My most memorable trip was one to St. Louis in February. My son and I flew from Reno Nevada to Denver, and then to St. Louis. We were late getting on the plane from Reno-they couldn’t find the aisle chair-so my son and another person carried me onto the plane! They did give us first class seats however after that.
Got to Denver late, the aisle chair arrives and we are asked to hurry. And the partially deaf airline attendant pushes me through the huge crowds yelling “watch out, watch up” as he literally pushes people away with my chair. He then pushes me into a corner by the loading door, with my back to the crowd, and leaves me. My son was still trying to catch up as he was bringing my controller, seat cushion (we always carried it with us as the airline had lost it on another flight) overnight bag just in case they lost our luggage J, and he didn’t want to race through the crowd as my airline attendant had done. I then hear a voice behind me saying “if you’re a good girl we’ll take you out of the corner”, and I’m trying to guess who it could be. Some friends from Los Angeles were going to the same convention and were waiting for the same flight. We were then told that there would be a 3 hour delay, so we tried hard to get a regular wheelchair for the wait. No such luck. So I spent the next 3 hours having somebody tilt me back in an aisle chair. Get to St. Louis-3 ½ hours late-and call the taxi company that had agreed to pick me up at the Airport. They would not be able to make it for 3 hours, OK, plan B. The hotel is less than ¼ mile from the Airport, I’ll just push there, so we go outside. No sidewalk, we can see the hotel, but it is snowing and blowing and there is almost zero visibility. Plan C-get something to eat and wait for the taxi. Oh, did I mention, but it is now 10:00 PM? The taxi finally arrives, my son goes out with the driver to put our luggage in the van, and comes back and whispers to me that this is going to be an experience. The taxi has no lift. Just two narrow ramps, and my wheels are offset so that only the front wheels would fit on. Oh yes, the door is not raised and I will have to lean back in my chair in order to drive and get into the van. We do accomplish this, but my son had to hold the back of my wheelchair up in the air while I drove in with my chin controller. The taxi driver lived in his van, dirty clothes, food wrappers, and he was having a shouting match with his girlfriend on the phone sounding like a construction worker. I was laughing so much at the whole experience that the driver stopped and asked me what I found so funny. That set me off some more. Not a happy taxi driver. We arrive at the hotel, the fare is $25.00, and he asks when he should pick us up to go back to the Airport. We tell him never-I would rather push in a snowstorm. We go inside, it is now 1:30 AM, and our first meeting is at 7:00 AM. Even though we had called and said that we were delayed they had given on room away, which by the way had been paid for earlier in the day by our convention authorities. We then mentioned that it had cost $25.00 for the taxi, and the hotel immediately told us that they had already paid for a taxi trip. Needless to say, we were given a great suite, a basket of fruit everyday, and then they comped the room. Great convention, lots of fun, and a decent taxi to take us back to the Airport. No delays this time, return by Dallas/Ft Worth, arrive in Reno at 11:30 PM. No wheelchair-claims offices is closed-husband forgot that he was going to pick us up. He arrives with our manual wheelchair, son has to sit in back and keep me tilted back so that I don’t fall while driving home. Never has my own bed looked so good. 10 days later still no electric wheelchair, the airlines does not have a clue where it could be. Of course, being a C4 quadriplegic, I Needed a chair with tilt and reclining and a chin controller that worked They finally tell us they’re going to buy me a new chair-with any luck the representative says we will have your chair next week. That’s not going to happen, it took five months before. I happened to phone a friend in Los Angeles about our mare that was down there for breeding and in the course of conversation I mentioned that I had no wheelchair. She starts laughing, and says that when they were getting their luggage a wheelchair was going round and round on the luggage track and that she had thought it was similar to mine. Sure enough, my wheelchair was in Los Angeles, arrived the next day, but somehow they have lost the batteries that were packaged separately, and had laid the chair on its side getting into the smaller airplane and the whole side was damaged. It finally was fixed two months later-our DME in Reno is not noted for speedy repairs-and we were the proud possessors of a bunch of free tickets in first class. LOL Did we have fun? O yes, but the rest of the trips that we took thankfully never lived up to that standard. Take a chair, enjoy it, but be prepared for speed bumps in the road. Joan C4 1990
