FOR LOVE AND TACOS, preparing for the roadtrip

In late January [2023] I was accepted to speak at the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) conference in July. Location: New Orleans. My fiancé Paul and I decided to go on a three-week road trip to get there. There was no reason to hurry since Paul was off work the entire month of July and I was now self-employed. We wanted to take our time and simply wander, letting each day unfold new mysteries, to start driving each morning with no real agenda.

Our food-goals were to avoid chain restaurants where possible (with the lone exception being Whataburger—breakfast taquitos, man!) and eat as many tacos as possible. We would explore anything that looked interesting. We did want to explore Texas wine country, as we would pass right though it on our way to the Big Easy.

At the same time, we would look for ways to promote my book along the way, finding people to tell about ADA Usability and looking for stages to publicly speak on the You Decide movement.

We began filling in the calendar. RESNA was the last week in July. We planned a two-night stop in Fredericksburg, one of the two major wine regions in Texas which was just over halfway between Phoenix and New Orleans. Jason Mraz would be on tour, but his Phoenix stop was the same day we had to be in New Orleans. As luck would have it, we could catch him just outside Nashville a few days after the conference. My professional dressmaker is just outside of Louisville, Kentucky and she needed to take my measurements for my wedding dress, so we figured we might as well deliver the fabric to her at the same time. Paul’s “bucket list” includes catching a game at every Major League Baseball stadium, and based on the route we were starting to assemble, there were games in Saint Louis and Arlington we could catch. Suddenly, our goal of carefree wandering started to look like a packed schedule—a full 22 days. We would now be “pushing” to make 400 miles per day. But we were determined we would still stop anytime something looked interesting.

Here’s how the map looked as we planned…

As we began estimating how far we’d get in a day, Paul started looking for dark-sky Airbnbs. He quickly realized that Airbnb hosts get away with calling things wheelchair accessible when all they’ve done is put a single grab bar into a shower or a portable bedside commode chair over the toilet. I sifted through those listings for about 15 minutes before I wanted to throw my phone across the room. I couldn’t decide who I was angrier at: Airbnb for allowing these inaccessible listings even when they said they’d verified it, or the listing owners for their stupidity. (But…this isn’t the blog about lodging accessibility nightmares. That list of hotel horrors will be over in the ADA Usability blog on Making Waves for Good.)

As we got within three weeks of our departure date, I realized my 2014 Toyota Sienna van with a Braunabilty ramp/lowered floor modification and Joysteer high-tech driving system wasn’t going to be out of the shop in time. Something wonky had happened to it the previous March (a full fifteen months earlier) and the onboard computer’s theft prevention system thought it was being stolen and thus, wouldn’t start. There was no way it was going on the trip. With planning time running short, we thought about modifying our itinerary. The only “must visit” locations for the trip became New Orleans and Louisville, so I started researching airline flights, seeing how we might cobble together something that resembled a road trip.  

Concurrently, Paul began shopping for a low-mileage wheelchair modified ramp/lowered floor used van to purchase. I was overwhelmed that he would consider doing that. He said he just wanted to spend 22 days together, no matter what. I objected until he stated--to my near disbelief--“Heather, this is what couples do. They buy vehicles together that meet their needs.” I settled into the love he was showing me, and helped him look. We found each found one – that turned out to be the same one on different websites. It was a 2005 Dodge van with an aftermarket conversion and about 40,000 miles on it. It was previously owned by a little old lady who only drove it on Sundays and used it to transport her small scooter.  Paul drove it, and then took me up to get in and see if I would be comfortable in it. It wasn’t fancy, but it was an affordable solution and would meet our needs.  He bought and after registering it in his name, he took it to his mechanic to make it road-worthy.

Other things for the trip were purchased: the smallest Keurig coffee maker on the market(because hotel room coffee is terrible), a silk pillowcase that actually stays on the pillow , (so I wouldn’t rub a bald spot onto the back of my head), a foam mattress pad(so that I would have a comfortable and consistent surface to sleep on regardless of the mattress), and plastic storage containers to make packing the van easier.  

Accessible vans don’t have  a middle row of seats, so they carry much less than you think . Loading the van became a challenge. We each had a large suitcase of clothes and a computer bag. There was one carry-on sized bag just for shoes, a hanging bag for fancy clothes,  four “gear” bags of varying sizes which held necessary bathroom things and assorted assistive technologies, an underbed storage tote of first aid supplies, a 20-gallon large storage box that held my wheelchair’s knee block and lymphedema compression therapy machine. a bathroom shower caddy box of various essential oil sprays, a small open box that held the wheelchair tie downs when they weren’t in use, and 10 copies of my book. Remarkable, like Tetris blocks falling into place, it all fit…barely.

We pulled out of the driveway on Sunday, July 16, 2023 just after 1pm. And made it exactly as far as Tucson … and then…