Back on the road with the Nittany Lions means returning to the one place we're still just not sure about after all these years.
East Lansing, Michigan.
We do try to make this work, we really do. And so do the folks at the team hotel, a former Sheraton property that is now the Lexington Lansing Hotel by Vantage.
There's a very friendly, outgoing hotel staff. Glass elevators. And the best part? A small INDOOR basketball court that's good enough for games of two-on-two.
Maybe that's enough to save the trip.
The problems?
Aside from usually depressing weather here in mid- to late-November, it's just that the place is, well, bland.
Lots of vacant strip malls. Not many interesting restaurant choices. No city close enough to escape to, like how Indianapolis makes up for the long, in-the-middle-of-nowhere drive to Bloomington.
Again, we make the best of it.
So on Friday night that meant going to Altu's Ethiopian Cuisine (www.eatataltus.com), located in a poorly-lighted, semi-vacant strip mall.
It featured the typical Ethiopian offerings, meaning spicy and mild stews of chicken and beef and lentils and peas are lumped onto a large spongy flat bread.
You don't use utensils -- everyone at the table breaks off pieces of the flatbread and uses them to scoop up the thick stews.
This was about as exotic as it gets around here.
The night ended, as expected, back at the hotel at Penn State's sports information hospitality suite for nacho chips and cookies and a beer, if you'd like.
And plenty of friendly reporter conversation.
There would still be plenty of time to think over the unpredictable happenings to occur on Saturday afternoon in Spartan Stadium.
And the not-so-pretty happenings on the tiny basketball court in the team hotel a few hours earlier.
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