Nearly 120 hours after it started, Lindsay Bartlett’s journey finally came to a happy ending. Bartlett, a freshman goalkeeper on Nicholls State’s women’s soccer team left her West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada home last Thursday, Aug. 9, with designs on arriving in Thibodaux the following day, in time for the start of fall practice. What happened next was a bizarre and unpredictable turn of events that undoubtedly made the 17 year-old question just how badly she wanted to become a Lady Colonel.
Traveling with her parents Rod and Linda, Bartlett headed towards Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to catch a flight to New Orleans. At the Canadian-U.S. border Bartlett and her parents were stopped and asked to furnish an I-20 form, a document that deals with financial disclosure.
Since they were not able to furnish the form, their entry to America was denied. At that point, Bartlett and her mother remained at the border while her father hurried back to their home to pick up the all-important I-20 form.
Five and one-half hours later, the trio finally made their way into America only to miss their flight. The family then discouragingly crossed back across the border and headed home to reevaluate the situation.
A bank robbery in Seattle the following day shut down most of the city and put a kibosh on all air traffic. Unable to get on a weekend flight, Bartlett had to wait until Monday to make the trip to South Louisiana.
Just when it seemed that everything that could go wrong did, Bartlett and her mother Linda made it to New Orleans on Monday afternoon but their luggage was routed to Dallas. After receiving empty assurances from airline personnel that their missing bags would be delivered Monday night, mother and daughter went to Louis Armstrong International Airport on Tuesday morning and retrieved their luggage.
A few hours later, they finally made it to Thibodaux in time for Tuesday 7 p.m. practice.Having never been further east than Alberta, Canada, Bartlett bravely crossed into uncharted waters Tuesday, barely shaken by the events of the previous five days.
“It (travel difficulties) made everything a little more stressful to say the least,” Bartlett said.”Not only was I coming to a new place where I didn’t know anybody, but I had a lot of problems just getting there.So far, everyone has been really hospitable and the team gets along really well.”
The 2001 graduate of West Vancouver Secondary School has been forced to rapidly adjust to Division I soccer along with fellow freshman netminder Amy Rothe and Nicholls head coach Jim Zakel, who himself came to campus just three days prior to the start of fall practice.
Now comfortably ensconced in America and her Babington Hall dorm room, Bartlett can finally shift her focus on adjusting to a new culture and a new team while never being able to forget the events of the past 10 days.
