Museum of Selfies

August 2019

Love for Delta Airlines

It's no secret to those who know us that we love Southwest Airlines and they love us back pretty good. We started flying Southwest years ago because of their outstanding service towards Kellisa and really the whole family. I lost track of how many segments Kellisa has flown long ago, but it's safe to say she's flown Southwest at least 400 if not 500 times and they've never let us down. Not even once in all those years and flights. If anything, they've gone beyond too many times to count.

But, this post is really about Delta Airlines. I fly Delta a decent amount for work, enough to where I get seat upgrades on probably 50% of my flights, but far from their top frequent flyer status. The most I've ever flown Delta in one year is 80 something segments. Kellisa flew Delta a few times when she was little without incident, but until recently, there was a gap of probably close to 15 years between flights. 

Flash forward to June 2019, we are working on our book and had a need to fly Delta. I booked two seats together in Economy Class as close to the front of the plane as possible, row 11. Delta allowed us to board early which is always appreciated and I requested a transfer to an aisle chair because it's too hard to carry Kellisa back to the 11th row. 

As I handed the gate agent my ticket, I heard the familiar sound of being upgraded with the printing of a new ticket. I need to sit next to Kellisa and was just about to start explaining our situation when Kellisa's ticket was scanned and she also received an upgrade. Just like that, we were both upgraded. We don't need first-class, but it sure was nice and easier than row 11. On our second flight, we were upgraded again, this time from row 22. 

Besides upgrading our seats, the gate agent also gave us a really cool tag (picture below) for Kellisa's wheelchair.

In the end, we can't speak highly enough about Delta and look forward to flying them again in the future. In fact, shortly after returning from this trip, we booked another trip on Delta!

Badwater Basin

Death Valley National Park

California

March 2019

Fitness Trail Loop

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Kentucky

June 2019

Virginia Creeper Trail

Mount Rogers National Recreation Area
Virginia

June 2019

TRAILS

HOME

Husky Branch Falls

Little River Trail

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

June 2019

Max Patch

Pisgah National Forest

NC and TN

June 2019

TRACK Trail

Congaree National Park

June 2019

Okefenokee Swamp- An Old Favorite

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Chesser Island Boardwalk

Georgia

June 2019

A True Friend...Florida Trails

Fort Caroline National Memorial

Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve

Theodore Roosevelt Area

Spanish Pond Trail +

June 2019

"Trail is ACCESSIBLE to the first overlook"

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

Mississippi

May 2019

There is an art to selecting trails to pushike with Kellisa and I like to think that we've gotten pretty good from so many years of experience. We've traveled long and hard only to find accessible trails, well not so accessible. We've also stumbled upon trails with no indication of accessibility and they've been beautiful to push Kellisa on. 

We like to read as many trail reports as possible looking for key words (mud, stairs, rocks, climbs, etc.) that may tip us off to research another trail. If we are confident after reports, we then carefully study pictures looking for barriers. If all checks out, we have a good success rate. We are writing the first book on pushiking to help others navigate through the process of selecting and then pushiking trails. 

The trail we selected in Mississippi had a short section at the beginning that was accessible. Because there is so much information about accessible trails as many are paved, we're not going to feature too many miles of accessible trails in the book. The trail in Mississippi went beyond the accessible portion to complete a loop. 

Little did we know that the accessible part of the trail would have a barrier almost immediately. Now we could easily navigate the obstacles and I would guess most people pushing a jog stroller or off-road mobility chair could as well, I have serious doubts that most people wheeling themselves could complete the "accessible" section of this trail. Lastly, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure motorized wheelchairs would have no chance on the navigating the platform section at the beginning of this trail. While I'm thankful Kellisa and I were able to complete the loop, I can't help but think about those who might travel to this trail only to be turned around before really even getting started. 

Fontainebleau State Park

Louisiana

May 2019

Pushiking Book - Completed States

Britton Hill, FL

Back to Kellisa's Path Blog

Pushiking Book Update #1

 To say we are behind in the progress of writing our book would be a vast understatement. Kellisa and I need to hike at least one trail in all 50 states and write 90,000 publishable words with supporting pictures, maps, etc. by November 1, 2019. As of May 29th, we pushiked in 8 states and had just over 8,200 words written in a very rough draft.

Most of you know Kellisa and I already pushiked a trail in all 50 states by her 18th birthday and Laurel also accomplished this goal. Our book deal is to write a guidebook with some narrative non-fiction woven in our adventures. I did not view our first tour of the United States through the scope of writing a guidebook. I didn't keep the proper details and documents for a guidebook. Plus, we didn't complete every trail and sometimes we made our own trail. Not very guide worthy, in my opinion. So our second quest to pushike a trail in all 50 states started last October and due to many reasons, we are off to a very slow start.

