What Happens in Tucson Redux

A year?  It's hard to believe that Skeeter was preceeded by a rental scooter in Tucson when I had my initial mishap in a museum bathroom (the first of many) exactly a year ago.  She and I came back early from Maui (3/26 8 pm) in order to go on our annual "girl trip" in Tucson (3/27 6 am).  Hey, trips to the sun are tough, but someone has to do it.  Since I flew home sans Earl, the airline was particularly helpful and my friend Ed and his son-in-law Jason met us (me and Skeeter) on the other end.

Now that you have the picture and can see trouble coming, let me just say we had a great time in Tucson except for the start and finish.  Since my worst nightmare is not being on time for a flight, I set two alarms for 3:45 am, figuring that would give me plenty of time to shower, get dressed, repack, and insure that Skeeter was ready to go.  Even though my Ataxia keeps me from moving fast, by 10 pm I went to bed confident that I could travel, repack, set alarms, and get up without Earl's help.

Getting me out the door felt like one of these movies

Neither alarm (bedside and IPhone) went off.  My friend, Jackie, and her husband, Paul, drove into a completely dark driveway and her cell phone call woke me from a dead sleep at 4:45 am.  Anyone who knows me, knows what my groggy utterance was.  Otherwise, insert your own expression of dismay.  Susan and Carolyn soon followed and it took everyone to get me repacked and loaded in the van–no shower, no makeup–nada.  I didn't even have time to brush my teeth!  Thankfully, I had laid out my travel clothes the night before and could dress myself.   If not, I would have hollered "uncle" and stayed home.  While I hastily and awkwardly dressed, my friends packed my suitcase. Skeeter was already loaded and waiting in the van from the previous night (thanks to Ed and Jason).  I don't even want to think what loading Skeeter in the dark would have required.  The plan was to leave for the airport at 5:00 am and amazingly, we drove out of our driveway at 5:05 am.  Pam was waiting for us at the gate; she was cheerful, I was out of breath.  Suffice it to say, I went through the entire day not looking my best--not even close.

The Tucson Desert

My IPhone alarm went off at 3:45 AM (duh) on the first night there.  Except for that, we had a fun getaway in Tucson.  I didn't pull Jackie over as she led me to my airplane seat or fall on her head as I stumbled to the bathroom in Tucson (she generously and precariously slept on an air mattress on the floor of the room we shared).  At the end of the five days, we drove back to the airport, my friends unloaded and then reassembled Skeeter for me, returned the rental car; they were a smoothly functioning machine.  We were there in the appropriate amount of advance time, Earl was ready to pick us up in Portland at 8:00 PM 4/1; we just didn't count on a four hour delay. 

Skeeter is at her best in an airport, particularly when facing a prolonged airline delay.  Aside from handicap priority going through security and preboarding on any flight, I could go into any bathroom at will (well, someone had to go with me to open a stall door), cruise the terminals and go into restaurants with no consideration of the distance.  I could scoot around, find a power outlet, plug in my IPhone and listen to my audiobook. The major issue–no fear of tripping or falling–for me, it was a big deal.  I had four friends to do the worrying, negotiating with the airlines for food vouchers, ordering food and wine, etc.  We all wanted to be home on time.  But the delay wasn't the big disaster I had always feared.

The lesson(s):
–24 hours is a minimal interval between trips.
–Take anything an airline has to offer for persons with disabilities.
–You have to ask for compensation when a flight's delayed (or have friends do it).
–You can do most anything independently, if you have people to help.

I get by with a little help from my friends