Ep 767 - Tailgate Tips for 2021

Welcome back to Crimson cast Galen klaviyo here, along with Scott Caulfield the like to start this podcast up by wishing my mom. A happy birthday. Yeah. Mom Mom, I guess I shouldn't say how old mom's going to be this year but happy Birthday to mom I6. Just yeah here is goes out every year. That's my wife's. For that's that's right. And it's if you know mom's birthday was means. My birthday is literally right around the corner because we're five days apart.

So festive season here in clavius oval but Scott good to see you again. You've been a busy guy here on the podcast front lately, just a lot of different podcast. I've heard many of them, not all of them yet but yeah. Wait a way to keep the airwaves flowing. Thank you, try it. First of when is I'm having your birthday on my calendar? That's Friday. That's on purpose. Is it Friday? It's Friday. Yeah. So, okay. I gotta I gotta add you to my birthday list. Thanks lad that to my, you get a

special pod for that know. It's been fun doing. I've had some fun reaching out to people, I enjoyed, we had Josh Perry from the Big Ten Network. We haven't listened to that. Check it out. That's a good one, we have. Yeah, thank you. We have Adam Rittenberg from ESPN dropping on Monday starting Crimson cash again. Talk to Connor. I enjoyed talking to Connor from home. Feel about like what it was like from a business aspect of n IL, they have a great T1 Mullen shirt.

Kind of, you know what, it's like from a business point of view, getting the ilc has been, it's been a fun discussion and it's been fun. Getting excited for IU football. I mean, this is the time, like, it's we have a great, we have a great team, should have a good season coming up.

So, it's fun. I mean, there's a lot to talk about it. We haven't really even gotten into the meat of things yet, which is what I think is exciting like now, here we are less than two weeks out from the start of the Season, we can start talking about specifics with the team. Team. We've gotten a lot of reports from training camp or you know summer practice fall practice if you want to call it. Things are starting to take shape a little bit. We're getting some notes out of practice.

We're seeing what other teams are doing. This is fun. Like right now it may be as fun as it gets. You never know. Like the we the regular season may not be as fun as we think it's going to be but right now, none of that matters. And so I'm excited about being able to talk about these things and we're going to be doing it in. Several different forms and I guess we can go in announce now and we'll put it up on social media later.

But for those of you who are in the Bloomington area or even if you're not and you just want to road trip, come on down the plan right now is live. Crimson cast at switchyard Brewing Company on North Walnut Street on Monday August 30th from 6 to 7 p.m. little early. But you know good time to go out. Get maybe grab a drink, grab some pizza, grab some bread. Sticks, whatever. Listen to some talk about IU football, we're going to try to

have some guests. But even if we don't, we like to have you folks joining us and get a chance to answer questions, live and just share in the excitement of the upcoming season. So again, Monday August 30th. So depending on when you listen to this either seven or eight days from today at switchyard Brewing Company in Bloomington from 6 to 7 p.m. come, check out the live Crimson cast.

We're going to try to do more of these this year, not just in Bloomington, but also around the Serie and Scott making a rare appearance down in Bloomington for this. So it's really a celebration all the way around and Bluetooth a lot. But yes, it's for a live one and I think that's I think we should say now that that'll be the event were you and I do our season preview. So if you want to hear all of the the bad takes that we make alive, you could do that. But know to your point we have

another live event scheduled. So we're just, we're slamming it out there up here in Indianapolis for those of you in the 317. Shout-out October 30th. I you've Versus Maryland, a new game. We're going to be meeting at Grand Junction, so I'll be up here in Westfield Grand Junction. It's a great little Brew Pub. They have kids dogs, everyone's

invited. But it's going to be 11:30 start for a noon game against Maryland and it's a little bit far off, but a lot of the road games are either night games or their Michigan. And I want to have a fun experience. Hopefully the Maryland one is good. So yeah, October 30th. Mark, your calendars Grand Junction up here in Westfield. So yeah, we're, you know, we figure IU football kind of stepped it up. We just Up last year as a separate of this year as well too. Yeah, you know. Absolutely.

It's this could be one of those rare Seasons that you just don't see very much. Although, it's funny because we've kind of had two of those in a row, I know with IU. And so, does it equate to a third? Now, we're going to get into that. Over the course of the next two weeks. We'll talk about our fears or our aspirations for the team, whatever. But that's not what this episode

today is about, instead. What we're going to be talking about today is tailgating, you know, I've gotten a lot of requests, a lot of notes from people People saying hey I need some tailgating help I'm excited to tailgate for IU football many of you for the first time you say and you don't know where to

begin. You're not sure what the process looks like, or you've been doing it and you'd like to do it better you know I hear that from a lot of people as well and that's what we're going to talk about on this show is talk about tailgating talk about some of the options, talk about the setup. You know, we had a question that came in from Maroon Hoosier. It was less of a question.

You know, more of a statement but the statement was seems like there's a need for IU tailgating 101 where to park, what the Traditions are what music best, local food, and drink Etc. Bring the bandwagon into the family long term by slowing them, showing them how to do it, right? So I think for the bandwagon and actually for people who have been around for a while, I would actually argue Scott. That some people in the eye. You fanbase have invested

themselves in the tailgating. You know, firmament others. Have not And I'd say, even for the non bandwagon, folks, the folks that have been IU fans. But you know, a lot of times people have tried to make IU football kind of like momentary viewing as opposed to being the full day. You get a lot of folks who like they come in 20 minutes before

the game starts. They take their seats, they make sure to leave before traffic gets bad because you know you're from Indiana and that's what you do and that's it. Well well I'm here to talk about is expanding that experience. Little bit and making it more of a full day. And this is a difficult thing, I think and kind of going back to what maroon Hoosiers said, for a lot of people.

I think the idea that you would take the whole day in Bloomington at a football tailgate and a football game and just kind of expand into the broad expanses of what you can do, that's still a mental hurdle that a lot of people have to cross. And so hopefully, we can help you across that bridge as much as we can. Now Scott, you're in a different spot.

Than me. And I think we need to preface this whole discussion by saying, you know, Scott lives in the same situation that many of you who listen to the podcast live in, he lives about an hour and 20 away without traffic. And he's got two young kids and a wife. And it's not just as simple as it is for me because I live 10 minutes from the stadium. Like I can roll out of bed and be at Memorial Stadium like 15 minutes afterwards.

So we're going to try to filter this through both of Those prisons people that live close and people that live far away and try to give you something that can be worthwhile As you move through tailgating for this year. So, first off, I guess maybe let's start with the where to park question and this I think actually go back in time be a fan, five years ago, buy season tickets in a parking pass in 2014 when no one cared. Well, and you'll be in a great

spot. Well, okay, so there's two elements here that you have to keep in mind. If your planned, this is where to some degree, the tailgate. Ation has to start. Are you going to host? Are you going to help somebody else in a significant way? Or are you going to just show up because those are or significant

way it's a great qualifier? Well because you know I think we have a couple questions that popped up a little later on some people think that, you know okay if I'm just going to show up to a tailgate because it's a party and that's perfectly fine, but then if you are making a substantial contribution, if you're bringing A lot of food or if you're bringing a canopy or if you're bringing a grill, you really don't want to haul that stuff from somewhere else into the tailgating area.

Like, that is a real pain. So this is where you don't have to go back in time, 5 years. But you do have to go back in time, like five months and buy tickets or passes Me by parking passes with your tickets in the area where you know the tailgate is going to be taking place. And so that's really where we're going to start with things on the one exception is if you're

going to do this, Grass lot. But even that even though it's a day of game thing, it's not always a foregone conclusion that you're going to show up and get parking in the grass lat. So, here's what I'll tell you, first of all, if you are a donor, you've already got some pretty good parking passes. You're probably in the orange lot. And that's really where everybody wants to be the orange

lot. For those of you that don't know, is the lot between Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall. It's that that the one that runs the expanse there. I've only gotten to park. A couple of times and that's just because other people have

given me their parking passes. But I think finding other spots to park has been an interesting experience, over the course of time for me. I've actually had parking and I think four different Lots. Now my favorite by far is the one that we've landed in long-term and that is the green lot that is locked 12. That is where our tailgate is located in the green. Lot is north of Assembly Hall, South of the tennis center and east of the orange lat.

So it's basically, um, Enter off of fee Lane and I love it because, you know, you're not like if you park in the purple lot which is the one off of the bypass over by the baseball stadium. It's actually it's nicer. It's a bit bigger, but you also feel like you're in another zip code from the stadium, whereas parking in the green lot. You can see the stadium. You can see assembly whole,

there's plentiful. Pretty much everything that you need over there, and it's also an easy and an easy out. Whereas purple lot tends to be a little bit of a nightmare.

Sometimes trying to get out. Going either direction, it can be problematic, there are some other options, there's the blue lot which has been significantly cut down from what it used to be. That's the lot that's on the south side of Assembly, Hall between assembly, whole and Briscoe. And then, of course, you've got the grass, Lots themselves, the grass. Lots. That's where most students are tailgating. And certainly, it's where a lot

of young alums will tailgate. I've never particularly liked the grass. Lots Scott primarily because much like the purple A lot but I think even more. So it kind of feels like you're not at a football tailgate, it just kind of feels like you're at a big like outdoor party on somebody's lawn and it can get muddy, it can get messy, I think, in a lot of ways. And, and they're gradually cutting down on those spots like the corporate tensive, taking up

a lot of space. You've seen some of those things kind of Disappearing. There's like a nature, like regrowth thing happening in one spot right now. So that's my suggestion is An almost always by Football parking passes for tailgating purposes up until they sell out. And that yes, we're talking about like March April, May buy them with your tickets, by you can buy additional ones like you don't have to necessarily, you know, do it all at once.

But the problem is, if you wait, you used to be able to buy passes during the week. Now, you really can't like it looks for what I'm looking at right now on. I you cite all of those. Paved lots are probably sold out at this stage. So at this point, this is a good thing. It means more popularity. It means more people are going, but you do have to buy a little bit earlier. Yeah, I think you did a great job of laying that out, you know, where we normally park.

We've moved around a little bit but we are a donor. You know, we park, right? North of the white lot. We are there's a little spot between the white lot and the purple lot where it's like all of the TV trucks kind of are parked right there and we are literally right behind that.

