I posted some info in the pregame discussion about tailgating in the west lot at Ryan and thought I would share my experience. We (me, son and son in law) arrived about 7:15 Saturday morning. Assuming that all B1G schools liked to tailgate, we figured the lots would have been open for at least 15 minutes by the time we arrived. Not a soul in the lot. No one. Gates in place to make sure no one infiltrated the closely held zone. Drove around and looked at their very pretty campus and the lake was beautiful that morning. Did a little research and found that they open lots 4 hours prior to game time. I had seen that, but didn't really want to believe it. Found a great little city park next to campus, cooked breakfast in the pavilion, and had my final "beer with eggs" breakfast for the fall. No bathrooms open, but lots of trees. Also lots of joggers, so timing was critical.
Got to the west lot at 10:26 and saw that the gate was open. Didn't notice the long line of cars waiting to get in, so just drove in the gate. Was immediately surrounded by yellow vested authorities who told me to get out and get in line. I realized I had jumped the line, so drove north and got in line. All the staff just looked around until the clock struck 10:30 and they let us in. Thank goodness no one got in early or TOTAL CHAOS could have ensued.
Remembering the rules about no opposing school paraphernalia being shown in the lot, we immediately put up our Illini flag and got set up. I'm pretty sure the lot (at least in our area) was minimum 50% orange. The taliban chose to give up rather than ejecting us from the lot. Had a great time, talked to lots of great fans from both teams. Had a blast at the game after the sun went behind the cement tower that forms the southwest side of the dumpster stadium. (Hard to see the shadowed field with the sun in your eyes). Great game by the Illini, great to see Fitzy sh!t down his leg on the final game of the year. Fans are disgusted with him but believe the Ryan family supports him and he's golden. Awesome-keep him for as long as you want!
So, despite all the warnings, and the plethora of signs surrounding that stadium with the word "NO" in them, we had a blast. Will definitely be back, and hang out in the city park if we have to.
Go Illini!