Cars

After much debate and plan-changing, Cub Scouts was to finally venture out into the college basketball universe and the Midwest (where the game is revered) was decided upon as the final option. Two of the country’s hottest teams were to face off in a rare early-January cross-conference game. So early, that I was forced to board a plane on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve with Indianapolis as my final destination.

Gone would be my “raucous” plans for the New Year (if only massive sarcasm was obvious through this medium) and I found myself, instead at my friendly neighborhood Denver International Airport bar near a huge bank of Frontier Airlines gates. Within seconds, I heard “Indiana University” and “Purdue sucks” from the mouth of a young girl across the way. I slowly made my way into a conversation she was having with a couple other dudes, and it turned out that there was a budding Hossier-state rivalry between a couple of them.

Now, I am familiar with regional rivalries, but the one between these two colleges separated by a couple hours and the metro-Indy-area was suddenly one that I felt clueless about. It appears they don’t like each other and the recent disaster in Bloomington has allowed the Boilermakers to grab “top dog” status in the state.

I informed them of my traveling to the Indy area for a game between Purdue and the West Virginia Mountaineers. (Two undefeated teams enter; one leaves.) Twenty-something blond dude instantly lights up and confirms that his being at the airport was for the same reason (although I would assume that as a Purdue grad he was going to be in West Lafayette for a few more days and would probably consume a few more libations than I would able to cram in my brief stay), and he breaks into how great Purdue is in every facet and basically how much the Indiana Hoosiers stink. Point taken.

A couple Fat Tires later and I was on my way and just as quickly landing at what is a pretty nice little airport in Naptown. As I made my way out to my rental car (freezing from that sneaky Midwest-East Coast cold that is 10 times worse and more bitter than the temps we endure during even the coldest Colorado months) the girl checking the car asked for my reason for being at the airport and before I could get anything out, she made the “tall-guy”assumption and blurted out, “You here for the Purdue game?”

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