Spartan Wheel Chariots

 Tahoe National Forest

August 2023

Kellisa has many chairs with wheels, she has a wheelchair with bus tie downs, a travel folding wheelchair, and two off-road chairs built for rugged trails. In her 24+ years, she's gone through just about every kind of wheelchair and adaptive jog stroller we could find. With our vast experience, we always found a significant gap in the market. We've never found a chair that can maneuver in a hotel or restaurant and hold it's own on the average non-ADA trail.

Everything changed when we saw a post from Ben Huntzinger, the owner of Spartan Wheel Chariots. Ben is making a wheelchair that doubles as an off-road chair. It was everything we dreamed of in a dual purpose chair.

Kellisa will still need her other chairs for everyday life and extreme trails, but when we are out and want to hit moderate trails, Ben's chair is the perfect medium. We travel a lot and it's a pain to travel with two chairs, one for trails and one for everywhere else, especially when we aren't planning on hiking anything too crazy. Or maybe we are visiting family and leave the trail chairs at home, but find an unexpected few hours free and know we can't find a trail because we don't have the right chair. 

After a few emails and measurements, we ordered a Spartan Wheel Chariot for Kellisa. Ben was super responsive and open to some adjustments to meet our needs, like the push handle customized to my height. The communication was outstanding with pictures of the chair in each phase of development. After a few weeks, Kellisa's chair arrived and it looked like our problems were solved, but we had to test the chair to be sure.

It was another couple of weeks before Kellisa and I had time to head out on a trail. We didn't have one in mind, so we just headed out for a drive through the Tahoe National Forest. We drove around for a couple of hours enjoying the views before we discovered a large lake far below the gravel road we were navigating. Through some trees, we could see the edge of a cliff band rising from far below. We didn't see any established trails, but knew this was the perfect spot to test Kellisa's new chair.

This would be Kellisa's first time even sitting in her chair and her excitement was off the charts. She was ready to go as soon as I had the seatbelt on and within seconds she was bouncing and giggling as the chair easily navigated the rocky terrain. The lake really opened up once we got near the edge of the cliffs and we just took in the light breeze and endless beauty. We explored a little while taking some photographs. Unfortunately, we didn't have unlimited time because I had to get back for a parents meeting with Egypt's water polo coaches.

Even though our time out was limited, I have no doubt Kellisa's new Spartan Wheel Chariot (aka Purple Beast) will continue to exceed our expectations! 

Thank you Ben!

HOME

Schonchin Butte

 Lava Beds National Monument

August 2023

SOLO HIKES

HOME

Alicia - Keys to the Summer Tour: A Night Out at the Maverik Center (West Valley City, UT)

 July 28, 2023

Egypt has been a fan of Alicia Keys since forever and it never worked out where we could go see her in concert. Egypt got excited when she heard Alicia was going on a summer tour, but was instantly bummed to see she was skipping Sacramento. I already had our vacation week planned for Moab, UT when I saw the tour was stopping near Salt Lake City at the Maverik Center while we would be less than 4 hours away. Once I secured tickets (Front Row), I changed our hotel reservations to be more convenient. I wish the  pictures could capture the excitement bursting from Egypt for more than two hours. I can go on, but Egypt summed it up with, "This was one of the greatest nights of my life!" 

EGYPT DAYS

EVENTS

HOME

A Day in Grand Canyon National Park

 Arizona

July 2022

The Grand Canyon was our last stop on our epic two week father-daughter vacation during the summer of 2022. Besides being a long couple of weeks, the drive from the Four Corners to the Grand Canyon was slow due to rain and washed out roads. On top of everything else, it was again very hot when we entered the park in the middle of the afternoon. Our first stop was confusing because the area was under construction and we ended up walking quite a bit more than necessary as we found our way. Add all that up together and it was difficult for Egypt to truly enjoy the majesty laid before her eyes. 

Egypt was a good sport as she walked around a few of the viewpoints scattered along the south rim before she requested a nice dinner together on our last night out before a marathon drive home the following day. I found a steakhouse and Egypt was disappointed that they were all out of their rattlesnake appetizers, but she did enjoy a cowboy sized steak with abundant sides. 

I imagine Egypt will return to the Grand Canyon to explore the parks depths in more detail.

NATIONAL PARKS

EGYPT DAYS

HOME

A Day at Four Corners Monument Navajo Tribal Park

 Utah - Arizona - New Mexico - Colorado

July 2022

Egypt enjoyed standing in four states at the same time. The monument has completely changed since we took Kellisa to "sit on wheels" in four states simultaneously way back in June 2007.

KELLISA'S VISIT - JUNE 2007

EGYPT DAYS

HOME

A Day at Aztec Ruins National Monument

 New Mexico

July 2022

It was blazing hot when we visited and it was hard to imagine living in the Southwest long before air conditioning. Although, we were surprised how much cooler it was in the rock houses. We both enjoyed learning about the Aztec people and their culture, but were also sad that it is mostly gone. 

EGYPT DAYS

HOME