So like the very south end of lot 9, I like parking over there because again, we're an hour and we're in, Westfield, I have two young boys, 8 and 5. And so for me, one of the key things is getting out and I found that that's a great spot. I can just hop onto done normally get to the bypass and get out pretty easily or cut over 19 Street to get to Walnut.

Like it's easier out there. I but I will say, you know, we are I'm going to do this conversation, we are the ones who like to bring help kind of not of the significant level, but we like to bring some stuff and I'll throw some ideas out there. But you know, I love parking in that area because we will walk kind of around the north side of Memorial Stadium over to where your tailgates at and there's some fun stuff happening around there.

You can see the football practice field, you know, white lot is all donors but there are some very cool tailgates there. If you're following us on Instagram I did I'm doing this in my house or there's a guy in the white lat who has been for years, flying the IU flag and then whoever Purdue is flying their flag. Whoever they're playing flying there. I'm do that in my house this season. It's fun, it was like 80 bucks on eBay, buying a bunch of use flags.

There's an old IU bus that's part of a tailgate in the white lot. There's a like, a wagon train and it's like, there's some cool stuff there, but I like walking to yours. I go through the orange, lot of my friends, Carol and Jeff have a tailgate in the blue lock that we normally go to and you're right the purple W. Very cool. A lot of semis and you know tractor or Trio, big RVs out there, but it does feel a little bit out there. Definitely blue green, and

orange. You feel Like, you're in kind of the energy of the stadium. There's also some really cool tailgates, right around the edge of moral Stadium of those grass. The grass area up to the stage. You're not going to be able to get those without a significant amount of money, but there's some cool old-school tailgates going on there too. Now if you don't want to pay for parking, I mean there are some spots where you can get parking and it's not that expensive.

So there's the church, Lots across the bypass and then also across done Street. There's that church. Over there where they pay to take like, church trips to Central America, or something like that with the money that they make. So there's those spots you start to pay but those are relatively close. Now, outside of that, what I would recommend if you don't mind doing some walking and you don't have a whole bunch of stuff to carry, keep in mind that, and you want to read the

street signs to be sure. But if you get down into the like, The Cottage Grove area, 12th Street 11th, Street, 10th Street, maybe not 10th Street. But 11th Street, that area just north of Campus. A lot of times on the weekends, you can park there. Are without having to pay anything because those are tagged as local neighborhood parking. But only 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. Make sure to read you.

Don't want to put yourself in a position where you get ticketed and towed, but that is relatively close enough that you could park there walk, and it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Unless you were trying to go from there all the way to the purple lat. I would recommend. Sorry, I would highly, you know, courage against going west of the stadium kind of anything west of Done because it's residential but they start shutting down a lot of streets there. Yes, parking is already normally

full. So you could see that on a map if you're coming from out of town like oh there's a bunch of residential stuff, west of the stadium, they start closing streets at weird times and weird hours. I used to drive in that way. I don't anymore just because it's kind of Hit or Miss what's going to be open or not. So I would just like north of 17th west of done. I would just less you really know what you're doing.

If you're out of town, I would stay away from that because you're probably have a tough time getting out to. We had a question in from, let me find it here real quick, someone asked, what was the best time to leave? Indy to come to a tailgate? Like when to get there and I wanted, this is a very early site at sort of question and I wanted to make sure that we answered it because I do get this question a lot. Like one should people show up.

I really, I'm a big fan of getting here at least three hours before kickoff because you're going to beat almost all of the traffic by doing it that way.

And I think that's going to be Big deal this year with 37 and I wouldn't even take 37, frankly, unless you absolutely have to like, come down 65. If you're coming from India and go across on 46, it's going to be probably overall and easier and although if you leave and get to Bloomington three hours before the game, it's probably not going to hurt that much now. Almost always tailgate lot times are going to be open for hours before kick, that was generous. And now there's some sometimes

that's not 100%. Sent the case. We're going to try to let you all know. And I think I use doing a better job. Now, of letting people know when the tailgate lots are open, but most of the time for a noon kick, the lots are going to open at 8:00 a.m. so that is not a bad time to show up, sometimes they'll be additional parking in a lot that you can take advantage of. Certainly the grass.

Lots will still have openings at that point and even if you're early, there are places to go eat in Bloomington around that time. If you don't want to bring your own, Food, like there's restaurants in town that you can go to. There's normally some things you can take advantage of and no, I'm not talking about kok although you could certainly do that if you wanted to but you

can go other places as well. And so I would recommend getting down at least three hours before kick because that way you don't have to worry about getting where you need to get to and we know traffic flow can be a real problem anyway, but especially this year with all the construction in Martinsville, it's going to be a real problem if you're coming from elsewhere.

Elsewhere similar sort of deal. I would get here a bit early and you know if you can get here by 8:30 or 9:00 get parked and then go do stuff. That's a pretty good setup. As far as I'm concerned, you can be rather relatively leisurely and how you do it. Don't wait until like, don't be like, hey, I'm going to show up in Bloomington 30 minutes before you're probably not going to get to your seats until like Midway

through the first quarter. And that's assuming that you find parking, which I think this year is going to be even more problematic. So that somebody who comes from Indy for every one last thing I was going Mention. Yeah, for those who haven't been down in a couple of years, the McNutt and Briscoe parking. Lots don't exist anymore,

they're gone, okay? There are dorms there now and so if you are used because a lot of people would park in those dorm spots that get here, early those don't need that they're not. There there are new buildings, there people are living in them so just be careful on that front. Don't expect that to be there. Sorry, Scott, go ahead.

I know you're good. So if somebody has come from Indy from, you know, from nine ten years for games, I will say this that normally on Just an average, you know, Wednesday afternoon. If I leave, I'm in Westfield. If I leave my house, I can get to campus in an hour, twenty five, an hour 30. It depends on where, you know, what? Martinsville looks like, but normally our 20, I can get to Bloomington. I normally give myself two hours, travel time.

From my house, to the stadium on a game day, if I'm leaving a little bit early now, you know, to me, it's like there's a new in-game as A330 game is a seven game or kind of your standard times. I'm going to go backwards in time a seven o'clock game. Normally I try and leave here around, like, it depends on what we're doing from a tailgate perspective, but I'll try it. Try it. Leave here or I'm like 1:00 or 2:00 is kind of my my go-to because then I'm getting there around, you know.

It gets me there around 4 and that gives me a good couple hours to have some fun. And and you know, I know this is a question from that blast, we're going to get to but it's like you almost have to agree on The Late games.

Like I'm either going to be. If I'm bringing my kids it's like we're going to have more fun tailgating and I have to be cool being the guy who leaves Early life and I know as a college kid, when I was in my 20s, like I hate everyone who leaves games are like, why did you pay for the ticket?

Like, why'd you do that? It's like your perspective changes, when you pop out some kids and things just Jade's, it's like it's hard to be get there early guy and fun tailgate guy and I'm bringing my kids guy and I'm staying the whole game guy like with a five-year-old. Like good luck. You can do it more power to you. That's a different podcast. I will say for the 330 games. It's also very easy.

I normally leave here around like 11 or 11:30 You're leaving, honestly, that extra that extra hour. If you can get yourself out of that window, everything evens up. And honestly, I don't, I have, I'll tell you some other routes to get down to Bloomington.

But normally, I just take 67 down and then I just check ways and like if that little, if you know the road going across what is it 39 that connects 67 to 37 or what is now 69 if that's completely jammed and yeah I just take 67 down to Spencer cut over. There's a A way you could get, therefore, he stopped and Paragon. You can take some back roads and hit 69, although I'm not sure if that's still open that was my sneaky way when they were doing

work on 60-69. But normally, if you're leaving it like 11:00 or 12:00 from Indy, you're going to hit Martinsville about like 14, A330 game that normally is not too bad. Although I will say, Michigan is the one game, which we don't have at home this year, they travel the most on that thoroughfare. They also bring the most fans. They're going to hit you the most on that traffic. Michigan.

Michigan State seems to bring the most anyway, the be situationally aware, is what Scott's saying here, as far as like, where the people of the other people are coming from with this vulnerable, you know, my Ohio state, they're going to come from, obviously, from Ohio, but they're going to take 70 over in Autumn go down to, you know, Columbus and cut over that

way. But anyway, give yourself just that extra half hour to leave early and then you could honestly just take the normal route, most games for 3:30. I just take 67 cut across Martinsville because the traffic hasn't backed up yet, right? I will say for Or a noon game. It's tough for us like that. This is where I normally am. Like I'm not going to help out much at a tailgate like I can bring a bag of chips, you know, for us to get there to do, any

kind of tailgating. We have to leave here around like 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning, which is a tough putt. So normally I'm like, I'm just trying to hustle my ass out of the door by 8:00 or 8:30. And then I'm like trying to beat traffic and just trying to get there by 10:00 to 10:30. But you know, It's just tough with kids to get there early. So normally the noon games like I'm bummed the Cincinnati game,

I'm just not. To be much, you just have to realize I'm just those are games are I'm not tailgating. I'm just doing my best to get there and not miss kickoff. Be honest with yourself, try it a couple of times, I'm sorry. I mean, this is the thing, I think a lot of people will they'll put themselves in for more than they can deliver when it comes to doing this. And so, you just if you've never done this before, give yourself extra time.

And the worst thing is, you spend an extra hour in Bloomington that's, that's really, not a bad thing at all. So something to keep in mind, as you move forward with is that, by the way, that criminal question was from Ryan cost about when to arrive and he asks, specific about the grass. Lots and again, I would say get there, three hours ahead.

Get yourself set up. If you're going to do some tailgating I take three hours minimum at that point with the the grass, Lots because you have to park and then find the people that you're trying to connect with and that becomes the other issue. Okay. Moving forward. Let's talk about the actual hosting of the tailgate so we mentioned we got those three

different categories. Now I am as surprised as anybody that I've turned into a tailgate host because I didn't tailgate at all when I was in college, like I fact think I went to one tailgate, it was the glue. The Kegs and Eggs, Ohio State pregame tailgate when I you played Ohio State in 1998. Several people that we know were there. Mike Petrie, was there? Remember several other people? But I didn't you, and I, you and I went to that.

