The UAB MSHA Program Director heard Matt's crazy travel story to Birmingham for his School interview and requested a write up by Matt:
SLC Airport - Thursday,
Jan 8th, 3:00pm:
I waved good-bye to my step dad at the SLC airport terminal.
I took in a deep breath. “Birmingham, here I come!” I thought to myself as I
snaked through the security line and onward to gate B14. My first flight to
Chicago was scheduled to leave at 4:45pm and I had plenty of time to spare. No
worries…or so I thought. “Ladies and Gentlemen we would just like to inform you
that, due to adverse weather conditions in Chicago, we will be postponing our
boarding time until 6:00pm. Ok, that’s not bad. I’ll just get there an hour
later. “Ok, we have just been informed that all incoming and outgoing flights
in Chicago have been cancelled, as well as flight 4210 from Salt Lake to
Chicago.“
Maybe I wouldn’t be going to
Birmingham after all. I walked over to the kiosk to see if there was still a
way to get there before my interview started at 8:30am the next day. No luck.
The only way to get to Birmingham on Southwest was to first fly through
Chicago, and then to Birmingham. “Can you get me to Atlanta?” I asked, somewhat
doubtful. “Yes, you’ll arrive at 12:20am, Friday morning.” “I’ll take it.” My
first connecting to flight would leave to Denver in just one hour.
Denver Airport - Jan
8th, 6:30pm
My flight to Atlanta was already 45
minutes delayed, which meant I wouldn’t get there until about 1:05am. During my
layover I wrestled with car rental companies over the phone, cancelled my
original reservation in Birmingham, looked for the best deal from Atlanta, and
arranged my rental with Budget in Atlanta so that I could drop it off in
Birmingham on Saturday morning. On my way to Atlanta, I sat next to a
professional “Jam skater” (think breakdancing mixed with roller skating, cool! His Video!)
who was just travelling back to Atlanta from a competition in Los Angeles. He
pointed me in the right direction when we touched down in Atlanta at 1:30am. Needless
to say, I did not, or better put, I could not get to sleep on the 2h19min
flight from Denver to Atlanta.
Budget Car Rental
Kiosk, Atlanta Airport – Friday, Jan 9th, 2:00am:
It’s a
2h15min drive from Atlanta to Birmingham. “Hi, I have a reservation under the
last name Bonner.” “Ok, that will be $180 including the underage fees.” At this
point, I would have paid a hundred more dollars just to get there. “Ok, and I’m
charging your credit card $330, including the extra $150 deposit because you
are underage.” “Really??” I thought, hoping that my $500 limited credit card
wouldn’t be declined because of the few Christmas purchases I had made with it.
“Oh, it looks like your card was declined.” “I’m sorry, maybe another car
rental company could help you, good luck getting to Birmingham!” I think I
needed a whole lot more than luck, what I needed was a God sent miracle. I
tried Avis, Dollar, and Hertz with no luck. It was the same story at all
places. I even called my credit card company and paid off the card. Still
nothing due to the time it takes for the payment to actually go through. At
this point, I was not even about to cancel my interview because I got stuck in Atlanta.
I was SO close…
Ground Transportation
Kiosk, Atlanta Airport – Jan 9th, 3:30am:
“Looks like your only option is to take the MARTA into town
and get on the Greyhound bus that leaves at 6:00am. That should get you there
by 7:30am Birmingham time. Unless you want to pay $400 for a taxi to take you
there right now.” Ok, the Greyhound was better than nothing. At least it was
better than paying $180 for a rental car. (Hertz actually said it would cost me
$540 with them, not including the underage fees of $27.00 per day!)
Laying on the Floor, Atlanta
Airport – Jan 9th, 4:00am:
Trying to get a 30-minute nap in at an airport with a half a
dozen gas-powered floor waxers was like trying to get a hole-in-one on a par 5
in a hurricane, it just wasn’t going to happen. I had to be up by 4:30am to
change in to my suit anyway. After my Clif Bar breakfast, I washed up in the
bathroom sink, brushed my teeth, changed, and got to the airport MARTA station.
MARTA Sky Train,
Atlanta airport – 4:45am:
All I had to do was stay awake and not miss getting off at
Garnett Station like the guys at ground transportation told me. With my luck, I
half expected the train to break down. Thank goodness it didn’t.
Greyhound Station,
Central Atlanta – 5:15am:
At this point I was getting extremely tired but relaxed a
little at the thought of being able to sleep on the greyhound for a little. As
I stepped in to the greyhound station, I got some funny looks. I was definitely
the only white guy in a suit there. We
boarded the bus promptly at 6:00am.
Greyhound Bus,
Central Atlanta – 6:30am:
When the greyhound ACTUALLY left. In case you forgot, I was
to be in Birmingham at the Health Professions building room 552 at 8:30am. So,
assuming everything went PERFECTLY, I would now be arriving in Birmingham at
8:00am. That would give me 30 minutes to get to UAB. Then the thought crossed
my mind: I had no idea where the Greyhound would drop me off. I prayed as I
pulled out my phone’s Google map app that it wouldn’t be 3+ miles from where I
needed to be. Luckily, it was a straight shot down 18th Street
South… 16 blocks. Just over 1.5 miles. I knew I could make it.
Greyhound Station,
Birmingham – 7:58am:
I could hardly sleep on the bus just thinking about how
horrifying it would be if I slept through my stop at Birmingham and woke up in
Jackson! I had 32 minutes. This would be easy I thought. I might have to jog a
little bit, but I would make it on time. The first thing the bus driver does
when he gets off the bus is walk straight in to the station. “Wait, I need to
get my bags!” I called out. “You’ll get them in a just a minute.” The clock was
ticking: 8:03am, 8:04, 8:05, 8:06, 8:07. The driver finally walked back from
the station and pulled out my bags. Now I had just 23 minutes to get there on
time. I started to jog a little which was a bit challenging with an awkward
duffle bag, backpack, and suit. I texted the person who I was couch surfing
with that I wouldn’t be able to make it to his place to drop off my bag before
the interview. He almost immediately texted me back, “wait at the rainbow
underpass, I’m coming to pick you up!”
Rainbow Underpass –
8:19am:
“You’re the best dressed hobo I’ve ever seen, haha! Get in!”
Don chuckled and I threw my bag in to his backseat. Alright, now I just had to
find the building. Luckily, I spotted it almost right away after we had
travelled the remaining 8 blocks. I jumped out and jogged the rest of the way
to the entrance just for good measure. With a room number like 552 I could only
assume it would be on the 5th floor.
Elevator, Health
Professions Building @ UAB – 8:27am:
A miracle. I can’t believe I travelled all that way,
encountered so many set backs and just made it with 3 minutes to spare. Heart
pounding, I thanked God all the way up to floor 5…and politely asked if he
would not make me do that again.
- Matt Bonner
Meanwhile, I was only getting tidbits of what is going on....The only time I felt like it was going to be o.k. is when I got this picture message of Matt the Couch Surfer (totally safe way to sleep while travelling right?) all tucked in after a long day of interviews.