Thousands of students piled into Happy Valley this weekend with sand, surf and good times still fresh on their minds. Others left behind a week of couch-ensconced vegetation and groping for remote controls amid the darkness of parents' family rooms.

But no matter what the spring break agenda, one problem many students ran into this vacation was traveling trouble. Spring break seemed to be incomplete without the bit of stress and anxiety that is often inseparable from any vacation.

Most students overcame adversities thrown their way by the travel industry and Old Man Winter, but for Craig Lasser (sophomore-engineering) leaving town set the tone for his vacation in Hackettstown, N.J. -- and that tone was slow.

"Forty-five minutes out of State College, Route 80 came to a dead stop," Lasser said. "We went about 10 miles in five hours."

Lasser said he and his two companions passed the time by talking to truckers on the citizens band and by getting out of the car to talk to other students stuck in the traffic jam. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the weather combined to lead to the problem.

"PennDOT decided they wanted to scrape the ice off the roads at 4 o' clock," Lasser said. "It was a hell of a trip. After that I just wanted to sleep the rest of the week."

Lasser wasn't the only one having trouble getting out of town. Greyhound Bus Lines had to cancel all trips on the Thursday before spring break because of snow conditions, forcing students to wait an extra day to leave State College.

"They all made it out Friday," said Greyhound agent Dan Williams, adding that there were no complaints. "Once they shut down the roads, there's not much we can do."

Road conditions can be tough on travelers, but a four-hour delay in an airport in a third-world country wasn't exactly some students' idea of an exotic getaway. Twenty-five members of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, 101 S. Hibbs Hall, traveled on a charter flight to the Bahamas.

"It was horrible," said Dana Hairr (senior-marketing), adding that the Nassau International Airport was complete with cardboard signs with magic-marker writing hanging from the ceiling by strings.

Hairr said the women ordered Domino's pizza for dinner because there was only one restaurant inside the airport. And the flight was no treat either, Hairr said.

"We started descending and no one knew we were landing (in the Bahamas)," she added. "They didn't tell us to put our seatbelts on or to put our seats up or anything. The stewardesses didn't even know."

Upon arriving in the Bahamas, Hairr and her sorority sisters spent the week at the Wyndham Ambassador Beach Hotel, where they had to live with unusable water for two days. She said the water was so brown it stained the bottom of the bathtub, forcing her group to practice alternative hygiene methods, such as showering on the beach while wearing swimsuits.

"I took showers and shaved my legs on the beach in front of a bar where people were eating," she said. "People were washing their hair in the pool."

Hairr said all the members had a great time despite the setbacks. Swimming, clubbing, snorkeling, tanning and attending a two-hour "booze cruise" were well worth the $800 expense, she added.

"I would definitely do it again," she said, but added that next time, "I would fly United or American."