Hello.

Welcome to the Ultimate Hawkeye Road Trip. Well, maybe not the ultimate trip, but a pretty fun and entertaining one…I hope. My other hope is to kind of take all of you along for the ride and offer some insightful and interesting stories along the way.

The idea behind trying this big road trip was kind of hatched this summer in talking with my wife. How about trying to pull off covering the game at Michigan, then head down to Cancun for two basketball game, and then get back home to cover the Nebraska/Iowa game on Friday.

I'll be honest; it was probably poorly planned on my end. I decided to save a few bucks (or so I thought) by driving to Michigan and then the plan is to drive back on Saturday evening so I could catch a flight out Sunday to Cancun. That was all great until American Airlines changed the flight out of Moline to Chicago from a flight just after noon to one that leaves in the morning.

I'm not going to complain. Heck, I have the best job in the world and I get to cover football games in the Big House on Saturday and Kinnick Stadium next Friday, plus I get to spend a few days in Cancun at a beach front resort and watch two basketball games. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that does it?

Today I hit the road for Ann Arbor, which is probably my favorite Big Ten town not named Iowa City. Part of the reason is because I have good friends who live in Ann Arbor and they always show me a great time. They have introduced me to a great breakfast place call The Broken Egg, which is a classic college town restaurant with healthy portions of great food. I still haven't made it to Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger, but someday. Tonight, we made a stop at Five Guys Burgers and Fries and if you know me, you know I love Five Guys. Memo to anyone who will listen in the Iowa City area, every Big Ten school has a Five Guys except Iowa City. Get one…soon.

Drive over was a nice one. Wonderful day and one of the best parts of the drives to other Big Ten schools is seeing the Hawkeyes fans making the trip along with me. Despite the poor football season, there were a lot of Iowa fans on Interstate 80 and 94 today. Hawkeye flags flying on the cars with Iowa plates.

I caught up with a few Michigan fans today and they are obviously pretty confident about their chances on Saturday. Their bigger question for me was what in the world happened to the Hawkeyes this season. I could only offer a smile and say, it's one of those years and just about every college program has them. I'll tell you that every Michigan fan I spoke to said they were surprised by Iowa's struggles and they all had a great deal of respect for the Hawkeye Football program and Kirk Ferentz.

As usual, I'll be arriving early on Saturday morning and start up our usual Live from the Press Box reports prior to the game, along with news and notes and interviews after the game. Then it will be time to hit the road, do a little more packing, get some sleep, and head to the airport for the next leg of the Ultimate Hawkeye Road Trip.