to the on ramp for I-26. I am a chik-fi-la addict and I always get my fix in.

Before the game the Purdue Marching band has a free concert starting two hours before the game at Slayter Hill on the West side of Ross Ade. I love pregame at Purdue. I always get shivers when the Purdue band plays America the Beautiful and the entire stadium yells out "I am an American."

Purdue fans are harmless. They are very nice and will help you out if you are lost.

If you need anything else I can give you my email, since I am heading down there too. It is my 5 year reunion this fall.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: -86217

learmanj

September 6th, 2010 at 1:59 PM ^

Please don't go to the "Cactus".  It is absolutely disgusting.  They do have cheap drinks (I think 75 cents if you buy a cup that costs like $2.50, cover charge is $5) but that is all they have going for themselves.  The music is terrible, they literally play a new rap song followed by wedding music....yes I am being serious.  They played "the Twist" and that "Celebrate good times song" the one time I went there.

AND...that's not the worst part.  The bathrooms are notorious for having their urinals and toilets leak.  There literally was like 3 inches of water on the floor in the bathroom.  I saw a guy drop his in this watery lagoon and pick it up.........  

Oh, did I mention that several groups of AARP members go to this bar as well...

Joined: 08/28/2009

MGoPoints: 1954

thee1jersey

September 6th, 2010 at 1:26 PM ^

I went there 2 years ago when they played OSU, and came away liking OSU fans more than Purdue fans.  It was the worst experience I've had at a college football game.

Joined: 10/02/2008

MGoPoints: 79

JRell

September 6th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^

Went in 2008 with a couple friends, had a really good time and the fans were really nice. No problems whatsoever with anyone, only thing that got to me was the CONSTANT "boiler ups" lol. We parked at a golf course right by the stadium, don't know how much it cost because we got the tickets and parking from some guy selling them right by the stadium. There was surprisingly a pretty decent nightlife out there, plenty of bars to have a good time at, might have been because it was around Halloween. All in all a good time to be had, even if the team doesn't win.

Joined: 09/01/2009

MGoPoints: 3807

Kevbot

September 7th, 2010 at 1:35 AM ^

Haha yes. I'm a freshman at Purdue this year (didn't get into Michigan, and if i had, it would have cost too much for out of state tuition). Some of the students take part in the breakfast club where they go to the bars early morning on game days dressed in costumes and get drunk before the games.

Joined: 03/10/2010

MGoPoints: 203

icefins26

September 6th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^

Purdue is a fun place -- I thought Purdue fans were great when I visited.  I remember when Purdue would score a touchdown, the entire student section would throw food everywhere.  Pizza slices would be flying.

Joined: 02/01/2009

MGoPoints: 13108

Wolverine318

September 6th, 2010 at 1:36 PM ^

if you really want to take in the Purdue experience, bring a halloween costume and get up when the bars open at 7 am on game day for Breakfest Club. Bars will be packed (beyond fire code...) with students in Halloween costumes every game morning. You can get a 32 oz mug for 5 bucks and fill with either well drinks for 1.25 or miller lite/bud light/coors light for 0.75. refills probally costs more since I last went to breakfest club in 2004.

You could also bring in an inflatable penis or blowup doll for the student section...There is usually a few of those bouncy around in the crowd.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: -86217

TheOracle6

September 6th, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^

JcGold- A couple of friends, and I are also planning on going to the Purdue game.  If you and your friends want to party and talk some Michigan football before the game let me know and we can meet up somewhere.  I've never been to Purdue either so thank you to everyone for the insight.

Joined: 09/02/2010

MGoPoints: 1636

learmanj

September 6th, 2010 at 2:04 PM ^

I currently go to Purdue for grad school.  It is basically a 5 hour drive from AA.  I think it is lot faster to take 94 to 69 south and take 24.  24 is this divided highway that goes through the middle of no where.  There is never any traffic and unlike taking 94 to Chicago and then heading south on 65, you never have to worry about the construction up there.

Another thing, Harry's is the "big" bar of Purdue.  I don't know if you want to hang with the Purdue "fans" or not, but I think if you make the trip, you have to at least go to Harry's.  Other good ones like Scotty's have been mentioned.  My favorite is Chumley's, they have every beer imaginable.

As far as fans go, I was at the game in 2008 as well.  Some of them tried heckling me before the game, my response of "you are Purdue....you don't get to talk shit" seemed to worked pretty well (little did I know, we would lose, so you might have to come up with something different).  For the most part, Purdue fans will be very welcoming.  Purdue is basically a school full of engineering and agricultural students who are pretty down to earth and respectful.  

Joined: 08/28/2009

MGoPoints: 1954

VictorsValiant09

September 6th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^

I echo learmanj's thoughts.  I went in 2008, my senior year, with Sports Marketing.

West Lafayette's got some good bars, but the atmosphere was very folksy and laid-back, okay if you like that sort of thing. 

I was not impressed with their stadium, but Purdue fans are some of the nicest people you can encounter.  A few of them greeted me with, "We hate Ohio State, kick their asses this year."

Joined: 04/05/2009

MGoPoints: 561

Ike Pond

September 6th, 2010 at 2:10 PM ^

I have made the trip to Purdue many times and have always had a great time there.  There's always a strong Michigan contingent in the south stands at Ross-Ade Stadium so I know you'll have a great time at this year's  Danny Hope Revenge Bowl.  Let's hope the shoelaces to snake oil combo has a big day on Nov 13.  

As far as the drive there I like to take I-94 west, I-69 south, US-24 west just past Fort Wayne and then Indiana 25 southwest from Logansport.  This route is about 35 miles shorter (although probably about the same amount of time) as the I-94 to I-65 route.  When you are coming into Lafayette on Indiana 25 you will notice that all of the football traffice heads west on US-52.  I avoid a ton of traffic by heading toward downtown Lafayette and taking the Fowler Ave bridge over the river and heading west on Fowler toward campus.  There's a church parking lot on the right just before you get to Northwestern Ave.  There always seems to be more than average number of Michigan fans parking there.  I was lucky enough to park next to Zoltan the Space Emperor's family when I went down for the '08 game.  I think the vast majority of people come in from the north and park in the big fields north and west of the stadium so coming in from downtown Lafayette seems to work very well.

If your looking for a place to eat on the way there Don Hall's factory in Fort Wayne is a great place to stop.  Its just off I-69 at exit 112A.       

Joined: 10/13/2009

MGoPoints: 2325

BraveWolverine730

September 6th, 2010 at 2:29 PM ^

I went to Purdue in 2008 with a good buddy of mine. We went to the alumni tailgate before the game and sat in the visitors section.  No Purdue people gave us any trouble and it was a fairly good trip(other than his car breaking down and his dad having to drive down to pick us up after the game)

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 4188