And then we went to the gate. We were at the stadium, like, super ehrlich's. Marry you? And I were this front row for that game. We were yes, we did that on purpose and then we lost it was a pretty, it was at that one. As the as the, The Hangover set in and the third quarter, it was like we made Bad life decisions. Today with all of this, I caught a Snickers from Lynn Swann in that game. That was a highlight for me.

Well, you you had a better game than I did but but I'm a surprise to anybody that I host tailgates now, because that's just not something that I did. And then I tell you what actually opened my eyes to, it was when I taught at University of Miami and the people that I was with my little Professor group, they had a great tailgate setup and you know the eye that was I was I looked at that and I was like, wow, this is pretty

cool. This is Something I'd like to do if I'm ever anywhere else and I'm hosting and so I come back to IU in 2009 and that was really how it all started. The first thing I think to keep in mind, if you're going to be hosting a tailgate, is that it's probably going to start relatively small and that's a good thing.

And you know, we're talking about you and your family or your close friends and then you can invite a few people but you want to try to keep, you know, keep it to a relatively straightforward limit and try to think about what kind of tailgate you're looking to do. The very, you know, the to me, the most basic and the most straightforward thing to do is to, you know, get yourself a setup that allows you to do the things that you want to do in the tailgate like not

everybody's tailgates. Are going to be the same. And sometimes, you can walk through these tailgate setups and you'll see these. You know, people have got like eight tables and to canopies and you know, they've got a generator and all that and it's like do you need all of that know you don't what you really need? Is your first time? I guess that's a I mean, you turians tailgate, you can try for it your first time but you really, it takes a while to actually get yourself oriented

in the proper way to figure out. Okay, where is everything supposed to be? How am I supposed to set all this up? How much room do I have? And that is another thing, frankly, that can be affected by where you're parking. You know, if you're in the grass, lat, you've got the area where your car is at, and that's where the grass, lots are a benefit because they allow you to set up a canopy and do a bunch of things. We have a little more room when you're in some of the the paved

Lots like the blue lot. You're a little more cramped in terms of the space that you've got and that can create some issues just in terms of being, you know, having too much stuff and not enough place to put it or not getting there in enough time to set up in a place that you want to. So it's one of the reasons why I show up. So we really to tailgates is because I know to do the setup I want, I got to get a parking spot. Next to the grass. I got to get everything set up

before people get there. I got to get the grill fired up and I got to get the canopy set up and I got a chair set up and everything like that. And so to some degree you have to make a decision early on like how much of this do I want to provide to everybody else? Because it can get a bit pricey and it can get you suddenly realize after a while. It's like, wow, I'm doing a lot of work for other people's benefit. You know, here I am.

I'm getting up at 6:30 in the morning to make sure the truck is loaded, so I can get over there 7:55, so that I can get in hop out and like, quickly undo everything.

Great, you know, if it's like, hey tailgate starts at 11:00 in the morning and we got a 7:00 game and I got all this time to relax, it gets a bit trying, if you are, you know, getting ready for a Rutgers home game, and it's the middle of November, and it's, you know, 18 degrees outside while you're setting everything up and you're like, what am I doing this for again?

Why? So, you really, as I often tell my students who want to get into broadcasting as like you really Gotta Love broadcasting if you want to get into it, because there's going to be times where you're just like, why am I doing this? If you're going to feel the same about hosting a tailgate. So ask yourself if you want to go through all of that. And if so who can you bring in to assist with various elements of things? Or do you just you just one of those?

Is it our do you and your spouse want to do it or do you have a friend who's going to be there with you? It's tough to do it all by yourself that said, if you've made that go ahead, please. Yes. As and again, I'm gonna bring more of the perspective of somebody who comes to a tailgate from India, cause that's me, but I will say, this is where I think like I go to Friends, Jeff

and carols tailgate. I think they have a nice kind of low-key tailgate, but one thing they've done that I do on like we take a lake house, trip every year. You know, we have it, we have kind of packing list that we keep on Google Sheets for the last five or six years. What I do is the minute we leave. I automatically copy that and make a packing list for next year. And then, when we're on the trip, it's like, who I really wish I had. Like, you know, I wish I had like this fishing gear.

It's like, I just put it on the list like by this for next year and like literally when I come home from our trip I buy five or six things Things on Amazon like, we need to get a raft. We need to get this stuff for my fishing gear like this year. It was like getting a bunch of fishing gear stuff for like put the lines on correctly stuff like that. It's like I just buy it the next year.

It's like I know it's good. You can do the same thing with a tailgate like the first time you go and you can do it throughout the year but just keep a list of like, all right, here are the five things that I need that. We need a table at Jeff and Carol, then have a table, they got a table, they got the tent, like just start building it up. But at the end of each tailgate just be like, all right, here's the stuff that I need for next time or next year and just kind of build it that way.

Just keep a little list of things that you wish, like, I wish I had Like get it. Yeah I mean what I started out with was pretty straightforward to set up, I bought a canopy and canopies aren't great. Like you're going to probably replace your canopy every two years even if you take care of it and or unless you want to buy like a super-expensive canopy and then it's like, well, is that really worth it either? So generally, you can just buy the regular.

I would get, I will say this, get the squared canopy, get the ten by ten, don't get the 8 by 10 because you never Experienced early morning, frustration quite like trying to figure out which is the short side of the canvas and which is the long side of the canvas. When they look about the same, as you trying to set it up, but by a canopy, my suggestion would be by something other than red, because everybody's, and I utility it's gonna have a red canopy.

And if you're trying to tell people where to find you and you're like, Hey we're in the grass lot. We got a red canopy. It's like, hey guess what, so does everybody else. So you may want to consider, I think the first canopy that we had was purple because I figured there was Small amount of crossover with opposing team, certainly Northwestern. But Northwestern has no fans, so they're not going to travel and you're not going to be confusing

people. So we start with a canopy, we started with a small Grill. Now, I am at home. I am the biggest proponent of charcoal that you'll find. Like, I don't use propane, I don't have a gas grill, I have a gas grill for tailgating, and I got one of those little Weber Q 1000 You know, which with the they take the little green propane, screw in canisters and the reason for that is essentially ease of use when you're grilling.

The last thing you want have to worry about in addition to all of the you know, the grease and the grime that you build up with that. You don't also want to have to deal with a bunch of coals that are still potentially warm. I mean there was a whole Allstate commercial about a you know somebody's car blowing up because of that sort of thing. So certainly you can use charcoal.

I would much prefer to use charcoal but I think in this situation, gas does just as good of a job and you don't need a huge Grill. Like an even if you're cooking, 450 people. You don't have to have all the food ready at once because quite frankly, you're not going to have a lot of situations where everybody's eating simultaneously. So getting a relatively small, surface gas grill, that's easy to clean easy, to transport.

Preferably something with a stand so that you're not bending over having to deal with it on the ground. Those are some good tips but that was essentially all we started with those two things and then a white table to put stuff on. And if you have those three things that canopy a grill And a table. You know, that's probably going to set you back. I would say somewhere in the vicinity of maybe $300 $350 that's not that bad. It's a great investment because

that set up right there. I still have the grill that I got. When I first started doing the tailgating, I got it like 10 years ago, it's still going strong. Like there's no problems with it at this point. So if you make the right purchase is early, you're going to have a lot better success

down the line. Yeah I will say my friends Jeff and Carol. They still go with the charcoal grill and it's it's a bit of a pain when we have little kids running around and so it's like always like just watch out, don't hit it like a couple times, they've knocked it and it's like, it gets jostled and then it's like they have to deal with knocking the coals out. Is it cold? Like I'm with you on the grill? But a great.

Again, these small Grill works, like they have just the little, the smallest sized Weber that you can sell like whatever the 10-inch. Like it's just a tiny little Grill but you can just again you're probably not cooking fillet. You're doing hot dogs, are Burgers. Like you could you can bang through those really quickly. And so I think that's a great point. The smaller Grill will get you

done. You don't need the big grill because they have a lot of people kind of coming through and it is, you know, it's just people kind of coming through for 10 minutes here, 20 minutes. They're normally, I would say it, most of the tailgates, there's very few kind of, like I'm also going to be at this tailgate for the full four hours like right? You know better than I do. But most people are kind of transient and so it's like having 10 hotdogs ready as good at all times.

And you can Bang that out and she I think the small girl is a great idea, but yes, going to tailgates that I've gone to with charcoal. It's like that seems to be more of a pain dealing with charcoal and Amber management than you want to deal with Timber Management in there. Although sometimes you get the wrong people to your Patel gate, you have to do some Amber management to anyway.

So as far as food, here's what I would suggest have a theme for each tailgate that you do map it out and And you know, try to rotate things a little bit throughout the course of the Season. Try to shift with the seasons, a little bit. You everybody has Grand ideas but there's a reason why probably 70% of the tailgates that you go to. It's hamburgers and hot dogs because those things they travel.

Well, they're easy to set up, they're easy to cook, you know, they're, they are easily plopped in a delivery vessel whether that's a bun or a, or a bun. I guess they're both plopped into buns. You could put a hot dog in a burrito. I Gasps maybe or a taco shell. I've done that before a couple of times and I get weird looks just like you're giving me a weird look right now. But I've done the Dorito, I've done the hot dog, burrito at

home when I'm bad, but a buns. There's, but there's, you know, you don't want to again, unless you really have gotten bedded in, in tailgating, you don't want to go overboard with what you bring, and you have to keep in mind that a lot of foods. Don't actually cook as well as you would hope that they would or don't transition particularly well in that environment, like

yeah. For somebody like had steak at one point, you know, they brought to a tailgating State just doesn't work at a tailgate for a bunch of reasons. Not the least of which is it's hard to eat with your hands. It's, you know, like, you know, and and it also doesn't cook up in a way that I think works well in other forms. Like, you could do steak sandwiches and stuff like that, but that's like a multi-step process to, actually make a good

steak sandwich. You can't just put a slab of steak down and and then put it on a bun because people will have trouble chewing it. So, you know, be conscious of what you're cooking and what order you're doing things. And we're going to get into like the different times of day, a little bit later on in this discussion, but try to have a plan and try to make sure that what you're you're cooking is complementary to the main course. Now, I always buy the main course myself.

