Road Trip

Arches National Park, Utah

Daniel enjoyed a nice relaxing couple weeks of convalescence leave at the end of March.  It began with a huge welcome by friends, family, and supporters at the Denver International Airport and continued with some quiet and rest for the next two weeks.  His leave concluded with an extended drive back to San Diego.

Daniel bought his new vehicle and was excited to do a road trip. Packing wheelchair, prosthetics, and the personal luggage for Aaron, Daniel, Julia, and Neil in the Land Rover was a challenge.  The further we went on the trip the better and faster we all got at stuffing things in, and on top of, the car.  That being said, it was a nice vehicle for a road trip.  "California, here we come ...."-

The first leg (oops, prosthetic) of the road trip was from home to Moab, Utah; with a stop for tea/coffee with Brooks, Rachel, and Katy Keith in Vail and lunch with Elizabeth in Grand Junction. We arrived into the Moab area in time to do a little driving and sightseeing in Arches National Park. We found a quirky little motel/lodge in Moab to stay in.

The next day was a trek through the eastern deserts Utah and wide expanses of northern Arizona to the Grand Canyon.  A little stop along the way for some pictures allowed for a little off-roading, that kept causing Julia to fear that we would tip over or get stuck.  We enjoyed seeing the Grand Canyon (south rim), especially with the special drives to areas afforded wheelchairs normally only accessible by shuttle busses.  Daniel got close to edges courtesy of his brother carrying him beyond the confines of the paths.  Sunset was pretty, but cold!



Daniel at the edge of the Grand Canyon



Vegas baby! We figured that a couple days wandering around Las Vegas would be fun and fairly easy in a wheelchair.  We were kinda wrong.  This city is not so wheelchair friendly as we had guessed.  While individual hotels (we stayed at the Luxor) were pretty good, getting around The Strip was not as accessible and involved LONG distances between sights.  Too far too travel and too many street crossovers that required the limited and hard to find elevators.  Including one time that he got up and over a street only to find the elevator on the other side to get down out of order.  This affected the level of fun and at times greatly frustrated Daniel as he discovered more of his "new normal". We were also frustrated at the limited (or unavailability) of wheelchair seating at the shows Daniel and Aaron wanted to see.

But, we found ways to have fun, found a show for Aaron and Daniel (Cirque de Solei, Ka, at the MGM), enjoyed some good and plentiful buffets, saw some sights, Daniel enjoyed the poker tables, and we learned to manage the limitations.

After two nights in Sin City we headed off through the deserts towards the coast.  We detoured (Aaron doing much of the driving) through the Mojave Desert, near Twenty-Nine Palms (Ughh!!!), and a quick visit to Joshua Tree National Park.  Neil took over driving and we pushed on through a gorgeous sunset to Anaheim.  After learning about the travails of Vegas we got a hotel across the street from the main gate of Disneyland.

We decided that the best way for us to enjoy Disneyland, not have to rush, and to allow Daniel times to rest, we would visit the place over three days. That was a wise decision.  We could wake up late, go back to the hotel for breaks, take leisurely lunches out of the park, return when we wanted, and rush to hit every ride in a short period of time.  Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure were very wheelchair friendly and compact enough to get around easy enough.  Everyone had a great time and we hope to be back soon.  :-)

Three goofies!

The road trip concluded with a leisurely drive down the southern California coast.  Our last night Julia and Neil were able to get a nice hotel along the waterfront in San Diego while Aaron stayed with Daniel in the barracks.  We all had a really nice time.  We are very thankful to some kind people who gave us some resources and helped made this road trip possible.  Thank you.