Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

WARNING: This story is long and dreadful. Get out the bottle now…

On January 31^st I left Nashville and headed to South Florida. How I got there, is the subject of today’s post.

Destination: Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ***Note: At the time of departure I had not secured housing arrangements, as my first two plans fell through.

The original plan was to pack all my things including my bed into the back of my pickup truck and drive the long 18 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This plan quickly changed when my truck broke down on the side of the interstate three days before I was going to leave. After the mechanic told me the price to fix my locked-up motor, I decided to sell it to him and find alternative travel plans. With the wide availability of public transportation options in South Florida, I decided to make the adventure even more exciting by moving down without a car. So now all I had to figure out was how to actually get there. 

I looked at airfare and because of the short notice, it was going to be about $350 for a one-way air fare. Yeah…”one-way”! I had never bought one of those! New experiences are already happening. Haha. So, no car, and no plane, I decided on a Greyhound bus. To go from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale was only $125…I was in! 

Immediately, the next challenge presented itself. How do I condense my whole life into two duffel bags and a backpack? Well, clearly my bed was out of the picture. The I decided on some clothes, a laptop, and a tent – again, no housing option secured. The rest I either stored with friends, tossed in a dumpster or sold.

I bought a one-way Greyhound bus ticket, set to leave Nashville 1/31/12 at 5pm Central time and arrive in Fort Lauderdale 2/1/12 at 12:20pm. By the way, I was scheduled to start work at 1pm the same day…40 minutes after arrival. Two days before I left I asked my friend if she would drop me off at the bus station, and of course she agreed. Then while driving her car back from my going-away party, her car (which had been overheating the week prior) died on the side of the road. Splendid! My journey had not even started yet and the obstacles were stacking up. So, we shared the cost of a rental car and made it through the next day. After a nice lunch at Margaritaville, and a brief cameo by two friends randomly walking down the sidewalk next to our table, we made it to the bus station. 

The ride on the bus was not bad. We had two legs to our trip. The first was to Atlanta; the second to Fort Lauderdale. The bus held about 75 people but thankfully there were only 30 on this trip. Once in Atlanta, things got difficult. The Nashville counter-agent must have read some Zig Ziglar and sold me on a “Priority Boarding” upgrade. This upgrade allowed me to sit in the nice (not at all) waiting area and gave me front-of-the-line access prior to boarding. The ATL bus station was packed, noisy, and smelled bad. The armed security guards, when kicking people out, had trouble deciphering the passengers from the homeless. So, there I sat…one of the only white people in the building, dressed well, carrying three bags, and sitting in the “elite” section. Not feeling very good at this point, but I had my eyes set on the prize. All I had to do was get on the bus and the next thing I knew I would be on the beach. Well, it didn’t go quite that well. My elite status was meaningless to the boarding attendant, so she thought it would be fun to send the bus on without me. Yeah…I missed the bus, but somehow this didn’t feel quite like it did when I missed the bus to elementary school.

So here I am stranded in Atlanta at midnight, carrying two bags at 30lbs each, and a 22lb back pack. Once the counter agent told me the next bus would leave at 9 am and get me to my destination by midnight, the next day, I sought other options. I immediately got on the phone with a friend in Nashville, and asked her to find the next flight out of ATL heading to FLL. Simultaneously, I was offering the employees cash in exchange for a ride to the first stop of the bus that I missed. My plan was to reconnect with the bus and go from there. No joy.

So, I went with the flight option. I headed to the airport. One of the ticketing agents, who apparently felt sorry for me, tipped me off to the expensive taxi fare to the airport from there, and advised me to take the train that was leaving the station in 15 minutes. So, I threw my backpack on, grabbed my bags, and walked to the train station 200 yards away, and 50 stairs up…it was an elevated train. After fending off two crazy people and 3 bums on the train, I made it to the ATL airport. 

 Once in the airport, I lugged my 82lbs of bags another 300 yards to the ticketing area that was completely empty (it was now 1:30am). I reconnected with my friend who was researching the flights for me; she told me the earliest flight would get me to FLL by 2pm (already 2 hours late to work on my first day). I decided to go with that option until this next genius idea came up: I could rent a car! I would rent the car, drive 83 miles an hour for 10 hours, stop twice for fuel, and arrive in FTL with just enough time to get to work on-time. So, I asked the local TSA agent where the Rental Car area was at the airport and he informed me that they no longer have the rental cars at the airport that they are at local Atlanta spots. I got the number to a few rental outfits and called. The second one, Hertz, had a car available for me and if I could get there by 2am, I’d make it to FTL on-time. So, I had to hurry!

I couldn’t wait on the train to come back through so I got a cab. Mistake! I told the cab Hertz rental car. He said, he didn’t know where it was, so I gave him the address which the Hertz agent on the phone gave me. He told me it was all the way downtown. I told him I could only give him $30 if he could get there. He accepted, and away we went. After arriving at a deserted and closed Hertz location, I called Hertz back to rip them a new one. They told me the first guy was wrong and the correct pick up location was actually right next to the ATL airport. $%@#!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, bring on the huskies…away we went.

 After driving around the entire Atlanta International Airport, the cabby couldn’t find the entrance to the rental car place, so I got out, strapped on my bags (which I cursed quite a few times by then), and walked a mile to the encamped Hertz counter. Once there, the agent kindly informed me that they could not accept my type of credit card. Bloody @#$%^&* hell!!!! I then offered $300 cash to anyone who would rent the $200 car for me. All declined. I told the agent that I was all out of options (and hope) and needed to get back to the airport. I hid my complete outrage when she kindly informed me of the FREE Tram that runs back and forth all day and night to and from the airport and their location.

3:30am

Back at the airport…a glimmer of hope.

Although the flight my friend suggested was on Delta, I was curious about other options. So, I went around asking all of the opening ticketing counters if they had a flight to FTL earlier than noon. Much to my surprise, both airlines (who were opening at that time) had flights as early as 6am!!! I determined the cheapest and most direct was with an outfit called Spirit airlines and I bought a one-way ticket for $180 that had me arriving in FTL at 8:30am!!!! Sweet! But wait! I packed my bags for a bus ride; there’s no way I would clear security with the stuff I had. So, after reorganizing my bags and dumping certain items, I was ready. 6:45am…Wheels up!

8:15am – Fort Lauderdale International Airport. 

At this point I had gone 26 hours with no sleep and lost 4lbs. So, I got on a bus to take me to the apartment I had found on Craigslist while sitting in the back of an Atlanta cab. Unfortunately I got on the wrong bus and had to take a cab back the opposite direction towards my new found destination.

I called the landlord and arranged to meet him at 11:00am to sign the lease. At this point, I had no clue what the place was like; I just liked the location. My cab dropped me off, I carried my bags inside, dropped them on the floor and handed the landlord $900 cash. He laughed and told me he had never done a business transaction that fast in his entire career. I told him I was desperate. Very nice guy, too…an Italian. I showered, changed clothes, and after bringing me the key and the lease, my landlord drove me to work.

Closing Thoughts: A person can achieve anything he sets his mind to.

950 Miles Traveled

40 hours with no sleep