Like so we're going to do hot dogs and hamburgers for instance as the host. I will just go purchase all of that myself a because then I know it's there because there's nothing worse than somebody saying. Yeah, sure. I'll The hot dogs and then they show up and they have beer but they don't have hot dogs here. Like where are the hot dogs like? Oh, I forgot. You know. It was like well now the whole tailgates kind of screwed because if you don't have that, what are you going to serve?

So if you're the host, you just have to take that mantle on yourself of buying that main course. And then the other thing that I would suggest is give people specific assignments. If you know, you've got five or six other people coming to the tailgate assign them.

Okay? You are going to bring Brand name chips, you are going to bring, you know, the buns or whatever stuff like that and then figure out when people are going to arrive because there's nothing worse than parceling out the duties to people, and then having somebody who's supposed to bring the Buns, not show up until like 40 minutes before the tailgates over. And then it's like, what are we

eating on? Well, and I'll say to as somebody who's coming, so I do this, I'm with, like, Jeff and Carol. We go to their tailgate all the time. We do that. Like, we have a text chain on like Wednesday, Thursday. The guy who's bringing, what as somebody who's coming from out of town. So, to speak, I never have asked and the never wanted to take anything as part of a main level

course. So it's like if we're having hot dogs and burgers like I don't want the burgers and the Buns because the worst thing is that even if I leave earlier like let's say the kids are just dragging assets. Like we're running late and then we hit traffic in Martinsville. Like nothing is worth knowing that I have all the hot dog buns and I'm not going to be at the tailgate and time. So as somebody who's coming from out of, you know, from Indy, always pick. Nothing.

Like we always take chips or dip or drinks or something that if it's like if it's an hour late the tailgate isn't going to be just stopped in its tracks me. It's going to suck a little bit but it's like not having chips is not the end of the world and we get there it's like hey or like desserts are great bring brownies and cookies. It's like all right like we can always Crush those at the end of the tailgate.

I will say one thing here you mentioned brand, name chips and you mentioned this on your last the podcast you didn't like June talking about food. I have also a huge proponent of spend the Extra money and buy the brand name food, but I will throw this out there when it comes to chips. Maybe it's just Indy has a better Kroger Distribution Center. The Kroger Brand barbecue chips.

I find are at the same level as like, a Lay's barbecue chip and believe me, I come from the world of like don't there's no need to buy generic cereal like by the name brand, spend extra get the higher quality meat. I am with you, man. We are simpatico, I just got to give a shout-out to the Kroger Brand barbecue chips. I see. Is really dig those. So this is my man. This is Scott trying to save money and our next tailgate.

So at your tailgate I'm gonna bring, we're going to do a blind taste to the put it on Instagram. We're going to have a barbecue lays and barbecue Kroger chips. And I want to see if you can spot, which is a different, which one is better, to be fair. I don't like barbecue lays either. Actually Glazer Low quality. So but a high-quality chip of your choosing versus anyway we'll make. We'll make it happen. Will do this will do the Pepsi challenge that I was a joke. Okay. Calm down.

Now maroon. I'm gonna go back to the maroon Hoosiers. Comment. We're so we got the, where to park down Traditions. Yeah, I mean, there aren't really a lot. It's one of the cool things about IU football, is that there's not your own. You can kind of make your own tailgating Traditions. I mean, look, my tailgate didn't exist 10 years ago and now like some people talk about About it.

I guess it's kind of a tradition and that, you know, but that's that's you have a, it's a blank slate at this point to a large degree. I would recommend and this is one of the things where it's nice to have multiple people. I would recommend once you get everything set up. One of my traditions is I like to take a walk not around the entire perimeter of the football area, but at least enough like

maybe a 10 15 minute walk. So I can see what's going on elsewhere and just get a feel for Festivities. Now there are some cool things that pop up in the Lots, you know. There's a what is that little miniature band that goes spot or Philharmonic or his phonics? Yeah, I forget the name of the band. I apologize will get corrected on Twitter. I know. But that's great when they come by your tailgate have some tip money. They do an awesome job, right? There's always a phony, the Sim

phony. There we go with phony Pho. NY, if you're afraid If you're close enough, if you're in that kind of the festive area that we talked about, you'll see the marching band go by and the kids always love that. Sometimes they're sometimes the walk is if you're on the right side of the stadium, that's a good thing to go, check out and that normally happens what about two hours? Three hours before the game somewhere in that range. Yeah, two hours 90 minutes. Yeah.

And that's why the green orange blue lot is great because it's like, you can kind of see that you can see people start assembling, they kind of make that that hallway. And it's like, from Assembly Hall down to Memorial Stadium. So, you can kind of see that. And it's like if you're at your Tailgates like, oh, I'm gonna go take my boys if we're gonna go do the walk and then come back. So like that's why that's a great area versus to your point. The purple lat you do miss a lot

of that stuff. But then that side of that. I mean sometimes there's some strange stuff that pops up. Like I remember this is like 45 years ago. There was a calliope on the on the North End of Assembly Hall and it just was playing like weird piped music. And it was like why is this here? And I mean if there was a historical Reason for it to be there, but it was just kind of, like, I don't understand why this has popped up, and then it was gone.

And I don't think I've seen it again since then.

But those are the main things. I mean, it's really not a lot as far as Traditions other than the ones that you're making yourself right now and that is I think actually a positive if you're of that mind and I think a lot of the tradition is just like to some of your getting to know your neighbors because you'll notice very quickly, it's the same people that have larger tailgate setups at IU and like, we're we always end up next to Like Carrie docherty and that group because they're always

over in that grassy area, right? Where the green lot and the orange lock come together and we're normally in that as well. So that to me is one of the better tradition is just like getting to know the people that are around you and you end up seeing those same people. Every every time. I mean, if you're really cutting it close I will say the other tradition is. I think it's, you know, they set off are, you know, firework like the the blast, the ones that

don't aren't fireworks. That makes sound of the cannon shots, but they do those like, what 10 minutes. Game starts, right? It's a right around there. But I mean, obviously, if you're close enough, you see, you know, when the flag is going up, that's national anthem. It's time to start heading in some of those things that are going on, and I will say, if you're into that the pregame tradition, this is more tailgating. But, you know, me and the boys. We like to get into the boys.

Love the marching band. It's just, it's kind of fun and festive for them. We like to be in the stadium at least 20 minutes for Kit because that's about when the marching band comes out. They do, you know, the the IU fight song, they do the I Actual frangipane. They like the national lamp and they like kind of the, you know, how they always do like the, let's take a trip, they do like the same five songs every year before every game.

So I mean, if you're into that, I'd say about 20 minutes before game time, you want to get in and watch some of the bay and do their stuff best local food, and drink. So this is an interesting one, you know, because one of the things that, you know, a lot of what we talk about with tailgate is bringing your own stuff to the table. Tailgate I will say like for certain things like breakfast

tailgates. Especially you may not want to do a big cooking set up yourself a because there's less time and be because breakfast is hard to do by yourself unless you're really good at cooking and you've got just a small Grill, it's hard to do like a good breakfast set up overall, if you don't have a generator or whatever, one thing I would suggest is, you know, Square Donuts is always open early Crescent. Donuts is always open early.

There are options. Where you could go pick some stuff up and bring it. If you get there early enough, both of those are really good options for different reasons. I mean Square Donuts because it's it's located really conveniently at 17th and college. There's also one over on the Eastside Crescent, everybody knows where that is, it's on Kirkwood, there's there's there's options available there. There's some local breakfast

places. You know, crumble Bakery is a pretty good place to pick up some things. You may want to consider going that route because you can pick Cup coffee and donuts, or, you know, coffee and pastries of some sort and bring that to the tailgate. That's a good way to get the day started, you may not need anything else until you go into the stadium at that point and and that, so that's another reason to get there early.

You know, as far as trying to find places to eat afterwards because a lot of people if it's a noon kick they'll be done by 3:30 and if you're going to make a day of it, you're like, well we'll stick around Bloomington and we'll eat which I would recommend doing anyway because that lets the traffic filter out and so forth. I mentioned this a little On the last time, we talked about this podcast wise, go outside of the boundaries of where you would normally go in Bloomington, to

try to find places to eat. Because, you know, one of the things to keep in mind is that Nick's is always going to be jammed on football Saturdays, Yogi's. It now is going to be jam because it's downtown on football Saturdays. Mother bears, at least to the downtown mother or the in them in the city. Mother Bear's is going to be jammed. So think about some of the options.

Options outside of that. And if you're not familiar with those, there's plenty of good places that we can talk about throughout the course of Bloomington, you know, Upland has gotten really popular. So uh, Plum, is that used to be like the go-to place like it's close to downtown but it's not right. Downtown go there at this point. You know, probably try it certainly but I'm guessing that that's going to be pretty packed.

You know. So you've got places like Juanita's where I ate dinner the other day. Nice, Mexican place. It's on Kirkwood just west of downtown. You know, and generally not like overly packed, might be a good place to try going. You've got c 3, which is a nice restaurant with a decent amount of outdoor seating. So, at least early on, in the season might be good that's down by Renwick Village, which is just south of the mall. Another place, that might be

worth checking out. You've got Southern Stone. And one of these places are compensating us on this. I'm just kind of rattling them. All Southern Stone, which has a decent amount of seatings. Got nice. Big, indoor area, got some outdoor seating, might be a good

place to try. Look around the periphery If you have questions about specific places, you can always ask us on Twitter or you can ask us on Facebook and we can give you a read on things but there's more places to eat than just the the main traditional places that everybody goes and you may just want to go to those traditional places, that's fine, but if you could hit up a fat Dan's or if you could hit up a DaVinci or an Austria or even go out, you know as you're driving back through

Nashville, stopping at hard, truth Hills or some place like that. There's a lot of Options at your disposal. Try, broadening your horizons a little bit. I wouldi, I don't even have a list of, like, what I think the best places are because frankly, every place I just rattled off, I would choose to go eat at like right today, if I was going out to eat, so you're going to have a hard time going wrong with those sorts of things.

