Let’s Try This College Visit Thing Again

Day#8

A week later, we brushed ourselves off from our less than ideal first college visit and hit the road again.

This time we drove out of state to Indiana, very close to where some of my family lives.

It was a beautiful day which helped tremendously.

We entered the campus to tents with parents gathered and eating underneath them.

Tailgaters!

McDaniel was encouraged.

We parked by the stadium and watched the players work out a bit to loud pumped-up music.

We just missed a fun festival that the college had set up for the community. They were deflating slides and bouncy houses as we walked up.

We walked into an enormous fitness center with classrooms and amazing equipment.

We followed the signs to the gym.

The curved wood ceiling was AMAZING!

I forgot how no one builds a gym like a Hoosier.

They are works of art.

As a former basketball player, McDaniel needed a moment to take the gym in.

Two guys were playing one-on-one while McDaniel contemplated the beauty of basketball in Indiana.

We decided that we were starving so we found our way to the cafe where there was a Chick-fil-A in the basement.

You had McDaniel at chicken.

We ate outside surrounded by mature trees and rolling hills.

It was a bit chilly so we visited the bookstore and bought a sweatshirt.

There was a mini Lifeway-like section to the bookstore.

This is a Christian university.

We walked around an area of the campus called “The Valley” where kids hammock and name the trees.

You had McDaniel at hammock.

We saw students in groups all wearing university colors heading to the football stadium.

Now the colors are a bit tricky for McDaniel.

Orange and black.

Not a winning combo for her 

but she’s open.

We learned that the Indianapolis Colts practice on the university field in their off-season.

We didn’t find a pep band but there were lots of cheerleaders and the stands were full.

There were 7 or 8 guys that stood in the front row, right in front of the cheerleaders, 

banging out rhythms with sticks on plastic tubes.

I vacillated between thinking it was really cool 

to wanting them to just stop already.

The mascot was there too.

A raven named Rodney, 

as announced on the back of his football jersey.

With the help of a student, Rodney left before half-time 

and never came back.

The football team wasn’t having a good day.

The stadium was small enough that we could hear a player give an impromptu motivational speech to his fellow players.

It was full of “let’s play for each other not ourselves” 

and there may have been mention of the Lord.

McDaniel cried.

You had her at motivational speech.

Overall McDaniel really liked the university.

We got to stop by and see family on the way home and I think it was neat for her to see just how close she would be to relatives.

The view out the back door of my aunt’s house.

Two colleges down,

one on the “like” list.