Day 2: Marge the Beaver and Joey the Duck

Good morning from foggy Coos Bay, OR where the Red Lion will be getting a semi-favorable review on Yelp.  My facility with hotels.com is nowhere near Tanya's.  Yesterday's adventures began in Corvallis, OR with a visit to Oregon State's campus.  The first stop was Reser Stadium, home of the Beavers.  The stadium is the centerpiece of the athletic complex located in the southwest corner of campus near the student athlete support center, basketball arena, and intramural fields.  

Despite signs indicating otherwise, every college stadium and arena I've ever tried to get into has always been open with one exception (the Smith Center in Chapel Hill). Reser was no different.  I found one of the gates to be wide open, so I wandered in to get a view of the stands and the field, which was being painted by a profanity-spewing groundskeeper who couldn't get the #@%^*&ing paint machine to work.

As I exited the stadium, I came across a tribute to the 1933 Oregon State Ironmen, who ended two-time defending national champion USC's 25-game winning streak by playing them to a scoreless tie, all the while using the same 11 players for the entire game.  Ironically, the statue they've erected is not iron but rather bronze.

It's also not a man, but rather Large Marge.

I then made my way over to Gill Coliseum, home of Beavers basketball.  As with the football stadium, I found one of the doors to be wide open, so I walked in.  It was reminiscent of a lot of auditoriums of the same era such as Cameron and Phog Allen Fieldhouse, minus the tradition and banners.  The court was set up for volleyball practice, so I took a nap at midcourt, threw down a couple dunks, and stealthily snapped a number of pictures before anyone came upon me. 

                                 

From there, I took a quick tour of campus on the way to the downtown area to try to find some apparel.  The campus reminded me of MSU's in a lot of ways right down to the dangerously-sited railroad tracks cutting through southern campus.  The northern part of campus appears to be older, with a lot of picturesque older buildings giving way to more modern buildings to the south, including one named for former OSU alumnus Linus Pauling, the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes.

As I walked down Monroe, one of the main drags on the northern part of campus, it became clear that many of the local business take full advantage of the double entendre marketing opportunities the Beavers nickname provides.

I finally made my way downtown for what turned out to be a vain search for an OSU clothing store.  I walked the entirety of the downtown area and found exactly zero stores selling anything resembling OSU memorabilia.  If you're an entrepreneur and you're not opening an OSU clothing store in downtown Corvallis, you're not a very good entrepreneur.  As I made the long walk back to my car, I encountered a guy wearing a Stanford shirt along a side street in the middle of campus.  It was just me and him with no one else around.  I in my MSU Rose Bowl shirt gave him a long stare, hoping he would feel the weight of my gaze so I could talk a little trash.  No such luck, although I'm almost certain he saw me.  I eventually found my way back to the car near the stadium and made my way south on I-5 for the 45 minute drive to Eugene.

MSU plays Oregon September 6th in Eugene.  We're pretty much going to win.  To remind everyone in town of that fact, I made sure to prominently display my MSU Rose Bowl t-shirt.  The camera bag that's usually strapped across my chest was moved to my shoulder so as to not obscure the logo.  My first stop was the UO bookstore to find the newest addition to my collegiate pint glass collection.  Classes aren't in session yet, which meant the town was pretty dead, so I didn't get too many strange looks.  The manager at the bookstore noticed though and we talked a bit about the upcoming game.  Their injured offensive lineman and receiver, our injured offensive lineman and young defensive line.  He even knew the story of Kyler Elsworth, which I sensed was because he was grateful we beat Stanford.

After successfully finding a pint glass and a really ugly beer coozie for my friend Dan, I drove over to Autzen Stadium, which is pretty far removed from campus near the highway.  As soon as I pulled up, I could sense the Nike money surrounding me.  The grounds were nicely manicured and the area immediately surrounding the stadium was locked down like Fort Knox.  I knew there was no chance I was getting inside this stadium and I was right.  The best I could do was snap some pictures from the outside.

Joey Harrington was traded by the Lions to the Dolphins at the end of the 2005 season. His tenure in Detroit was, shall we say, unsuccessful.  After the trade, I had hoped that was the last I would ever see of him.  I was wrong.  He's immortalized outside the stadium on a donor board.

At that point I had had enough, so I told Autzen to talk to the hand and I was on my way.

I headed west out of Eugene on 126 into an absolutely beautiful evening sunset to make my way south along the coast on 101.  The final destination was Coos Bay, OR, where my friend Sam went to culinary school and recommended a number of sights to see while I was in the area.  That's where the evening ended and this morning began.

Today's activities include my entrance into California on my way to pick up Tanya in Oakland.  I also hope to catch up with our Chapel Hill friend and tennis partner, Amanda, as well as my friends Joel and Lionel before Tanya and I make our way to LA. That's when things start to get really fun.