I would recommend just building that in to what you're planning on doing and that way. Yes, you're going to get home a little bit later, but you're also not going. If you're going to spend two hours in traffic, you might as well spend. Two hours at a restaurant as opposed to you know just driving that whole time. I don't know. Scotty have any thoughts on that? No, I think you you live in Bloomington. You better know the Bloomington

restaurant scene. I will say for those coming from Indy, I do like in Martinsville. I mean Martinsville is like a wasteland of fast food joints, I will say that Beefcake Burgers is Right? Were 39 and 37 kind of connect. It's a great little local burger place. Check that out. We've hit that a lot of times on the way home or the way up there, the waffle Is a good restaurant up in Martinsville as well. And there's a couple there's a good Wingstop place on 67 up

toward like in that. And some of that new stuff they've built on the right side, we are going up 2nd but there are some spots in Martinsville. I would try those too, but Martinsville is kind of a fast-food stop. And I think, I think you all the places you hit are fantastic. And yeah, I mean dude I love Mother Bear's.

Every time we go to Bloomington my boys, want to go to Mother Bear's but everybody goes to Mother Bear's and so especially on The game day, it's just it's going to get crushed. And so that's almost a separate podcast about no matter which one you go to. It's like, how do you get some other Bears on Game Day? What's the best time to do that? Like, that's almost like a separate tailgate and I love

with again. I love all the Bears and I love to eat nothing more than Mother Bear's 24/7, but it's like I'm with you. If you're going to be there for a game day, try something else because you're going to have a much better time and not be waiting two hours for food because everybody goes to both both locate.

Yeah, it's a thing and even the new location gets slammed Gently and you got other good options if it is D'Angelo's and there's but Shadows. If you want pizza that are relatively close to the old one you've got. There's other other places. Swing in Pizza, on the, on College Avenue. Striped ology asked why there isn't more after game tailgating and, you know, to some degree. It's a decent question. You were losing and Everyone by goes home. That's how I that's honestly.

Historically been the issue. I think you might see people sticking around a little bit more but there just isn't much of a culture around that and And I do think it would be interesting if that was actually what was going on. Now I to some degree, I do think they in some spots, they'll close the Lots or want to start clearing people out of the Lots because they want to go through and clean everything.

I don't think there's a final clear out time although I will look into that and let everybody know I'd I will also say though that in the purple lot those RVs are generally there that you know the rest of that night in many cases and so you do get some after game tailgating going. Up there, it's just that around the certainly in the grass lot. And in the, the festive, Lots is we've taken to calling them.

You generally, those people are a lot more likely to leave early but it's not the worst idea in the world hanging out after the game. Typically, I mean a lot of it like Scott said, if there's wins and people are excited, I think that will actually get more people to do that and so I'm hoping that this year will be that kind of the Year.

Let's dive into it. Sorry, it's a great question but that's a great question and I'm not being trite but it's like it is like Let's just try and get fans to stay through the game. Then we'll worry like tailgating after the game. Like, how about we just get students and fans to stay the entire, you know, the entire fourth quarter? And then we'll worry about tailgating afterwards but you know, winds winds will solve. All right, let's get to some

specific questions. A lot of you ask specific questions. I'm going to try to nail as many of these as I can. Okay. Griffin Gonzales from the Hoosier Network asks, what food is not being touched on the tailgate table other than carrots and or Celery. Well, you know, I'll say this. I think that people always over purchase cookies, for tailgates. Like, you know, the the number of people for whom their contribution is a container of Kroger like ice sugar cookies.

And then those just kind of any of those. They just sit there and it's just kind of like, okay, is anybody going to eat these or, you know, chocolate chip cookies or things like that especially ones that haven't been baked by you? If you're buying store-bought stuff, I found that, that is something believe it or not, that that people don't really go for when it comes to tailgating.

And we always I think overestimate how much sweet stuff people want, its tell gates are more of a Savory Affair. Like, you know, and I certainly, you'll have some sweet items that will pop up. But yeah, cookies. And then honestly any any dessert that has to be dished out with a spoon is is going to largely sit there without Being touched at a tailgate. These are the these have been the things that I've found over the course of time. Also believe it or not, people

over by deer. Pretty significantly, people will bring a 12-pack when a six-pack would probably do and so you just want to make sure you're coordinating. If You're just showing up somewhere, you know, I would say, bring bring two things like bring, you can bring two six-packs of a craft beer or you could bring a six-pack Pack of craft beer and a bag of something or you could bring like bag of chips or bag of whatever chips can get over down to. So like don't don't go too much

on that front. Don't over bring bring enough that. If all you did was consumed the stuff that you brought as a guest at a tailgate, you'd be satisfied because the idea here is we're going to share, like I'm going to bring part of this, and I'll have a little bit of my own thing, but then you'll also have some of it and then I'll have some of what's already at the table, but To be the things I would say. And it's funny Griffin. I actually do eat the celery at tailgates.

That's actually an underrated tailgate food. You get some, you get like a jar of peanut butter that people can dip or a knife into and put on celery. That's that's not a terrible tailgate food. But those would be my answers anything, you've observed Scott isn't as funny. I like the carrots like that's their. You carrots instead of my kids? No, I think you're dead on with the cookies as someone who's brought stuff. This is again a spot.

Go a little bit of scale that the normal just bag of Kroger cookies. And like everybody has those sugar cookies with the icing on what you're okay. But you can go different. They're like we like the little mini chocolate chip cookies. Always seem to taste better than the big fat ones. Those are kind of people will dig on to those. I think, if you're bringing desserts, you know, sometimes going a little bit off the

board. Like we've had a lot of success with, like, chocolate donut holes as a dessert. It's good and it's good, the breakfast room with even good for a 7:30 game. It's I got something different people, kind of hit those and I think you hit it. I would also say like the big, you know, casserole tub of This

is a a chip dip. It seems like that never gets like a bean dip is like people will kind of go at it but it's like you got a spoon it now, I mean with covid who knows how people are going to feel about like sharing a dip and it's I've seen those always seem to be like 2/3, full and then it's like those sour and don't take well, the elements. And those seem to be like, if you're showing up late, you're not just going to crush in 20 guacamole. It's been sitting out three hours.

I can't wait to dig into this happy and thing and those always seem to go kind of big out. So if you can somehow Prepackaged those, I think that would be better but I think you hit everything else. Carry your casks has Broadband cell service Wi-Fi, improved enough in the orange lot for me to bring a hot spot. A fire stick at a television

know. Yeah well we don't know because frankly it's been two years since we were out there doing things and I mean I can stream NBC Sports Network on my phone and in the tailgate lot but not when there's other people there. So I do think first of all, Rather than the fire stick. If you can stream off your phone and then Port that to a television, that's probably going to be a better choice

because it's less equipment. But look, I think especially this year with this many people that are going to be in those lots. I would not plan on being able to use Wi-Fi or 5G to be able to connect. I mean, I've tried for years and I have always had very, very

poor success. Now, where, you know that, I don't know if they still sell these and they May not be worth the investment unless you've got a really big setup, but I do think that those portable DirecTV setups that can be a good thing to do. But then you essentially you've purchased an entire different television package just for tailgating and it's like was this worth it for six weekends out of the Year? Probably not so Carrie unfortunately, I just I don't have a lot of faith right now,

and I'd love to be proven wrong. But as of right now, no I wouldn't plan on being able to do that and I would say my love the idea. But you see that a little Bit in some of the purple lot where you have that the RVs that have the Satellite Dish up top. But I will say for most people

at the tailgate. It's like rarely is there a game outside of the IU game that I care enough about to not just check it out like someone and by the way if something's happening is crazy, it's like oh my God like you know Notre Dame is

losing by 50 points. Like your kind of some little have it somewhere and you walk and check out normally is check on your phone and see the highlights like we're all connected enough like I've never been in a tailgate for an IU game and felt like I'm missing something. One else is happening in the Sports World. Yeah, it's I will. I have toyed with the idea of having a television there, that just plays old IU football victories on a loop. But I haven't quite haven't

quite gotten to that point yet. I might step it up for this year. We'll see. Okay. Some other comments and questions. I you artifacts asks, what is your go-to breakfast option for a noon kickoff? I'll say if I'm cooking it myself this is where the breakfast sandwiches come in and to me, that is the most elegant. That you can do. It's also the most customizable generally. What I do with breakfast

sandwiches is as follows. I think I might have talked about this on the last podcast but I'll go ahead and repeat it by like G or you know some other form of biscuit and cook those the night before and let them cool and then put them in a bag. And then I would also recommend just thinking about okay, what all am I going to be putting on this like what?

So what I will do is I will make Make a proprietary sandwich spread which you know, generally has some combination of mayonnaise and barbecue sauce and some spices and and just a little bit of Tang going in there and I'll make that the night before and I'll kind of premix that into a jar. I'll put it back in the refrigerator that'll go in my

cooler. The next morning I'm by the way I forgot to mention by a cooler in addition to the other things we told you to buy, that's like the fourth item that you really need and then I'll figure out what meets I'm going to be. Do you remember, you're keeping in mind? This is breakfast. There's generally, three different meats that you might want to consider one is bacon. One is sausage. And one is chicken, and then, so have have some combination of those plus then select your

cheese. This is one of those situations where I think having a couple of different types of cheese. Certainly, you want to have your traditional American slices. Because as much as people criticize American cheese, it melts really well and everybody's used to the Flavour. So don't worry too much about that and then I'd have something else. Have a white cheddar. Have a monterey jack something that's in Pre slices, that you could very easily peel out and put on the sandwich as you go

through things. And then what you do, you got your, get your table set up, get your biscuits out, get bring a whole thing of aluminum foil, and then essentially tear off. Small sections of aluminum foil. Put the biscuit Have it on that. So one side, one side, spread your secret sauce. On one side, put your meat. But your cheese. You may want to put onion on there.

