Road trip: first-quarter review -- awards time!

Text and photos by Joe Connor, our eco-friendly road trip correspondent.

Hard to believe but the Green-Machine-That-Ain't-Be-Running-On-No-Gasoline-And-Mostly-Gooey-Veggie-Cream is a quarter in the books. Here's a look at the best-of from the first quarter of the trip ...

Best tailgate and pregame fan atmosphere: Oregon State. It was a sea of orange people, and, as USC found out, Reser Stadium can get mighty loud with Beaver fans going nuts.

Prettiest campus and stadium backdrop: Cal and its Memorial Stadium, with the Berkeley Hills hovering above the east side of the stadium.

Best T-shirt: "Michael Vick should have used Huskies" (of course, discovered at WSU).

Best bumper sticker: "Directions to WSU: go east 'til you smell it, go south 'til your in it.'" And off Highway 26 near Royal City, en route to Pullman, Wash., it really does stink. I can attest. I nearly gagged.

Best cheerleaders and band combo: Oregon. The Duckies band took up the entire east end zone at Martin Stadium (because the stadium is so small there was no other place to put them), and the O cheerleaders never took a break. Plus, sexist pig writing now, the quack quack ladies are wicked hot. Hugh Hefner: send your photogs to Eugene, pronto.

World's worst drivers: Washington State (that would be the entire state!). And I thought driving in the Dominican Republic was bad. Washington drivers rarely ever go the speed limit, kind of like going in reverse — or like both of the state's Pac-10 football programs. (Note: Click here for more evidence of terrible driving from KING-TV [Channel 5] in Seattle.)

—Joe Connor