With summer approaching fast, it was getting close to the point of not having a chance to have the book completed on time when I realized that we had a tight 7 day window between Kellisa getting out of school and Laurel's 10th birthday festivities. We actually had 8 days, but wanted to return with one day to spare just to make sure we would be back in time to celebrate Laurel's birthday. Even though Laurel was very happy to complete the original goal and is very proud of herself, she decided that she didn't want to participate on our new trail adventures.

Restoring a Little Faith in Humanity

 I know we are behind in updating the blog, but life has been busy. Our goal is to post like crazy all summer!

Those in the disabled world might agree that life is hard most of the time and often it seems like the world is against us. I don't like to complain, but I'm usually vocal about pointing out some of the discrimination and injustice we face on an all too regular basis.

While most people we encounter are probably neutral and at most guilty of staring a little. It is rare for individuals to go above and beyond to help strangers with disabilities. And when they do, they are usually "club members" themselves, because they "get it". 

I know we like to say people act like CP, Epilepsy, Hydrocephalus, "fill in your disability" is contagious because so many turn away and actively ignore. Yes, we get people who offer help like trying to hold a door open for us. While we appreciate the gesture, these people are usually in the way more than they are helping. How are we supposed to get through the door with you standing in the door holding it? And then when we say, "We've got it" and go through the door like nothing, we usually hear, "Looks like you've done this before."

Yeah, been doing this for more than 18 years! We just carried Kellisa for the first few years of her life.

So...Kellisa and I just returned from one of our epic father-daughter trips that will provide many blog posts in the near future. We often return home without our faith in humanity restored and that's OK. That's not our motivation for travel. However, this trip was different. Within a 24 hour period, we had multiple people offer help...real help!  

Marriott Hotel Not Exactly ADA Compliant

Springhill Suites - Lincolnshire, IL

ADA compliance thoughts hurting my head.

We're staying at a Marriott property and they have a shuttle van that will take you anywhere within 5 miles, but you need to give the desk 2 hours notice. I thought this was odd and asked.

I was told the shuttle van was not ADA compliant and someone complained because able bodied guests could leave anytime without notice. Guests in wheelchairs would have to wait two hours for an accessible van to arrive. Since it wasn't fair to make some guests wait 2 hours, they are now making everyone wait two hours.

Not surprisingly, most guests are not happy having to wait two hours and Marriott is getting a lot of complaints. They are now planning on buying an ADA shuttle van.

So they wouldn't do it because it was the law and the right thing to do, but are doing it to keep business travelers happy.

Airports Visited - 2018 Update

Evie 1st Flight: SAC - MDW

All Time List of Airports Visited:

Chris- 114   Kellisa- 55   Lisa- 45   Laurel- 39   Evie- 5


At the end of last year, we created a post with the number of airports we've visited. 2018 was a slow travel year for us with three trips back to Chicago as our main destination. Kellisa and Chris went on a few hiking trips which added new airports and we flew to Southern California to pick up the newest member of our family, Evie. Since Evie went on all our flights back to Chicago, she was the big winner with 5 new airports visited.

Evie: Sacramento, Oakland, Denver, Chicago- Midway, and Indianapolis. Kellisa's new airports: Spokane, Kansas City, and Little Rock. Laurel: Ontario and Indianapolis. Lisa: Ontario. Chris: Spokane.

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Rugged Access for All - Update #2 (November 2018)

Volo Bog, Illinois

 Back in November, Kellisa and I added 4 more states to our current goal of finding some of the best pushiking trails in the United States. Our plans to visit a few states in the middle of the country changed at the very last minute when I found out that I was needed in West Virginia (for my job) on the Monday before Thanksgiving. I had planned to take the entire week off, but we rearranged everything so I could take care of my work responsibilities. The family joined me on this trip and graciously waited in the hotel while I worked. All was not lost, we completed this weird loop where we pushiked in Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois. We also got to visit family in Ohio and spend Thanksgiving day with grandma in Chicago. All in all, November worked out extremely well.

Stats: November - RAfA Totals

States: 4 - 7

Miles Pushiked: 11.3 - 23.1

Elevation Gained: 679 - 1,513 feet

Flights: 2 - 6

Miles Flown: 3,866 - 8,136

Miles Driven: 1,539 - 2,279

Places Pushiked:

County Park- 1 (IN)

National Preserve- 1 (KS)

State Natural Area- 1 (IL)

State Nature Preserve- 1 (OH)

State Parks- 3 (AR-MO-WV)