Some people don't like onion, I generally avoid the onion just because nobody misses it, if it's not there, wrap it you're going to probably have to cook the meat at the tailgate. So that's the first thing that I'll do I'll cook the meat before I put it on the sandwiches and I'll kind of do it right before. I'm putting it on the sandwiches that way it stays hot or crispy or what have you. You could pre make It but I don't think you get as good of a

result that way. So, once you've got your cooked meat, put that on the sandwich, along with the cheese wrap it, put it back on the grill and then just don't let it burn. You got to turn it over a few times your whole lobster. Like your whole Focus here is getting that cheese to melt properly and once you do that you pull it off. You hand it to the person. You can customize this based upon who the individual is. It's a huge hit because people

are like, wow! I just got a sandwich made just for me. And no two sandwiches have to

necessarily be the same. That might come up and just want cheese on there biscuit and you can do that, some people person might want double meat or a mix of meat, you can do that and to me with a minimal amount of action, you know, of preparation, it's a meal that you're not going to get most other places and it's one that frankly, you do better, I think than even a lot of restaurants when they put breakfast sandwiches together. So that would be my selection.

You have you have any that you would focus on Scott? I think you nailed it that I'm hungry. I'm ready to go. The only thing I would say is I love if you can fit stuff to do in a breakfast sandwich, set up for what you're talking about. But a this is probably just a different pot and underrated meet for breakfast and eggs is Teresa like oh yeah, I am in love with chorizo but it's I it's tougher for what you're talking about doing.

They do sell like, sliced chorizo, but I've only seen it like sold in. Like Puerto Rico is not available much around here, but yeah, I mean not what you're looking for. It's tough. What? Then a butcher block here Wilmington, does often sell a ground chorizo? And I think fresh thyme might as well. At this point, I would avoid the tubes of chorizo unless you really know what you're doing. Because that stuff has daunted a lot of people who are otherwise good Cooks.

They're just not sure what to do with. I count myself in that category, never really quite gotten, my head wrapped around that. The other one is the other thing I will say on this is egg, an egg can be a little bit trickier. If all you have is a grill. But what I have done is I've I'll invest in a small cast iron skillet which I'll put on the grill and if you crack an egg in that break the yolk, and then just kind of let it sit there for a little bit. You obviously want to grease it.

First, you can put egg on the breakfast sandwich as well. And I find that that makes a big difference. And so, don't forget the eggs, I guess would be my point.

I think, you know, if you're not, if you don't have the capacity to do all of that, I'll go back to what I said earlier, a couple of dozen donuts from Crescent, get some coffee, and some coffee, you're good to go. Like, you don't have to go to all of that trouble if you don't want to, and that's one of the beautiful things about breakfast tailgate.

Think outside of that, you know, you can do what I just described but instead of biscuits you could make waffles ahead of time and then break them down into little individual things because you can eat very easily, you know, a sandwich off of a waffle, probably not Belgian waffle, you want to get the thinner ones but that works just as well, it's essentially kind of like going to Waffle House. So there's little things like that. And what you want to do is just

take your favorite. Like some things just don't work like doing pancakes at a tailgate. Eight bad idea because you need a fork and you need a plate and that can be very complicated. You want to focus on things that are easily picked up and eaten without needing a plate. If you can avoid it, there are some exceptions. Like if you want to do a pulled pork thing, you probably going

to not worry about the plates. Everybody will be fine with that, but if you can ask, it's and gravies to as a tough, yes, biscuits and gravy is a tough one. But if you can, if you can move towards an environment where something can be picked up and eaten and tasty, you're doing pretty good. Particularly if it's got Built-in container like that aluminum foil that I was talking about. So I guess I'll grow long to Stew Jackson of the LA. Rams question, what are your top

five tailgate Foods e? That's a tough one, because it's like my I will, I will say, certainly the breakfast sandwich set up. If I can count that as one would definitely qualify as one of my top 5 tailgate Foods, I think a pulled pork sandwich with the right sauce and the right bread. Red is certainly one of my top five. I think a straightforward hamburger if it's cooked right?

If the meat is of good quality and if you've got the right fixin's, there is certainly in that mix because it's right up there. I think those are my favorite Mains. And then, as far as sides, I'll throw I think, I think baked mac and cheese that you bring to. The tailgate is always a huge hit. It's a it's a great flavor. Everybody loves it from kids all

the way up to adults. It's generally if you bake it properly, it's generally pretty easy to like pop into a solo cup and have people eat out of that and, you know, one of the cool things that you can do is you can use Solo cups as a delivery vessel for a variety of different things. So like I just mentioned, the pulled pork, you don't have to do sandwiches. You don't have to do plates, you can do cups, you can plop some pork, some coleslaw and some mac

and cheese into the same cup. And essentially people can mix and match as they so desire. Put some barbecue sauce on it. It's really it's a tasty set of all the way around. So I would definitely throw mac and cheese is like my top side on that and then I think just a good old-fashioned bratwurst, probably the other really top-line tailgate food. It's easy to eat. It's easy to cook. It's always a like it's got a lot of flavors to it and you can customize it about 50 different ways.

So that would kind of be my the the core of what I like to do. Eyes. Yeah. Bratwurst over hot dogs all day long. Cupcakes are also a nice hit normally for dessert. They kind of mix-up with the the cookies. I will say this. I'm with you a thousand percent like over the last five years, I've found the Solo Cup to be so useful 2000 different areas. We buy the chub pack. At Costco, one thing we do at the lake house for breakfast. I think could be an interesting tailgate Edition so Gail and

feel free to use this. We will just on vacation, do Solo cups. For breakfast with cereals, you just throw the cereal in the Solo Cup. You put the milk in there, eat it out of the cup and then when you're done, you just drink the milk. It's a great with a Cocoa Puffs or cold and G that you get the milk. That could be a fun, I've actually not see this, but that could be a fun tailgate. As long as you have some coolers to keep the milk cold.

That could be a fun breakfast set up where you just have five or six cereals, a bunch of Solo cups and it's like, get your, get your cereal, get your milk, good to go in a Solo Cup. Eat it. Drink it out the door. Yeah, it's again. So much of this is Wiring your brain from what you normally do in the kitchen to a mobile kitchen. Essentially, the kitchen that is out there in the tailgate fields are in the tailgate, lots and is rewiring your brain to. Okay?

Well, what would I do if I didn't have plates, or what would I do, if I didn't have this, or that those are, those are the things to keep in mind. Let's see. Some other questions that we had. So actually another breakfast related thing and Alex G brought this up I swung by the doctor, geez. See tailgate before the Ohio State match up and tried one of these and he had a picture of it and it was a Pop-Tart on the grill and that's another one where I would recommend giving

this a shot. I'm not a huge Pop, Tart guy but I know many people are and you can just take your like instead of putting a Pop-Tart in the toaster. You can just take the Pop-Tart and put it in a like not the hottest portion of the grill certainly but in a spot where it can get warm and get a little bit toasty and it's easy to like essentially kind of pick up with foil and Somebody. And then they can eat that. Always for those who are

interested. Always a big winner and it's always good to have like a box of Pop-Tarts with you just in case someone's looking for something different. Cause they also work very well as sandwiches, you know, it's a bit on the sweet side, but if you can make a Pop-Tart sandwich with like some bacon that's that's a different level of flavor that you're not really thinking about is like a combination. It's not, I don't do that.

I'm not I don't eat the Pop-Tarts myself anymore, but when I was younger that that had a lot of appeal to It so in Pop-Tarts and bacon. But again, a lot of it to go back to the, you know, Alex asked, when did I get the idea to try that? A lot of it is just what I just said. It's rewiring your brain. So it's like I don't have a toaster, but I've got this thing that's essentially ready, and it just needs to be warmed a little bit. Hey, boom.

I have a grill right here. Why don't I just take advantage of that. That's essentially the thought process that I go through on those sorts of things and I'm always looking for other options. So if you have a I don't, I mean there's things I don't think of. So I'd be anxious to hear other people's thoughts.

If you have thoughts about what makes the most sense and what might be good combinations, a couple of other items that I wanted to get to Dan Corral asks, loaded baked potato or loaded potato, skins at a tailgate unquestionably. The answer is loaded, potato skins and those again, those are things that you can prep ahead of time, you can bake them ahead of time on the grill and then just stick them on the grill and warm them. And those are, those are are

dynamite. And again, you can pick them up and you can eat them. You don't have to have a fork or something like that, that's where the loaded baked. Potato can be a problem. You can certainly have a full set up with plates and everything, but I always opt for how do I get away from that as much as possible in this environment? Let's see, some other questions here. Jordan, Brock asks, what is the best winter tailgate cocktail and why is it Crown Apple an

apple cider? Well, because I'm not a big cider guy, I guess would be my response to that, my favorite combo for winter tailgate cocktails. And the one that probably gets me in the most trouble with tailgates, is the hard truth Hills, cinnamon vodka combined, with coffee that that Ah, but it's delightful that if you've never had that hard truth, he'll cinnamon vodka. Imagine Fireball. And then imagine the exact

opposite, like, it's that good. It's like it's in a high enough level where you're like, you could just drink it straight. If you wanted to, I wouldn't recommend that but that really combos, well, with a bunch of different things. I love it, just with coffee it. Spikes the coffee up a little bit. Without changing the fundamental flavor it mixes well with milk or cream or whatever. And it keeps you warm the coffee.

Keeps you warm. Certainly apple cider if you're a Her purse and I think that Crown Apple. An apple cider combo is a good one, but I've done some ciders before there and it's like unless you get the cider heat it up to some degree, I don't think you get quite the same reaction Insider can be difficult to heat up in that environment. If you don't know what you're doing. Yeah, I'm not a huge cider guy either.

I'm with you. Like honestly, you can start having fun throwing anything and coffee like to me, it's like on

a winter day. I want coffee and Spike coffee, you know, throw some Bailey's in there, like a great creamer, you know, and we've I've mentioned before, I think on the spot that there's so many good coffee options in Bloomington whether it's Hopscotch, I mean there's tons of great coffee places and bloomington's who get a local coffee, bring it and then honestly just play around liquor like just throw it in like some cinnamon Schnapps or just you know, some Bailey's that you

guys have fun, trying all kinds of liquor and all kinds of coffee and most of it works. And for me, spiked coffee with whatever liquor is going to be my go-to, winter drink. Yeah. Let's see. James Turner. The co-host of Terms in cash. You haven't listened to the the over-under episode, you definitely. Should he says, we need some more gamble on galen's 5 Caitlin's tailgate? Yeah, guys, I mean, you know, nobody knows the menu ahead of

time. Well, a couple people do so that's why we don't do the gambling, but but James says, we need more booze. Talk cocktails of choice. Beer, pairings is wine. Okay, so this is actually, you know, this is gets asked a lot and first of all, yes, wine is.

