9 Days, 9 States and a Slide Board
Well, spring must be just around the corner. I had the television on yesterday and low and behold there was a baseball game on. They say one of the first signs of spring is seeing a robin. Well, I saw a Blue Jay. That should count for something.
Okay, I know some of you are thinking, “Here he goes again. Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball. Is that all he ever talks about is sports?” Well, maybe to some that is all I talk about but the game got me dreaming about traveling this year and my mind slipped back to last years travels and vacation.
It all started over a year ago with my nephew and his fiancée announcing their engagement and upcoming summer wedding in Myrtle Beach. It turned out I had two nephews and a niece that all got married within 9 weeks of each other. My wife, Bonnie and I planned to attend but I got thinking; August, beach, hot sun, sand. Not so easy for a quad who can’t handle too much sun.
Then it hit me Yankee Stadium would be closing at the end of the 2008 season. Now, I am a Blue Jays fan and I do not like the Yankees but I have always wanted to go to Yankee Stadium. I have been to numerous big league ballparks and they have all been a wonderful and unique experience. So I hit the internet to check out to see when the Yankees where at home and I checked out hotels in New York City. After a lot of planning, the trip was in motion on a Saturday morning in August. We flew to NYC and arrived safely at La Guardia Airport.
I had not had much luck finding accessible taxi’s in my planning so we flagged a yellow taxi and with my trusty slide board I was in the back seat with a travel bag on my lap. My wife and taxi driver folded the wheelchair, put it in the trunk and off we headed for Manhattan. We were booked at The New Yorker Ramada Plaza across from Madison Square Gardens. The room had a wheel in shower and was relatively inexpensive for New York.
After checking in I inquired about the accessibility of the subway system. Kevin Rogers, the Information Resources Coordinator for CPA Ontario, provided me with a very detailed package about the subway but I just wanted to double check so that we got to the Bronx and not Brooklyn or Queens. Just two blocks over and around the corner we found an elevator down into the subway. A very helpful lady said, “just wait beside these tracks and then take the ‘D’ train”. In Manhattan several different trains going to different places use the same track. (We did end up in Queens once.) It wasn’t hard; we just followed all the Yankee jerseys and got off at the River Street stop, took an elevator up, and there was Yankee Stadium; Home of the hated Yankees.
It was Veteran’s Day inside so before the game a parachute team dropped onto the field and two F16’s few overhead. The crowd was really into it and they went home happy as the Yanks won.
While in NY we saw two games, went to Grand Central Station, Ground Zero and The Empire State Building where we were treated like royalty. Whenever we got into a line up they would pull us out and take us straight to the front of the line. Apparently people who use a wheelchair do not have to wait. We walked through Macy’s and even had a New York Strip Loin steak in a midtown steakhouse called Keen’s. Expensive? Yes! Good food? Best steak EVER!!
We left New York City on Tuesday morning on Amtrak and headed south through New Jersey, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington, DC arriving in Petersburg, Virginia in the afternoon. Amtrak is very similar to VIA. They do give a discount fare for a companion traveling with a person in a chair, however economy is wheelchair accessible so no first class for us.
Once in Petersburg we rented a car (they came to the station to pick us up) and we drove to the Smithfield area, which is just across the James River from Williamsburg. We stayed at an accessible Bed & Breakfast called Porches on the James. It was a beautiful house with a huge screened in porch with multiple birdfeeders that were always in use by assorted birds. The room was very nice but the bed was 3 feet off the ground. We struggled a bit getting into bed but the transfer out was all down hill.
We took a ferry across the James River to Williamsburg and traveled to Colonial Williamsburg by an accessible bus. We toured the Governors Palace, Bassett Hall that was once the Williamsburg home of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds. It was the first building in North America devoted solely to the treatment of the mentally ill. The first patient was admitted October 12, 1773. And they let me out too. Overall the Town had done their best to make it wheelchair accessible even though it was settled 400 years ago.
Friday morning we headed back up to Petersburg, returned the car and got to the train station. The train was late so we had a nice visit with an Amtrak employee on the train platform. It was about 95 degrees in the shade but he thought we Canadians waz aww’rite! After boarding the train we lost more time but arrived safely in Raleigh, North Carolina. We took a taxi to the airport where we rented another car and met my Dad, Mom and sister who had flown down. After getting packed into the car after 11:00 p.m. off we set for a three hour drive to Myrtle Beach.
Yes it was a VERY long day but we made it. We had reserved a room at The Monterey Beach Suites. The room was large, accessible and had a kitchenette and living room. It also came with breakfast. The wedding was on the beach, which was not wheelchair friendly, but I had lots of family and friends to carry me. A saxophone played softly as the bride walked in the sand to meet her groom and exchange their lifelong vows. It was soothing to hear the waves roll up the sandy beach while a warm breeze blew in off the Atlantic Ocean. The reception was a BBQ in a state park picnic shelter on the beach.
Sunday morning after breakfast we got back in the rental car and drove north to the airport in Raleigh/Durham. The shuttle from the car rental to the airport terminal was equipped with a lift so I saved a couple of transfers. Our flight was late in departing and a light rain began to fall. We had time to reflect back on our whirlwind trip. My wife and I had been in 9 states in 9 days and had traveled by van, LINK Train, airplane, taxi, subway, train, rental car, ferry and shuttle bus. Did we see it all?? Not by any stretch of the imagination but we did see a lot and would like to back to Virginia again. As for New York City; it is the same as Toronto, only bigger. The people are friendly and there is a lot to explore and discover. We just might go back and see the new Yankee Stadium, Times Square, Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Statue of Liberty...
If you are planning a trip and would like to speak to a peer who has traveled before then please contact Charlie at
peersupport[at]cpaont.org