urbantravels
disjecta membra
- Messages
- 1,333
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
I've just had my first experience with using my new wheelchair, on Xmas vacation to the high desert with my family. I can't see myself using it often for short errands or most daily activities, but if I want to do more in life than just the necessities - get food and get to the doctor's - I want to have the option available. I particularly want to be able to go to museums and galleries like I used to, and a wheelchair is really the best way to be able to do this - I can stand and walk for short periods of time, but there are *never* enough seats in museums.
On this recent trip, my family was more or less fighting over the chance to push me around, but my brother-in-law seemed to claim the honors most of the time. We discovered several wheelchair-accessible nature trails in Joshua Tree National Park and explored those. My dad got very interested in fixing the footrests so they would fit me (I have long legs, and he is a Mr. Fixit type).
I also learned I could get a *lifetime* pass for free access to all national parks just for being disabled, so I signed up. My main gripe about my disabled parking pass is that it is rarely any use to me in crowded parking lots - because the disabled spaces are always already full. However, it really, really rocks to be able to park at parking meters without paying or time limits.
I wasn't ready to accept *any* of this at first, but I've taken it one bit at a time. Getting the wheelchair took me months of waffling around and not deciding, but the family vacation was a hard deadline that I had to meet.
On this recent trip, my family was more or less fighting over the chance to push me around, but my brother-in-law seemed to claim the honors most of the time. We discovered several wheelchair-accessible nature trails in Joshua Tree National Park and explored those. My dad got very interested in fixing the footrests so they would fit me (I have long legs, and he is a Mr. Fixit type).
I also learned I could get a *lifetime* pass for free access to all national parks just for being disabled, so I signed up. My main gripe about my disabled parking pass is that it is rarely any use to me in crowded parking lots - because the disabled spaces are always already full. However, it really, really rocks to be able to park at parking meters without paying or time limits.
I wasn't ready to accept *any* of this at first, but I've taken it one bit at a time. Getting the wheelchair took me months of waffling around and not deciding, but the family vacation was a hard deadline that I had to meet.