Okay, here's the thing I am Am I have become the opposite of who I used to be, in terms of like I used to be kind of militant like, well, you know, we're tailgating and so, you know, you need to drink this, or eat this, or whatever and I have really gotten to the point where I try to be as inclusive as possible in terms of our offerings for food. Like I was trying to have a vegetarian option available for

people. You know I do your culture and I like you know well it's just I feel like if I'm going to be a good host I want to make sure that even if I don't know who's coming in, I want to make sure that they are taken care of and So, you know, I try to have the other side of the aisle. I try to have like a 12-pack of La Croix or something in the cooler to go along with the beer in case you're not drinking beer. Try to have a lot of water

available like stuff like that. Now as far as the actual alcohol. Yes whines. Okay, because I think for a lot of people wine just represents a nice happy medium between. They don't like to be. They don't like the bloated feeling of beer and they don't like you know the or they or can't handle taking shots of things or doing mixed drinks which are kind of complicated. Skated. There are some great canned

wines out there. They're actually really good and it rather than trying to bring bottles of wine which are cumbersome. Certainly check out some of the canned wine offerings. We might have a canned wine. Specialist join us at some point to give you some tips on things to purchase their butt. And if you're going to do that, I mean Rose a or like a dry white, I think are probably the best options, you know, get a, get a, get some Moscato, or get

some Summer Jose or whatever. Get some, maybe some some saw Blanc in a can stay away from the Chardonnay. I think that's not really a great tailgating wine for a couple of reasons. Now, beer pairings, here's the thing. I feel like as a society, we've gone through this we're dark where, you know, back in the 90s, no one thought about the beer, they were drinking. They just went and bought a 24-pack of whatever domestic was available and then light, let's go.

Right then. And then in the 2010s, really, we kind of had this Hey let's all drink ipas and let's have hoppy beer and things like that and I kind of feel like that pendulum swinging back a little bit. We have so many good beer options locally here in the state of Indiana and particularly here. In Bloomington that I think you would be remiss in not including

those in your tailgate approach. And so, you know, if you wanted to be with the same Brewery like if you're going to do Upland, you know, a 12-pack of or, or more of champagne velvet and a 12-pack of Of dragonfly. It's a good combo like you've got pretty much everything covered there. You've got the people that don't like hoppy beer.

You got the people that like hoppy beer and I'll I really like that Duality. Now I'm more of a I'm a darker beer person or I'm a kind of traditional pilsner or lager type of person. I've kind of drifted away from the ipas but I like to have a couple of different choices available and so either bring those myself or I will make sure that certain types of beer being brought you, you would think that people drink all the time, Time at tailgates. They don't drink as much as you would think.

And and so overdoing it on beer. We have this tradition in this house where people will bring beer and they'll put it in the big marine cooler and then what to bring that home and stick it in the mini fridge and then I'll put it all back in the mini fridge will go to the next one. More beer will appear less of it will disappear by the end of the year. We've got all of this extra beer and a lot of it is like stuff that people brought because they thought it was a good idea.

A lot of a lot of hard. Fall into this category, a lot of like flavored stuff like Bud, Light Lime or something like that. That stuff generally doesn't get drank that often at tailgates and so I would avoid bringing those. I would bring either straight up to me like Bud Lights. Always getting drank and Miller Lites. I was getting drunk, you know? Or I would bring you know, reasonably priced craft beer. One of my favorites to bring is Shiner Bock because that is a

nice kind of in the middle beer. That pretty much everybody will drink. It's It tastes a couple of degrees better than what you would expect a domestic would taste like but it also is an overpriced try to think along

those lines. Also, if you can under any circumstances, bring cans, don't bring bottles bottles, just needlessly, add to the weight of things and I much, I'm a bottle guy like I much prefer to drink a beer out of a bottle than I do out of the can, but I think in this case, just just go with the cans if you can find them, it's a much better setup. And then on the Cocktails front. There's this really good. Canned cocktails now and again, I really certainly you can have

the whole. Let's do our Mixology thing and and poor people shots and, you know, but I would, I would separate that from the cocktails Cardinal Spirits in town here. Has some really good canned cocktails, they've got like, four or five different ones and they're all really good. You can buy them at big red. So, give those a shot.

And again, try to focus on portability, try to focus on convenience It's you can certainly step things up as you go forward, but I've also found that it's sometimes more trouble than it's worth, trying to pour out of a large bottle into a Solo Cup. It's much better to just have something prepackaged that way, you know what you're getting.

So I think the one thing I will disagree with you on I think in the last two years since your last tailgate, we are in the midst of a Seltzer Revolution. So I think you're going to see more of those brought. I'm I've been a fan of white

claws for a while. But I will say my thought on the Seltzer stuff that I will talk about is if you're white claws are good, they're a little bit sweet, I would venture toward checking out High Noon. They're a little bit more expensive but they're a vodka-based Seltzer. They are just fantastic. They have a tropical 8-pack out that has watermelon mango, passion, fruit, and pineapple, they are delightful again a little bit more expensive, but High Noon is definitely something to check out.

I think you, you Galen are going to see more white cause more High Nunes, they're going to be Drank more. A lot of those are going on. There's also I think it's backed by Budweiser. So it's not like it's craft but there are some pretty good like canned Margaritas that came and Jack is out that I've had, those are good. I can do like one of those. I can't like Creek a crush five

or six. Those I can normally do a couple of high Nunes pretty quickly and getting a spot where I probably shouldn't be driving home, which is good to go to the game in. But I think those are I think High Noon over white claw, but white claws are good. I think To see more of those. The last thing I'll say to is you're talking about all this

definitely cans, you know. One other thing that you can bring is somebody coming to a tailgate that's kind of a low cost, but one of those things that, you know, might be like, oh my God, I'm so happy. You brought this, bring five or ten Koozies like they're super cheap you can just buy a pack of kuzey somewhere and that's normally something especially for like the the early season games and like september/october if it's a hot day and people are having a couple of drinks.

You know you're the Koozie guy is like hey I got Koozies for Everybody. It's like, oh my God, that's great. People are going to throw the Koozies on and like, you're out like, I don't know, 15 bucks. Like, literally bringing Koozies might be more important than bringing doughnuts for some of these things. So, just keep that in mind to like something. A lot of times people don't have, and that's a nice thing to

have. I will say, I've nothing against cider or Seltzer's, I just noticed that people don't drink them. They, well, I got because I'm the one that ends up bringing everything got more popular in the last two years. Well, we'll see, I just know when I bring them home when I bring the, when I have to bring everything home and I unpack it, there's more seltzer Sitting in the cooler than there was when I started.

And it's you know I just think it's I think your your attraction to the Seltzer is understandable. But I would also say that you may be alone on this, I guess would be my message to you so let's see. Anyway moose a good friend Jeff asked. Would it be a festive decision or a faux pas to make Cincinnati style chili for our game against the Bearcats? Well I would avoid making it because it's kind of gross.

First of all, it's because if you're doing it out of the, can I just don't think that's very tasty? And my wife eats Skyline Chili sometimes out of the cannot often, like Janet me, she'll use the canned stuff and I'm just like this is really, not very good, but the other thing is like, what are you putting it on if you're putting it on hot dogs. Okay, I hope that's it. Don't bring spaghetti, don't ever bring spaghetti to a

tailgate. I also think if you're doing it as a joke, It's probably not worth the joke if you're doing it. Like, if you're doing it to like, I don't know, represent us sacrificing the Bearcats or whatever. I, it's, there's probably better ways we could do that. Quite frankly, I like, I love the idea, I think it's a better social media idea that it is like an actual active idea. I think anything it was asked in jest anyway. So Jim Hoff asks, what is an

underrated tailgate accessory? This is a tough one. Because kuzey, I'll go back to my Koozie. The I mean, I say And I think the Koozies are, I mean, they matter the most when it's cold outside? I think when it's hot it's not as big of a deal when it's cold. It's a much bigger deal. You want to have a koozie? I would say actually the most underrated tailgate accessory is a chair that isn't going to break on you.

So like a lot of you'll go to Dick's Sporting Goods or whatever and they'll have those tailgate style chairs but most of them are really poor quality. They wear out Very quickly kind of like the canopies we're talking about earlier, spending a little bit more money and getting a chair that you can carry with you and brand and bring along is helpful, just because what I've noticed with a lot of those chairs is unless it's of a relatively good quality.

They do Fray and break pretty easily because they're just not built to handle people sitting on them and getting up and being folded up and things like that. So, I guess that would be, you know, a main answer, the other one that I'll say is and that

maybe this So much underrated. But things people forget about is since you're cooking in an outdoor environment and serving things, you know, make sure that you bring a trash bag with you, make sure that you bring things to carry stuff in where you can put stuff in and take it out. So like a tailgate bag or some kind of accessory bag, where you can stick odds, and ends, and spatulas and tongs and stuff like that. That's, that's important to have that at your Disposal.

And that's something that we, it took us a while to figure out, hey, we really need something to carry stuff along. You don't need it need it because you can sometimes keep that stuff in the car. But as you start, putting kids in the equation and stuff gets lost and kind of scrambled all over the place. Having a central spot where you can put everything in is really, really helpful.

As somebody with kids, this again, depends know your crowd if you're going to be in the grass, lot with a bunch of young grads, doesn't matter. But I would say a very underrated accessory is like something for kids to do or screw around with during the tailgate. So having a set of bags is always good, you know, honestly what we've been doing is we bring, you know, just five or ten Matchbox cars in a little ziplock bag.

If you if you're hosting a tailgate, you know, some people are coming by with kids, like literally just go to Kroger they're a buck apiece by 5 or 10 Matchbox cars and that'll keep Entertained for a half hour, just something for kids to do you know that isn't just them on a phone or something like that, you know, get a football. They can toss around like just something for you know, young kids to do and kind of mess

around. It doesn't have to be an elaborate setup again bags Matchbox cars things like that or just Super Nintendo switch. Something the app you want to go there. Well I'm just say sub know but something to keep them occupied is certainly important and actually have a space where kids can go. We bought one of those little canopy tents.

