Blue-White: Rolling Up 322 West for the Penn State Spring Game

Miles driven: 2,915

I estimate I made the two-hour drive from our home to State College, Pennsylvania, about 10 dozen times over the past 16 years, either to visit our son while he was there attending Penn State University there or to go to a Penn State football game. (Often, the two went hand-in-hand.) Yesterday marked the first time I would do it in the XC90.

The occasion was the Penn State Blue-White game, the annual intra-squad scrimmage that caps the end of spring football practice for the Nittany Lions. This can sometimes be a dreary affair in central Pennsylvania, cool and wet. But on this Saturday the weather was about as delightful as could be hoped for, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures around 70 degrees. There were signs of spring breaking out everywhere as I left home, with daffodils and forsythia in full bloom and redbud trees just starting to push.

During the drive up I continued to experiment with the Volvo’s Pilot Assist feature, which at highway speeds on well-marked roads will keep you centered in your lane while active cruise control maintains your speed and keeps you spaced just where you want behind any cars that might be ahead of you. It works remarkably well, but it definitely takes some time to get accustomed to the vehicle tugging at the steering wheel while you’re driving, or waiting with bated breath to see whether the system will start the sweeping turn just ahead of you as quickly as you would yourself. (Pilot Assist will steer the car without your hands on the wheel for about 15 seconds, but after that it requires that you reapply steering. I find it’s easiest most of the time to just let one hand rest on the wheel.)

My early read on this technology—I’m only approaching 3,000 miles on the vehicle—is that I’ll use it a lot on long Interstate runs, especially when the traffic is light. The denser the traffic, the less I like the feeling of waiting for the car to steer itself around a turn or re-center itself in the lane, especially if there’s another vehicle beside me.

Getting back to Happy Valley always makes me, well, happy, and this day was no exception. I met my sister and brother-in-law outside Beaver Stadium for some simple tailgating (subs, chips, our favorite adult beverages), and then my brother-in-law and I headed into the stadium for the game while my sister left for I-don’t-know-what-could-be-more-important. Beaver Stadium holds about 107,000 people, and approximately 61,000 showed up for the two-hour “game.” We got a nice first glimpse of many freshmen players, and, after three years with the fantastic Trace McSorley at quarterback, some new signal callers. (Senior heir-apparent Tommy Stevens was not able to take any snaps, however, as he continues to rehab from foot surgery.) Several tight ends impressed, as did freshman running back Noah Cain and sophomore linebacker Jessie Luketa. Can’t wait to see what this team does in the fall.

The Volvo made for a pleasant ride up and back. The front seats, with their stiff side bolsters on the seat bottom, remain a bit of a puzzle for me. Sometimes, when I jump in the car for a short trip, I mind those bolsters. But it seems that the longer you sit, the more comfortable the seats become. Indeed, half an hour into the ride home (as with the ride up) the bolsters were a complete non-factor.

I really appreciated the XC90 while driving up and down Seven Mountains, a steep, winding part of Route 322 about half an hour outside State College. My previous vehicle—my 2003 Yukon XL Denali—always left me a little uncomfortable on this stretch of the road. It was never a carver, and it could feel a bit top-heavy. I felt much more planted and secure in the Volvo.

And that’s a good thing. Because I anticipate making dozens more trips to State College in this vehicle. My son has long since graduated from Penn State, but there’s always football. I’m already looking forward to this year’s season opener.

Beaver Stadium shortly before kickoff of 2019 Blue-White Game