Killer Nuts Tailgating

Our spot for the Marshall game. It worked well, but the lot we really wanted is in the background.

I mentioned after last week’s game that parking was something of an adventure, largely in part because of the lack of reliable information about where — and when — we could show up on campus for the Thursday night game.

The university had been saying for a couple weeks that with the exception of the RV and stadium lots, on-campus parking wouldn’t open until 3 p.m. on gameday, so we planned to leave the house around 2:30 and get into a lot right at 3.

Which lot we’d be getting to was a whole different question. For years, we’ve parked outside of Riffe Hall, but because of a new construction project involving the medical center, we had heard that lot wouldn’t be available to us this season. The lot is still there, but it’s been blocked off; I actually called the university’s parking folks, and they said that lot — along with all the others between there and the towers — wouldn’t be open.

When I arrived in Columbus Wednesday night, I scoped out a couple decent spaces in the polo field lots — where we had been told permit holders would have to park this season — and we hoped for the best.

And then around 10:30 on the morning of gameday, Matlock called my folks and said there were already people in a tiny lot just south of Lincoln Hall — even after days of warnings that tailgaters who showed up before 3 would be turned away.

Crap.

We packed up quickly and headed over to Cannon Drive; after talking Bud out of parking at our old space — that lot was still empty — we eased in to the South Lincoln lot and got set up. A university parking truck came through the lot, twice, but the folks inside never said a word to us. And finally, the woman who was running the lot told us we could stay — for that game only.

She said in subsequent weeks we’d need a different pass, one specific to that lot. And as we watched our regular lot slowly fill up, she offered us a glimmer of hope — she said she had been told that we would be able to park there if we had a handicapped hang-tag.

And thanks to Bud’s bum leg, we do.

However — through the rest of the day, we heard other stories, mainly that none of our lots would be open, and that everyone with the pass we hold would be herded into the polo field.

What does that mean for this week? We have no idea. It’s pretty clear to me that the university threw up its hands for the Marshall game, given that they were dealing with a huge crowd trying to get to campus on a weeknight; I’m equally certain things will be a lot tighter on Saturday.

We’re going to show up at 8 a.m. on Saturday. And we’ll see what happens.