<p>Yucky trip:
Flight out delayed
lost luggage necessary for move in
did not have rental car reserved 2 months ago
no food places open on campus for dinner friday night, and we were waiting on the baggage currier, so had to get food to bring into the dorm.
Got to hotel, and reservations were messed up. They only had a room in the older part of the hotel, which must have been pre-historic, since the mattresses were obviously made of bedrock.
Luggage took 8 hours to get from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa. And was not well taken care of (broken items).
Son decided at Midnight he wanted a bedrail for his lofted bed. Apparently housing at UA does not have these, so we hit Walmart at 6am on Saturday and picked up a todler one. It is just a barrier so he knows where the edge of the bed is, since he has slept in a full bed all of his life.
When we left, we were all exausted. Sad goodbyes. Kind of akward, for some reason that I still can’t explain.
Flight home really bumpy, airsickness, and heart sickness!!</p>
<p>Ugh…frustrating!</p>
<p>There, there, vlines (insert gentle back-patting), there, there…</p>
<p>Hope it works as well for you as my grandsons…</p>
<p>vlines: That is not really a great start, but let me assure you that it will get better. Your son will be calling in a few days telling you about all the great people he has met and also about the exciting things that he is doing.</p>
<p>Try to call the airline and put in a baggage claim to replace the items broken, if the bags were mishandled.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating with flights around the country 
, but you did get to spend a little more time with your son (trying to look on the bright side of things).</p>
<p>Yes, it is hard when traveling back without your son or daughter but again, know that they will be flourishing in the next few months.</p>
<p>I cannot believe that my son will be headed back to Bama in a few days for his third year. The time will go so much more quickly than high school.</p>
<p>I have often wondered why Bama doesn’t offer the option of a bedrail especially when you loft to the max height. It seems like they should have some available. </p>
<p>I remember coming off a cruise with three people and luggage and arriving at the rental agency to find that they had zero cars available. Not one in the lot! Hopefully the agency was able to provide you with a car.</p>
<p>Best of luck on your son’s first semester!!
Roll Tide and remember if you get “blue” we are here to listen.</p>
<p>V-Once again, I’m sorry. I wish I had known earlier that you were having issues getting grub. I would have gladly ran around to every BBQ place in Ttown. However, it would have been after 10p since we finished at Tut about then.
Funny story…for me anyway NOW, daughter and roommie had the bed situation all figured out months ago. Daughter had the first room selection since she’s a planner. Pulled in roomie who had one of the last assignments.
Remember, we were making the whole custom headboard/shelf thingie. Those plans were built around the bed by the window, which had been decided upon. Roommie wanted to loft her bed with risers so she didn’t want the window, yadayada. Ok, whatever. During our long drive down, roomie, who moved in the day before, was texting daughter about the room. Well, the story takes twists and turns for NINE hours. Daughter, very non-confrontational, was letting it all slide off her back. In the meantime, my blood pressure was rising by the mile.
Arrived at dorm, roomie had taken the bed by the window…decided against the risers…took the nice desk with drawers…had her “stuff” everywhere…the shelf that everyone gets in Tut was removed from the wall and laying in the floor under the “empty” bed…said that we needed to ask “them” to put it back up if daughter wanted to use it…huh??..the fridge/micro combo was tightly butted against the little desk crammed against the end of empty bed…then had FOUR friends stop by while we were trying to get stuff settled in the room. Geez Louise…I did lots of swallowing my words, however, there were many eye rolls to accompany those gulps and gasps. My husband was fighting back his chuckling because he knew that I would not have been “nice wife” for a very long time.</p>
<p>All because she was afraid that she would fall out of the bed…well, the other bed can be lofted to 31", too. Just admit, “I was here first and I took what I wanted.” My daughter would not have said one thing regardless. Me, on the other hand, would have been finger-waggin’ and bug-eyed. I did a very nice job of constantly reminding myself that I would be leaving town shortly. </p>
<p>I’m sure it will all be just fine! All was fine by the time I downed my first Firefly at Jim n Nicks ;)</p>
<p>Next time will try our dinner plans??</p>
<p>asaunmom - While it’s important to let the little things slide in a roommate situation, you also don’t want your daughter’s roomie thinking she can walk all over her…just make sure she stands up for herself when it comes to the important things.</p>
