Misadventures in New Orleans

Dear Reader,

I know some of you are eager to hear the story of how I obtained my new standing wheelchair. I want you to know that I am working on talking to the experts who helped me in my successful effort. It’s taking longer than I hoped, so I’ll write a quick blog post about my recent to visit to New Orleans instead, and hope I have the other blog soon. 

It’s started so well. We got to the airport early, we started to go through airport security, I got the most aggressive pat-down of the three of us.  They even loaded my wheelchair correctly, so there was no damage.  Then the problems started. We got to New Orleans a little bit later than anticipated, so there were no more accessible cab rides to our hotel downtown. We sat in the heat of New Orleans for several hours waiting for while my PCA and my mother tried to locate a form of accessible transportation.

By the time we found a ride, we were too tired to go the conference location. Instead, we went to our hotel, only about 5 blocks away. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t seem like a long distance, but the next day, we heard all kinds of thunder and torrential rains. The meteorologist was telling people to stay put for a while. By the time we went downstairs, to get ready to go to the conference, there was a small river going down the street. 

We saw lots of debris such as trashcans. In case you don’t know, wheelchairs like the one I use, tend to be low to the ground. There would have been no safe way for me to travel the 5 blocks down to the National Conference.

I spent the morning thinking about the irony of being able to fly all the way from North Carolina to New Orleans, but not being able to good in a couple of ways. Most importantly, it gave me more empathy for people with disabilities who also go through natural disasters. The experience made me feel powerless in a way that I don’t normally. Ordinarily, once I’m in my power chair, I can move pretty much where I want to go. But all the water took that independence away. Everyone in the hotel was stuck in the same place.

After the rain stopped, and the danger was passed, the boredom set in. Although I was very grateful to be safe, it was frustrating to only be connected to the conference by talking on Facebook to my friend who was there. Through that day, states who had sent delegations were becoming more and more nervous about Tropical Storm Barry bearing off the coast of Louisiana. Soon North Carolina recalled all of us to come home.  American Airlines, however, didn’t think it was an emergency. So, it was prohibitively expensive to change our flight plans.

We spent the extra night in the hotel and ordered in.  By the evening, the pumps started moving so I could have gone to the conference, but it was already over for the night. We watched a documentary on the Moon Landing. And it felt to me a little bit like Apollo 13.  We so close to the goal, but the whole mission at that point was to get home safely. By the next morning, the sun came out, but the damage was done. The hotel was in the process of taking up all the wood floors, because they had buckled. We went immediately back to the airport. I ate some New Orleans seafood in an airport restaurant. I talked to a friend who made it to the conference. They loaded my chair safely on the plane again. And then there was yet another delay, because it was storming outside of Charlotte. We sat on the plane for an hour, then we took off.

We made it to Charlotte and drove home. Although I never made it to the conference, I had trip I’ll never forget and learned a couple of lessons. We need to get serious about affordable and accessible transportation options for people with disabilities. It was maddening to me to see so many people without disabilities be able to get off planes, run to get a cab, and get on with their lives.

If I were that lucky, I could have at least attended the first night of the conference and received some of the materials. As it was, I went all the way down to New Orleans, and don’t have much to show for it in terms of the business reason for going. I do have a mug from the airport gift shop.