Notre Dame Trip

Greg & Donna, Rich & Suzanne, and Darrell & Beth took a long day trip to South Bend on Saturday, September 8th for the Notre Dame vs Purdue football game. It was the season home opener for the 22ND ranked Irish and the 1-0 Boilers. The weather was terrific as the Friday night storm had ended by the 6:45am cruise time and no rain dampened the trip north. The morning skies were partly cloudy with occasional bouts of bright blue and the temperature was about 60 degrees. There we were joined by Greg's son, Patrick, and Pat's wife, Sarah. We had "private" parking at a nearby residence just off campus where the owner had actually redone the entrance curb off the street to make it easier for the Corvettes to get in and out of his drive! How nice are they! We had a great breakfast at the Legends which is about 100 yards south of Notre Dame stadium and then spent a little money at the Book Store and did a little site seeing on campus. We got at the game early enough to see the team warm up and the band do their pregame entrance. Then at 3:30PM it was serious business as the "Here Come the Irish!" chants began. The temperature at kickoff was 67 degrees with mostly sunny skies and about 20 mph winds throughout the game. Perfect football weather! Purdue fought hard and played a very competitive game. It was tied at 7 at the half. ND dominated the 3rd period and took a 10 point lead into the 4th quarter. The Irish made many mistakes in the 4th, the last a fumble on their own 15 yard line with about 3 minutes left in the game which gave the fired up Purdue eleven the lift they needed to tie the game at 17 all. With 2 minutes left the Irish then took the kick off and with several key 3rd down pass plays to continue the drive took the ball deep into Purdue territory where they centered the ball and stopped the clock with eleven seconds left. The Irish field goal team converted to make the home crowd happy at 20-17 and left Purdue only 7 seconds on the clock. That gave them a chance for what was a good kick off return and then 1 second left for a final desperation pass play that was intercepted near the goal line to start the Irish celebration. The drive home was clear sailing under clear skies and a tired but happy group arrived safely home about 11PM after what was a great day!                                                    Click here for Link to Game Highlights