<p>I’ll add to the “things that went wrong during my journey to ttown” list: Just as I was about to leave for the airport at 6 AM this morning, I get a text from the airline that my flight was delayed by two and a half hours, meaning I wouldn’t make my connection. Of course they have no other flights available today. So not going to get to Tuscaloosa until Monday now…not a big deal, but I am extremely homesick for Ttown and so anxious to get down there!!</p>
<p>Regina, look online for any available flights, preferably on that airline or its partners, including double or triple connections. Back during a major winter snowstorm that closed the southeast for days, I was able to get to Birmingham from Palm Springs by taking 5 flights. Similarly, I was once able to get out of Portland, Oregon almost a day earlier than planned because I found one seat available on a flight to Salt Lake City and made a double, almost triple, connection.</p>
<p>Life has its way of throwing curveballs every once in awhile and it seems that y’all are dealing with them very well. Best of luck with the rest of the year and have a safe journey home. </p>
<p>As an added note, I’m wondering how my trip back to Tuscaloosa will go as I’ve already identified a few potential issues. I’m looking forward to everything while enjoying my last few days at home.</p>
<p>Roll Tide Everyone!!!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. There was also a lot of extended family crap going on that was putting a dark cloud on the whole event. </p>
<p>I wanted move in to be “magical” , for lack of a better corney word to use. Best I can say is that it was “successful”. </p>
<p>Again, no fault of UA, but I have to wonder what I did for karma to raspberry me!</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>vlines~daughter is the same way about the lofted bed. She did fine last year with the bed lofted in Riverside, but she is worried about the extra high loft in RCS this year, especially after sleeping in a queen all summer. So she and I have built a rail. She’s painting it today :)</p>
<p>Vlines,</p>
<p>I hope things begin to look up for you soon!</p>
<p>Assaunmom,</p>
<p>I agree with Regina. While you did the right thing in trying to keep the peace, I can tell you from our experience last year that your daughter may at some point find it necessary to stand her ground with her roommate. I can empathize your situation. :)</p>
<p>Bamamom- wish we thought to build one. Unfortunately, until he slept in it the first night, he was adamant that he did not want one. So we had little time to improvise!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>sorry to see so many problems vlines. May your next trip to Bama be a really happy one.</p>
<p>We had the perfect trip in every way possible, until arriving at the airport for our return flight. 4 hour delay and counting. Uggggg</p>
<p>Sniner, happy for your good trip. Our BB one was great, and as I said, this has nothing to do with Bama, just plan old bad luck. </p>
<p>And thanks TexasPG…</p>
<p>We are actually flying direct into Atlanta instead of BHM. There are dozens of nonstop flights every day from NYC to ATL. We don’t have to worry about missed connections, and fares were over $100 less (x4 people). Did this for our first tour, and it worked out well. Driving time from ATL to BHM is about 2 hours. Compared to connecting flights, it’s about the same total time door to door. Hopefully we can avoid some of the problems mentioned here.</p>
<p>Chardo, that’s a really good idea, and I think I may begin doing that now that I have a car. The scarceness of flights into BHM seems to present so many problems…when I was flying down to Bama Bound, I found out a couple hours before I was supposed to leave that my flight was canceled. It’s always something. The only potential problem I see is traffic between Tuscaloosa and Atlanta, but still would probably be worth it.</p>
<p>Didn’t I also hear that there is a train from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa that is really easy to catch? I could be confusing this with another school conversation though.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard about anyone taking the train, but I just looked it up and there is a direct Amtrak train from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta. Takes about six hours and costs $40 with a student discount.</p>
<p>Many of the Bama students from around here that are older than my son very often would take the train. However, like the thread of discussion here, despite the VERY DECREASED cost, the logistics weren’t worth it. If son had a short break, like fall or Thanksgiving, he’d spend almost two days of his break on the train. As much as we love train travel, and would love to take advantage of the savings, we’d rather spend the extra money and have son at home more.</p>
<p>We had hoped son could perhaps use the train for Christmas or spring break, but housing demands you to be out so quickly after exams that he’d be waiting around the train station for hours instead of on the road heading home.</p>
<p>I am surprised that it takes 6 hours from atlanta to tuscaloosa. Would have thought it would be a little faster.</p>