To celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary, my husband and I took a brief trip to Madison, Wis. to take in a football game. At the time that I ordered our tickets I didn’t know Iowa would be 4-0 and have a chance against the traditionally talented Badgers.
Because it was PCM’s homecoming Friday night we didn’t take off until early Saturday morning. No matter why you are getting up, 4 a.m. is still really early. After dragging ourselves out of bed, we were off and headed to America’s Dairyland.
The trip went well because there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic, and it was mainly four-lane highways the whole way. It was interesting to see how much hillier it gets in northern Iowa and Wisconsin.
We entered Madison and thought we could rely on signs to get us to the stadium, because there are plenty of them to get to Kinnick. We were wrong. A few Google searches later, and we were on the right track.
I had tried to scope out parking opportunities before we left, but it looked like we were just going to have to wing it. After getting relatively close to where we thought the stadium was, we picked the first reasonably priced lot and called it good.
This was not the first stadium we had traveled to, having taken in games in East Lansing and Ann Arbor a few years ago. I was pretty excited to see what Wisconsin had to offer as I had always heard it was a great place to watch a game.
I don’t like to be a real downer, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. The placement of the stadium among several other buildings gave no real vantage point to actually see what it looked like. After taking a trip around the outside and inside of structure, it was confusing and not very spectator friendly.
We found our seats, which were luckily right behind the families of the players, and had a great view of the game. Hoping for an exciting pre-game similar to Kinnick’s, I was shocked to see the stands fairly empty at kick-off, especially the student section, which wasn’t even half full.
Wisconsin seemed to have a lot of traditions that mean a lot to them, but really didn’t get me excited for the football game that was about to happen. When the clock did start to tick the crowd was enthused, but nothing like what I have experience elsewhere.
I don’t want to knock Wisconsin altogether. The fans were great. Even when there were a few questionable calls against their team, they didn’t take it out on us, which was refreshing from past experience, cough, cough, Michigan State.
As we were victorious, they told us all good game and good luck with the season. It was refreshing to hear and see such sportsmanship when it seems now things can often get so ugly.
That night we headed downtown for a bite to eat and took in a little of the local sights and sounds. Wisconsin is a really nice place with nice people. I look forward to going back to with my kids and maybe to take in another game.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
641-792-3121 ext. 6534
or jpierson@newtondailynews.com