Traveling with a Disability

Out of the Days Inn by 10; our destination today is the Quality Inn & Suites in Alexandria, VA.  The nighttime temps are still hovering around 30 degrees F, so it's a motel again tonight.  This time I booked it directly last night and got a better rate, a better room and the ability to cancel by 6 if needed. I also joined for free the Choice Hotel's 'Choice Privileges Program' where you can earn free rooms.  I wish I had done this earlier in the trip because we had a bunch of hotel stays that would have counted!

Gas in Bordentown, NJ is $1.89 full-serve!  We saw these solar panels all over town...CT is way behind the times for utilizing solar energy!

Our route today is I-95S to the Delaware Memorial Bridge then exit 1A onto Rt 896S which turns into Rt 301S/50 to 95/495 around Washington, DC then 95S to Alexandria, VA

This is the Delaware Memorial Bridge that crosses the Delaware River.

(I don't know why this is all of a sudden blue but I am too tired to figure it out!)

This is the The Bay Bridge over The Chesapeake River, and what I find interesting is that they offer escorts to drive your car over it because so many people are afraid with the edge of the bridge seemingly right over the water!

I have been neglecting to talk about accessibility in the hotel  rooms we have been staying in!  I always ask when making a reservation if they have HA rooms, and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Depending on how I am feeling I might pay the higher rate for an accessible room or not. I have a small bath seat in the shower in our rig that Steve can easily bring into a hotel room so I can shower if there isn't one there already.  Depending on the lip into the room and the size of the room, I will definitely bring my walker into the room and maybe my scooter. If I don't need the scooter we leave it in the back of the car.

We bring our own food because of my dietary restrictions, and all of the rooms so far have had a refrigerator and a microwave! We look for hotels with free continental breakfasts so Steve always visits that for himself and to round out my breakfast.

As far as finding pet-friendly hotels, we had our tiny dog certified as an emotional support dog for me so we can take her anywhere for free. She is trained to use puppy pads as well as going outside, and she has her own portable stairs to use to get up on the bed!

Back to me, for those who don't already know, I have MS, bursitis in my legs and now degenerating disc disease among some other health issues.

Firstly, I wear a seaband on each wrist which is a Velcro band with an embedded plastic bead which you place on the inside of your wrist over a certain pressure point that drastically decreases motion sickness. We originally got these for a long ferry ride and I love them.  They allow me to write this blog, do things on my phone and read my Kindle all while traveling.

I sit on a foam neck support to protect my lady-parts which have another problem, and I use a back-hugger pillow behind my back.  I wear really comfortable clothing all the time, which include stretchy loose knit pants, sort of like sweats.  All my sweatshirts have to zip all the way up and down for easy layering, in fact I am starting to purge my wardrobe of pullovers.  I wear shearling slippers which are easy on and off, and my seat in the rig is as far back as it can go so I can put my feet up on the dash for my bursitis.  This presses my back firmly into the back pillow.

Whenever we stop for anything I take the opportunity to get up, go down the steps of our rig which has extra hand rails and take my walker outside to walk around the parking lot.  I search out swimming pools and recumbent exercise bikes like a fiend! The more I can move the better!

Lastly, let us not forget the personal chef who accompanies me wherever I go, and doubles as a husband!