That's like kids sized as a little roof on it, a place where they can go and do their own thing because they're largely not going to be interested in what the grown-ups are doing, and you're not going to want to have to mind them during that time period. So I think it's a really good chip in on that front. Let's see. That actually feeds right into Matt blasquez question. What's the best way to prepare bringing a one-year-old to the tailgate? Look, here's the thing.

If you have a one-year-old you're golden because everybody's going to want to hold the baby, Chris granite in a pandemic. Maybe not the greatest of ideas but everybody's going to at least pay attention to the baby. The baby's going to be not mobile enough to go do things on their own. Will they get bored probably but, and they might get cranky, the probably want to take a nap, all of that is fine, but I think again, giving kids feeding them before you get there is important.

Having, you know, plentiful diapers available and having a spot where you can change, what you've got the cars there that should be fine. Fine. And then look, I'm a firm believer in having a seating area, having some chairs, having a canopy. Let that be away from the cooking area and from the internet, like the social mix area, where people can go and rest and sit down and you know, hold the baby, let the baby nap

whatever. Like a lot of it is just straight up zoning of your tailgate area. So that you've got, like a quieter area, where people can chill, you've got a more rugged, you know, rock, Area where people are coming and going and where the food is being cooked. And then frankly just letting the kid experience, everything and see everything. Like it's great for small children, both of my kids as youngsters were at tailgates.

I know yours have been as well. And, you know, we tend to think that, you know, kids don't notice what's going on, but especially at that age. They see everything they smell everything. They they enjoy that stimulation, even if they don't fully understand it.

And so, above all else, I think the best way to prepare bringing a one roll to the to a tailgate, is to do it multiple times because they'll start to get comfortable in that environment and they'll start to figure out what they need to be doing. And that's, that's a lot of, a lot of the battle I think is just acclimating people acclimating babies to that environment and making sure that the parents are acclimated as well. So they're not nervous the whole

time. So I've been bringing my son James, I brought him at eight months so he was born in January in 2013. The August of 2013, he was going to IU football games. He's been going significant oh ever since and now we have a second son Grayson who B5. He's been going since he was he was born in June, he went. I think it like 4 months old, he went to one game. Here's what I would say to Matt is again, you can't be

everything at all times. You can't be show up early party, tailgate guy and stay for the whole game guy with kids, a couple of things that We've lured, having done it for quite a while. Is that a, as I mentioned earlier, you know we get in 20 minutes before your viewing of the game, kind of changes like for us when the band is on the

field is a big deal. So before the game and halftime are times, that we are definitely in our seats because our boys love the band, and I think it's our boys, like music, but it's like the band is they play music. As, you know, they March around their shiny, things like that. Is sometimes more engaging for kids than a football game, but there's a lot of going on. On when the band is there they dig that. So you know don't skimp on before the game don't be like oh half time.

We're going to go do something else. Like you got to think of it you got to give the kids something to that. They're enjoying looking at. This might sound nutty but it's great for IU early on. We would bring a booster seat from are car seat and we would snap it. Snaps on to the the metal bleachers perfectly. Keep my son from kind of moving around because after about one or two years old, they start wiggling. Everywhere. And so we just put him. It's like a car seat.

We literally put him in the car seat on the stadium. We now have, we pay for the seat backs as part of our ticket package because for our younger with James, we used to do this, we would bring in that, I had like a strap from a luggage piece, I would just strap him to that because it would help him kind of stay in his seat. Not move around too much. We'd literally bring straps in. Make sure you have the clear

bag. I will say with a one-year-old, you bring, you're gonna be able to get in with it whatever you want in the stadium. Cause you feel like you have, you know, feeding stuff and bottles and stuff, and they kind of let you go with that, pretty good. But yeah, the band and I would say to like we're trying our first road game this year, with both of the boys were bringing iPads. Like, I don't like it, but like, when I took James, he was six years old to the Gator Bowl.

I had his phone or his little, like, my old phone just a, you know, a little iPhone with no cell service was let him played some games like, you know, lean on technology, but I would use it in like, again, not at halftime. He watches the Bandit like little points. Maybe bring like a charging brick because they're going to burn through technology and nothing is worse happened to me at the gator boy. Forgot it. It's like fourth quarter were down by two.

It's like a tight game and he's like, starting to get antsy want to leave and it's like, no, I need you. Focused on my daddy wants to watch the game. So I would keep all those things in mind that think about, you know and then again last thing I will say is just, you know, keep in mind that the weather, you know, some of the games have been cold and rainy and it's like, I want to do my best to keep them dry. So bring some blankets you on

the hot sunny days. A blanket also helps just to cover them from the Sun, but I would definitely look at ways to kind of strapping them down isn't the right word, but keeping them kind of locked in their seat, because them wiggling and moving around is tough. And so literally, again, a car seat or a booster seat. You can put and strapped onto the, the seats at Memorial Stadium. So keep that in mind.

But again, you can't do it. All you can't show up early, you can't stay late with a one-year-old, you're just going to have some you have to make some concessions. To be okay with it but it's great for your kids, it's fun. It's a great thing that you need to do it.

It should be a family thing. It really, it really is just should not just be and this is the tough transition for people in their 20s because I think to some degree, the the attitude towards tailgating at IU has been, it's just a bunch of drunk college kids, and it's not. And if you go to other places across the country, that have a football culture, it's not a bunch of yes. There are drunk college kids. Trust me, I live in Bloomington. I live around drunk college kids

there. Fine, 95% of the time. They're not a problem at all but don't let don't let your concern about that if you are concerned about it. Trent like keep you from bringing your family, the tailgate, because it's a wonderful experience for families to be at a that really is.

I mean, I it's one of the things we enjoy doing the most, a couple of other really quick questions that I'm going to hit before we finish up crit, our Chad boughs log, I think it is asks, if going to a road game and ubering to a game, what is the appropriate way to link up to a tailgate? Pack a backpack of beer to share. I want to have good tailgate manage with fellow Hoosiers but won't have any food to bring to the table.

So I wouldn't bring a backpack because the the one and here's the thing to keep in mind what are you going to do? Are you going to go to the game afterwards? If you are what's going to happen to the backpack? A lot of people, one of my least favorite things and it's I'm not mad at people for doing this and they just don't think it through but they'll show up to the tailgate with their chairs. And then they'll be like, hey can you hang on to my chairs?

And I'm like Sure because I can't take them in, they never come get them after the game's over because they leave or they ubered in or something like that. And then it's like I have to do this dance with them during the week following of giving them their stuff back or I don't give them their stuff back because they never ask for it again. Like I've probably my chair populations probably increased by by half just because people never come and get their stuff

again. And so what I would suggest, Chad is bring a 12-pack of you're going to bring beer. Bring a 12 pack or a six pack in a cardboard container, like, pick something specifically that travels. Well, make sure it's cold and then bring it and put it in the cooler. And look bringing bringing something is going to be enough of a contribution.

Like I've never like, I say never I've rarely been to a tailgate where the host came around and said, hey I need five bucks for food, they probably should because I can tell you like, I probably spend I don't know, seventy dollars sixty seventy dollars just on the food on the main. Course stuff for everybody but I just consider it like the cost of doing business and being able to socialize with friends but show some level of of gratitude towards that by providing

something. And so I think look beer is always a good one, soft drink. Sometimes they're good one. A lot of times I'm looking around like I don't really want beer, I don't want, you know, a mixed drink. I just want like a Coke or something to kind of clear my head. A lot of times nobody brings that but I would travel light and travel with something that you can. At the tailgate and not need to get back. And that's probably the best way to go about things. Yeah, I agree.

Last thing that I'll Brooklyn cream. And Crimson, actually, we already pretty much asked, or answered this question, which was, what's the ideal dessert or sweet item? For a tailgate. We talked about some don'ts. So, like you can bake cookies. Baked cookies, are always good. So you want to bake cookies. That's a relatively low pressure thing to do avoid. Like, always great brownies lights, are great.

Brownies are fantastic. Yes. And even like doughnut holes, I think are generally a good option because there again, easy. To eat. They're not too much. And so like I might look at a donut and be like I'm not not eat a doughnut but I might grab five donut holes and then I've eaten more than a doughnut, you know? So like a lot of its just the psychology of the size of the thing that you're bringing more than anything else. And so that's what I would keep going to be treats.

Great, so Rice Krispie treats yes. However the problem with rice krispie treats is most people don't know how to make them. Well you can bring the prepackaged ones certainly but my point is like Rice Krispie treats. That's a hassle for you. Because you're making them in a pan and then you have to cut them up and take them out of the pan and put it in something else and that that can be a bit much plus they don't travel well in plastic bags. They tend to like bright like

breakup or meld together. It's a hot day, it's a problem. So stick to the baked goods I think that are like that. Are that have a like a shape that isn't going to get completely distended. If something goes wrong with how you brought it to the tailgate. That would be my thought process there. But anyway, that was all the questions you folks. If you've got other questions throughout the course of the tailgate season, by all means let us know. I will tell you all Idaho.

I've heard I think it's an 11 or 11:30 open to the lots and the games at 7:30 that night. So that's going to be a long tail gate. Maybe later on like next week or the week after or maybe the week after the Iowa game. We'll talk about some ideas for what do you do with a seven-hour tailgate? How do you sustain that? Because there are some tips and tricks I have up on that front

but we'll get to that next time. Anyway, that'll wrap it up for us. Got any final thoughts before we go now we've been an hour and 40. We're good. We did we? Okay, let's go. Let's do it live and then be sure to stay tuned throughout the course of this week. As we will have some more content.

We got Adam written Berg from ESPN coming on and joining Scott on Monday. We're going to have some other good football content and then we'll be live on the 30th on Monday, August 30th at switchyard in Bloomington as we talk about the Upcoming IU football season, plus a lot more for Scott. I'm Gail, I'm here to that. Don't bring a chair. I'm Galen. This is Crimson, cast will catch you folks on the flipside. Thanks for all the questions. See you in the green lot at some

point this year. So long, everybody.